Saturday afternoon presented the opportunity for a nice long slow run to recover from the sore quads after the Caradoc Classic. So I headed out to the Long Mynd and parked up at Robin Hood's Butts.
My route took me north west along the Portway over the Betchcott Hills to Thresholds. I crossed the road and had a quick (but naughty - no public right of way) skip up to the Tumulus on Wilderley Hill. The top part of the hill is lovely lush pasture which is carpeted in dandelions at the moment and looks almost yellow from a distance. There are good views, especially towards Pontesbury Hill, the Stiperstones and down the East Onny Valley.
Trig on the Betchcott Hills
The Stiperstones from Wilderley Hill
East Onny Valley
I ran back to the car at the Butts (about 5.75 miles so far) and changed my shoes: I've been having problems with my MudRocs giving me blisters and was trying some Hilly Twin Skins - largely successful but I didn't want to overdo it. Anyway the Kanadias went on and off I went. Over Pole Bank and on down toward the fantastic Callow path, but this time I left the path at the twin trees just east of Nills, and climbed to the top on sketchy sheep track through deep heather (slow going). At the top it was time for a picture looking across to Yearlet and Caer Caradoc.
Yearlet (left) and Caer Caradoc from Nills
This was followed with a nice run back, this time skirting the north side of Round Hill instead of going over the top (better path, more scenic, less effort - an all round win!), and going over Pole Bank again. Total distance 13.2 miles, 1,910' of ascent, in a nice leisurely 2 hours 30 minutes. The climbing / speed log and the splits from runkeeper.com are below.
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