Friday, 14 July 2023
I’m being naughty and playing catchup again! It’s been a busy but good week. Tuesday was the first night of my new Super Steadies group with Calder Valley Fell Runners. I was apprehensive before the run; would anyone turn up? Would too many turn up? Would I even be too slow for my own group? I needn’t have worried. There was four of us, two lasses I know and a lad I didn’t. the route I had planned was perfect too, even though we deviated from the finish, it didn’t matter as it was a great night. Everyone was talking and enjoying running without any pressure. The weather was prefect for an evening run over the moors above Hebden Bridge and although I struggled on the descent in part because my right hip hasn’t got the mobility and range of movement it once had, I really enjoyed it and so did everyone else which is what matters most. After the run we went to a pub to celebrate one of the lasses 50th birthday. All in all, it was a great night, even though I got home late.
Wednesday was the day of the Widdop fell race, one of the races Calder Valley put on. I was down to marshal at a point just below Standing Stone Hill on Heptonstall Moor. It was a bit of climb up to my post but there were such stunning views everywhere the effort to get there was more than worth it. I’d forgotten how much I love this part of the world, within my beloved Yorkshire, so close to the border with Lancashire, yet it could be a part of neither, a county on its own, a part of the world so beautiful it doesn’t need a county just a place to rest its hills, tussocks and bracken and see who discovers its beauty and who goes past without giving it a second look. I have experienced its beauty before in wind, rain, snow and sunshine and tonight I experienced the most stunning setting sun, bathing the valley below me in golden flames of light, revealing a new beauty I had not seen before.
The race came and went, 80+ hardy souls of all shapes and sizes flinging themselves over the hills and valleys of Yorkshire, all going as fast as they could past me, as I clicked my camera trying to get the best photo I could of the human experience in full flight. One by one they flung themselves down the hill until there was no-one else to go past and I was left with the moors again. I headed back to my car at the pub and drove home, another great night, another late night.
And last night, Thursday didn’t disappoint either. The most famous brass band in the world, the Black Dyke Band had come back home to Queensbury to play their Summer Proms concert, full of all the old favourites played at Last Night of the Proms. Everyone was singing and waving union jacks and enjoying themselves. Another perfect, summers evening of music and joy to end the day.
Today the weather has taken a slight turn for the worse with rain, rain and more rain. I’m feeling a lot better though and so is my hip so I parked up at Old Town, run down into Hardcastle Craggs, up the other side to Heptonstall and back, with a stop off at Pecket Well war memorial also known as mini Stoodley. Yes it was wet, but it was still beautiful in the rain and mist, giving it an eerie feeling.
And I’ve done something I didn’t think I could do. I’ve gone six days without a drop of alcohol, and I feel so much better for it, mentally and physically. I’m in far less pain, I’m thinking clearly, more alert, sleeping better, even losing a bit of weight. I feel happier too, which has surprised me, and I haven’t missed alcohol. Will it continue? I don’t know. I don’t want to say it will and I don’t want to say it won’t. I’m just taking each day as it comes and enjoying them.
The Autistic FellRunner 