A cross country run at Hartest Suffolk

Hartest

 To recap for anyone not aware Janathon is a free event in which you aim to run, cycle swim or walk and then blog about it everyday in January. Signing up at the Janathon site is easy completing a Janathon is a little harder. However today I did just that to complete a running streak of 31 days which is a personal record which I won;t be extending as I am having a rest day tomorrow.

pathway to Somerton

To finish Janathon I wanted to do something slightly different and I chose a cross country route at Hartest in Suffolk. Hartest is a village in what is known as "High Suffolk" because it is quite different from the flatter heaths, forests and fens in a large part of the county.

Two chairs in the middle of nowhere

I parked my car behind the Hartest Institute and set off up the Somerton Road. At the top of the hill there was a track which is known as Smithbrook Lane which I took downhill to a stream. The pathway was thick with mud and I did well to keep my shoes on my feet. From here I was running through fields or on the edge and either running up or down hill.  I was breathing hard but was making regularly stops to check on my map as there were often several choices of direction to follow. 

Hartest

As I approached a house called Manor Farm I noticed a dog hanging about at the entrance. My path took me straight past the entrance of the farm and I thought if I slowed down I might get past the dog without it worrying about me. Wrong! There was no chance as I climbed the hill towards the farm it spotted me and started to belt down the hill. I don't know what type of dog it was but it looked as if it wasn't at all friendly so I reluctantly did a u - turn. The dog gave up the chase and I gave it a couple of minutes before trying again this time aiming to walk past but same result and again another chase the dog thankfully giving up at some invisible boundary to its territory. 

Hartest

Of course the dog was only doing what it was supposed to do and protect its home but it was frustrating. All to often dogs which are not controlled by their owners present a problem to runners. Do you carry on past the dog and hope for the best or get bitten like Paula Radcliffe did this month on a training run in Monaco.  I tend to take the avoidance route.

With my plan out of the window there was nothing else for it but to concede defeat and do a u turn back to Hartest. So a bit of a sorry end to Janathon as I didn't complete my intended longer run out to Somerton. It was more of an out and back run for a total of 4 miles of stop start running.

With my run complete my stats for Janathon are

31 runs , 134 miles

Day 1 - 5 miles
Day 2 - 5 miles
Day 3 - 4 miles
Day 4 - 4 miles
Day 5 - 3 miles
Day 6 - 2.52 miles
Day 7 - 7 miles
Day 8 - 3.5 miles
Day 9 - 2 miles
Day 10 - 4 miles
Day 11 - 4 miles
Day 12 - 8 miles
Day 13 - 3 miles
Day 14 - 4 miles
Day 15 - 3 miles
Day 16 - 4 miles
Day 17 - 6 miles
Day 18 - 6 miles
Day 19 - 4 miles
Day 20 - 3 miles
Day 21 - 4.3 miles
Day 22 - 5 miles
Day 23 - 4.21 miles
Day 24 - 3.3 miles
Day 25 - 1 mile
Day 26 - 7.5 miles
Day 27 - 4 miles
Day 28 - 5 miles
Day 29 - 6 miles
Day 30 - 4.26 miles
Day 31 - 4 miles

Total 134 miles

Time spent running 20.3 hours.

Would I do Janathon again?

Yes it is a great way to start a new year with a clear goal and I lost a couple of kilos in weight. I will decide nearer the time but may well give Juneathon the sister event another go. I failed to complete it last year due to injury. It will be interesting to compare the two and decide which is the hardest. It has also been good though time consuming to record a blog post for every run. Best of all was visiting other runners blogs and seeing how they were doing with Janathon. I will certainly continue to follow those who made contact with me.

Whats next after Janathon?

A rest on Feb the 1st and a couple of white Russians to celebrate. As for running events I have nothing planned or booked at the moment. I will plan my training tomorrow for the next couple of months probably based on running 5 days a week with 2 rest days.

What did I talk about during January in my daily blogs ?

Running gives you time to think and subjects are often diverse. I talked about The United States Streak Association, Greene King Brewery, Bury St Edmunds, Ramblings with Clare Baldwin,Ouida,Pentland Hills,Jeff Bridges, White Russians,The Big Lebowski,Christmas Trees,Phedippidations, Frodo, Are Runners Respected , lower back stretching, The Suffolk Regiment, Slade, Inovite Shoes, Ickworth Park, Marathon Talk, Mt Kilimanjaro, Toby Tanser, Mombasa, Running from the Reaper, Sacking of Roy Keane at Ipswich Town, Fornham,Squirrels, Blackbirds,Cineworld, The Next Three Days , Russell CroweTonbridge Angels, kitchen gardens , Sir John Hervey, River Linnett, cross country, Energy foods for running, The Kings Speech, Tokyo Police Club, Jantastic, chickens, Rolf Harris, Running to Music, Audiofuel, YouTube, 127 hours,Buried, plantar fasciitis, The Green Hornet,flooding, Innocence Project, The Green Mile, Sam Rockwell,Hilary Swank,Conviction, 4 feet running, vinyl records, Ron Hill, hill running, IPOD, running with glasses, Neovite, Colostrum,Nathan Lowell, Podiobooks, The Morning Parade, Sicklesmere, interval runs and Hartest to name a few.

