Wednesday 24 August 2011

Tuesday Night Punishment Beating - 16/08/2011

A very hard Tuesday night run, attended by a record 26 runners.

We went up through the Rectory Wood and into Townbrook Valley before turning left and climbing Yearlet by way of the descent route used by many in the Long Mynd Valleys Race. A direct descent almost to Ashes Hollow does actually work from here: it's quite easy to find a way through the gorse bushes despite appearances from below.

There's a traversing trod about 100' above the valley bottom, and you can't get down easily off this everywhere, so we went left towards the start of the spur that leads onto Grindle. Tom, Em and Ruth opted for a fairly desperate looking descent to the valley floor: seeing even Tom going slowly, I took an easier line a few yards back up the valley.

We duly hit the spur and continued on up another hard climb to Grindle, and then took the direct descent tot reach Ashes just above the cottage. This is a cracking run, if a little bracken-y at this time of year lower down - one of the Mynd's great fellrunning descents, and without much of a path yet either.

The return to Stretton was via the field and woods then the Cunnery Road. This ramps up fairly gently but is sustained and I took it with Terry and Noel at a fairly rapid rate...

Another good night out, only about 5 miles but with nearly 1,800' of ascent! Running time was only about 1 hour 10 minutes and the route is here.

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