Abbey Gardens & Nowton Park Suffolk

8.10am 11 miles in I hour 33 minutes

Year to date mileage 1288

Month to date 92 miles

Average miles per month 111

Average weekly rate 25.5

Week to date 19

Weather Mild clear blue skies.
I dropped my car off to be serviced and ran from the railway station around town and through the Abbey Gardens. The sun was just rising and the sky was bright pink just for a while.

The completed tower of St Edmundsbury Cathedral has completely changed the skyline of Bury and is a wonderful sight. It is a pity there is no walkway or opportunity to see the views from the top.

I wasn't sure where to run this morning it took a little while to wake up after a late night in London. Eventually I decided on a couple of laps of Nowton Park. There is a lovely circular trail of the park which is about 2 miles. As the park is quite popular you can expect to encounter several dogs and for this reason I don't run it as much as I should. There is a small pond and a lovely avenue of trees to run through. Lime Avenue was planted in 1880 and gives the park a sense of grandeur. This morning much of the pathways were heavily covered in leaves and a few times I nearly tripped on tree roots. I was ok after telling myself to lift my feet up a bit more. Outside

of the woods several of the paths were a mixture of crusted ice where the overnight rain had frozen, mole hills and some really nice springy ground up by the school pond. Over the years it appears the conifers have regularly shed their needles and made the ground soft and springy to run on.

I ran slowly this morning and my laps of the park took 19.50 for the first lap and 19.30 for the second.