Today I got up early and went for a run around Bretby, where my wife and I have been staying for the past few days. The countryside here is absolutely gorgeous - I’m doing my best not to turn this into a vacation blog, but its not easy!

I started out with some stretches, then headed West along the drive towards the road. Once there I turned left, feeling pretty certain from looking at guidebooks that I could do a single lap of the area without too much difficulty. The MB map (above) shows some cross streets, but the way I went was really driveway-to-driveway, and took about 2.8 miles. That slope up Ashby Road East was annoying, by the way.

After finishing that lap I kept going, but turned right at the end of the first driveway to see what I could find the other way. I kept going straight, but soon ran out of road near a delightul old farmhouse and was forced to turn around. I tried to head East again to see if I could come around the other side of the property, and MB does show a connecting road, but in reality this is a very well marked (as private) driveway for Bretby Estate, unlike the House drive which is signed as a public footpath. Ah, well.

I continued on for a bit, but decided that I’d better turn back since I still needed to clean up and breakfast before we headed back to Heathrow. There was a footpath sign on the right on the way back which took me on a slight detour up a narrow, hilly track through a field - my feet got cold to the point of being slightly numb from the dew, and I got a little dizzy from the uphill pace, but the view was worth it!

An average speed of around 10:00 pace is certainly nothing to write home about, but like most of my runs these past three weeks this was full of sightseeing pauses. Not the most efficient training, but some of the most relaxing and breathtaking nonetheless.

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