Well done to everyone who took part in Janathon, award yourself a medal, put your feet up for a day and don;t forget to celebrate with a White Russian.

A cycle trip to Hartest Suffolk

This was a lovely sunny lunch time cycle ride out to the village of Hartest. With the weather being so good I was keen to get back on the bike and go for a spin whilst I am unable to run.

What I am finding is that cycling requires a little more pre planning on a route to follow - firstly to avoid any of the major roads and secondly because in the space of an hour or two you can go a lot further in distance and need to ensure your route takes you back home and not leave you 20 miles away. I like maps and have a number of the ordnance survey explorer maps of Suffolk which have a scale of 2.5 inches to a mile. The map I use most often is the Explorer 211 for the Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket area which shows all of the public rights of way and paths and walkways.

The route I decided on was Bury St Edmunds / Nowton/ Hawstead/ Lawshall/Hartest/Brockley Green/Whepstead and back to Bury

The saddle soreness was immediately noticeable when I got on the bike today but is no big deal and was soon forgotten once I had gone a mile or two. After 3 miles when I reached Nowton there was very little traffic. From Lawshall I took a turning along Hartest Lane which was a narrow minor road which was pretty much a down hill section for nearly 2 miles.

Hartest green was around 10 miles in to the ride and the ideal place for a short stop for a drink and a banana and to take a few photos. Hartest is part of Suffolk which is little more hilly than most and is an area known as High Suffolk. I came down Hartest Hill into the village and I think this may be one of the steepest hills in Suffolk. Surrounding Hartest green are many bright coloured cottages. As with virtually every village there is a war memorial to commemorate those from the village who died in the 1st and 2nd world war the memorial was unveiled by Capt. E H W Backhouse on 24th October 1920, it cost £20.

My return to Bury was along the Brockley Road and here between Brockley and Whepstead there was a yellow carpet of oil seed rape fields.Extra Virgin Rapeseed Oil is said to be possibly the healthiest and most versatile cooking oil you can get.

My cycle ride totalled 18 miles in 1 hr 40 Min's. I was about 10 seconds a mile quicker than on Wednesday.

Hartest Suffolk

2pm 10 miles in 1 hr 22 mins 10 secs

Week to date mileage 32 miles

Month to date mileage 19

Average weekly rate 30 miles

Average monthly rate 131

Year to date 1446

Lifetime 9466

Hartest is a Suffolk village about 8 miles south west of Bury St Edmunds. I drove there via Whepstead, Rede and Brockley and parked in the centre of the village reaching it on the B1066.

I have never run here before and was unsure which direction to take so I initially set off past the the Crown Inn which was originally the Moot Hall. I soon turned right on the path between the pub car park and All Saints church passing over a footbridge over a stream.
I was soon running sharply uphill on the grassy field edge path to the top of Hartest Hill.

Here there is a wonderful view of the village in the Glem valley below.

This part of Suffolk is full of hills and valleys and I decided to descend into the village and to ran past the village institute and up the Somerton Road. Along here there are some lovely views towards Boxted in the South and Brockley to the North .

The road sides had many bushes with an abundance of sloe berries, great if you like gin.
After a mile or so you reach Upper Somerton shown as Somerton on the ordnance survey map. It is better named as Upper Somerton as it does stand at about 100 metres above sea level which is high for Suffolk.

I have never been here before and it isn't really a place for cars as the road runs out here and you
cannot travel north apart from on foot.
There is a church called St Margarets and a telephone box otherwise this is a village that can only be called remote. In a bad winter this place might well be cut of even more than it is every day. The church some how continues with dedicated support from a handful of people.

The population including the settlement in lower Somerton down by the Somerton Manor was recorded as 64 in 1981 and cannot have really changed very much. If you love remote than this is beautiful and would make a great retreat for a writer requiring peace.

I retraced my steps with a view to running downhill into the other part of Somerton which is next to the manor hall.
Here there are the Eaton Almshouses and you are down to 50 metres above sea level as you reach the River Glem. I immediately returned back up hill across farmland and returned to Hartest.I then took the road out to Cross Green and then through Hartest heading south down to Brick house farm.

I then ventured up the Lawshall Rd and picked up a pathway known as Pask's path which leads to a new woodland development planted in December 1999. Hartest Wood has been planted with 187 oak trees representing 1 for every household. In the centre there is a sculpture called the Gift which was designed by a local called Geoffrey Clarke. It sits very well at this site and is a lovely walk to do if you visit Hartest.

I meandered around Hartest a bit more more before calling it a day.