The Hidden Park in My Industrial Estate

Went out for my first lunchtime run for weeks. The old saying really IS right. Lacing up my shoelaces and motivating myself to commit to going, really were the hardest things to do.

It was lovely. The breeze was cool, but there wasn’t any rain and my breath made small puffs into the air. The footpaths were covered in drifts of leaves but they weren’t slippery and the park was as well maintained as always. It’s well-hidden in the middle of Brackmills industrial estate – possibly one of the best kept secrets in the area. It’s beautiful and the whole area has been cunningly landscaped so the whole thing is full of hills and winding paths and copses of trees. It feels like you’re running in a wood – even though the whole area is probably no more than half a mile wide at any point. The footpaths are firm gravel and there is rarely any litter or mess. It’s well loved by the few people who know about it and we make sure that we keep it as nice as possible.

There are often a few dog walkers, but apart from the odd overly friendly Labrador I’ve never had a problem with any of the dogs or spotted any mess left behind. There are plenty of bins for litter and doggy bags (not to be mistaken for the edible kind of doggy bags full of food leftovers) and they’re used by the people enjoying the park. (For litter and poo bags rather than anything else)

There’s practically no straight or flat piece of footpath in the whole thing - it’s marvellous for hill training and can be guaranteed to speed up my races on the flat even when I am going at a snail’s pace during my training runs here. The landscapers have made the maximum use of a small piece of ground and the zigzagging footpaths are a testament to their ingenuity. It really IS a bugger to run though. You check your watch and you’ve run less than a mile and already your legs are burning and your lungs are threatening to exit your body via your throat.

So ... it might make 5km feel like 10km but I know it’s doing me some good in the long run. And for the long run.