Janathon day 19: A run of epic mud and stately surroundings

A few too many glasses of Prosecco out with the girls last night and a late night/early morning finish meant an early run was never on the cards this morning. And in fact it was lovely – usually I leave a sleeping house and return from a Sunday-morning run to join everyone at the breakfast table, so the kids were delighted to find me still in bed when they woke up and both dived in between us for cuddles and chatter. It was a lovely morning, they’re growing up so fast, and these mornings of four piled into a double bed will be a memory before I know it.

Anyone for mud?

Church this morning, and in the afternoon we set out to meet a friend and her little boy at The Vyne. They headed off for adventures in the wood while I headed off for a run in glorious sun. The Vyne is such a beautiful place to run, the magnificent house overlooking the lake, the wetlands beyond, the deep woods above, but I have never seen it quite as epically muddy as it was today. The paths were almost comical, like the churned ground at the popular end of the pigsty. Three different welly-shod people, stepping politely out of my way to avoid being spattered, or even taken out, as I lurched past, said ‘You’re brave’, with exactly the same tone (conveying the unspoken ‘and clearly out of your mind’). Out of the wood and into the fields leading to Sherborne St John it was less churned but even wetter, every dip in the ground harbouring its own miniature lake. I arrived at the churchyard there covered to the knees in mud, breathless and exhilarated.

Sherborne St John graves

I love churchyards. Occasionally they make me feel sad, but usually I find them peaceful places that restore my perspective. That’s how it was today. To be alive – so very, very alive, with the sun shining and the blood beating in my veins, breathing deep and feeling the strength of my own legs – in the midst of death is a glorious thing. Life in all its fullness. We spend so many hours half-alive, it’s criminal.

Sun over the wetlands (and they are so very, very wet, those wetlands, right now)

By the time I got back to the Vyne woods the sun was getting low – it was stunning looking across the lake towards the house, and across the wetlands behind it. I caught up with the others discovering dens in the woods, then ran ahead of them to get the cream teas in at the café. Just a perfect afternoon.