I definitely felt like an old man this morning staggering out of bed and wincing with my initial footsteps; this is new territory and I don't like it! Still at least I can get going after a while and I made it to the start on time despite the roadworks by the Spaniards Inn; it looks like they're repairing the toll house but frankly they'd be better off demolishing it. Little more than a glorified shed it creates a terrible pinch-point in the carriageway and endless queues of traffic; this is not a new problem!
Anyway today Mike was in charge and, as is often the case, he chose to lead us astray on some seldom-visited streets and side-roads that we often overlook. Sure we began by crossing the Heath but soon we ventured over the top of Highgate to Waterlow Park and then on to the A1; premier passage to the frozen North for so long. On an ordinary day we might have turned here and wiggled back but in a joking aside to another Michael I ventured that we might be heading to Alexandra Palace; imagine my amusement when it turned out that this was exactly our destination! Sometimes even I don't look forward to the hills:
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| Push, push, push |
It wasn't an easy climb up to the high vantage point but on the other hand I got to stop and take photographs - which helped just enough! With a bit of a breather under my belt I felt a lot happier and proceeded to drift to the front and lift the pace alongside Daniel. To be honest I'm a bit fed up with not being altogether fit and lagging behind and so, sometimes, I feel the need to thrash my argumentative body into submission however much it hurts; or maybe I was just inspired by this mysterious statue on top of the Palace:
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| Who is this winged being? |
Whoever she is we skipped along the old railway line and into Highgate Woods at which point it sounded like the Arab Spring had come to North London! Half of us wanted to go right and half wanted to go left; both claiming their route to be the shortest. In the end the right-ists won out and a later check on MapMyRun shows that this direction was indeed the shortest by all of 130m! The irony is that if we had gone the whole way up Sheldon Avenue then we could have saved ourselves even more travel time but no one thought to say. Even so we took full advantage of the closed road by the Heath and finished tired but content.
Distance: 9.6 miles
Time: 1h 29m 47s