Rushbrooke Suffolk

9am 10 miles in 1 hour 20 minutes

Week to date mileage 36

Month to date mileage 146

Average weekly rate 35.2

Average Monthly rate 153

Weather: Cold hard frost clear skies and sunny

Course:- Set out from Bury along Cullum Road and through the water meadows. Past the Haberden where many people were gathering for
a rugby match and out on to Rushbrooke Lane. This was rather slippery this morning and the road was white with frost.

Along this road near Southgate Farm I expect to normally disturb the animal kennels and set the dogs barking but of course it being the winter presumably no boarding animals and all was quite.

The road starts to rise as you reach North Hill Cottage and today I decided to follow the pathway over North Hill Covert. I don't think I have been over this path since I used to
regularly visit as a boy to earn some money fruit picking. I believe we used to generally pick raspberries on this farm and although it was quite hard work and you would get spiked a lot on the thorns you could also eat as much as you liked. I think we filled plastic buckets which were then emptied at a farmers trailer to be weighed and if you had too much stalk or leaf you were sent back till it was filled properly. When the farmer was satisfied I seem to recall we were given some metal tokens. At the end of the day you queued to exchange these for real money. Looking back these were great times! However now
all this has seemingly been replaced with pigs and what a paradise they live in. Plenty of mud to wallow in lots of straw and the very fashionable outdoor metal hut. These are springing up all over Suffolk and must be a good earner for the farmer.

Home Farm at Rushbrooke is known as a model farm village. The thatched houses are in a beautiful quiet setting.

Returning home over the North Covert height being all of 65 meters above sea level there is now a terrific view of St Edmundsbury Cathedral. Something that obviously wasn't there when I was a boy fruit picking. I was tired running today but I have had a really good month of training so far and I have beaten my highest total mileage in a month already. My best being 145 last year. In February I expect my mileage to slip a bit as I prepare for 2 and may be 3 races if I run the Lakenheath 5 next week.