run – Page 2 – Fooyah

August 23 2014August 23 2014

Lakes Or Ponds

I had a lovely run in my home area of Essex. I was born in the centre of the Essex plateau and raised near the borders with Hertfordshire. I actually went to school in Hertfordshire and my best mate had the Essex / Hertfordshire border at the bottom of his garden.

Here’s the run.
[I did have an iframe linking to the MapMyRun website but it doesn’t seem to be working so here’s a snipped version.]

I took a couple of photos of the lakes/ponds from near the southern most part of the route. I also saw some sloe berries so I might be making some sloe gin soon.

Here’re the lakes.

And the other:

Here’s a snapshot from my phone giving you an idea of the OS map.

These bodies of water got me thinking about ponds and lakes. What’s the difference? These things could be ponds but they seemed too large for that and yet they are most definitely smaller than any of the Great Lakes in North America [although I suspect that they are really seas]. Thank goodness for Wikipedia.

I spoke too soon. Wikipedia doesn’t help. There is no internationally agreed definition of the difference between pond and lake. Large things are definitely lakes and small things are definitely ponds but where the line is, no-one agrees. It’s probably somewhere between 2 and 5 hectares. I think my favourite definition is:

bodies of water where light penetrates to the bottom of the waterbody

There’re plenty of ways of setting a distinction. Some depend on surface area and some on depth, others on plant growth. This is a pretty cool thing to look into. As for the Great Lakes, they are lakes. It turns out that lakes have to be surrounded by land. The Great Lakes are named correctly. The Caspian Sea is not. I love learning.

[I should point out that while writing this I was discussing it with my family and my mother pointed out the definition of a lake before I had even looked it up. Well done mum!]

June 14 2014June 14 2014

Back To Running

After a week of lovely food, drink and company [OIC] I am now back in my normal routine. Had a lovely run this morning through the North Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

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One of my views:

April 26 2014April 27 2014

Vantage Point

I had a good run yesterday [26 APR 14]. I decided to discover more of the North Downs and headed further to the north than I had previously. This run is shown below and includes all three of the Medway Valley villages.

Here’s the view (rather cloudy) of the valley from Wouldham Common.

This is the longest run I have ever done and I am quite proud of myself. I am going to try and do this route more.

January 18 2014

I Don’t Get It

About five years ago there used to be three or four burnt out cars by the footpaths surrounding my village. The were rusty and were old, plants had grown in them and I couldn’t see a track or pathway to get them there. At some point there was a clean up and the footpaths and surrounds were back to a more natural look.

This morning on my run up the Downs and down them again I found a freshly burnt out car. It was still smoking. I don’t understand why someone would do this. I really don’t. It’s not that I care for cars, I just don’t get why you drive a car to a relatively quiet spot and set light to it. Seems pretty shit to me.

Here’s the route I ran:

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Here’s the car I found along Common Road at the top of the Downs.

Possibly a Vauxhall Corsa. I don’t really care.

November 23 2013November 23 2013

Views From My Run

On my run this morning I took some photographs because this area of Kent is lovely. It was nice and sunny, although cold. I run in the North Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Here’s my route:

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Here’re my photographs:

Kit’s Coty House – note the moon hanging around!

A road / footpath:

The North Downs taken half way up / down from the footpath from Burham to the Robin Hood pub:

A kind of triptych of the view just out of Burham on Church Street

West South West from Church Street — South West from Church Street

April 7 2013April 7 2013

DC Day Two

The second communication in a series of not many giving you the highlights of my trip to DC during the Easter break 2013.

This being the USA and me being a big eater of food, I decided to bring my running stuff, just in case I wanted to go for a jog. As it happens DC is a wonderful place to run and I might one day start a business doing jogging tours [not going to happen!].
On the sunday morning I woke up early and so went for a jog. The plan was to head through the woods down to the Potomac and then turn left and see where I would end up after about 2.5 to 3 miles. I jogged past the Watergate hotel and could then see the Lincoln Memorial, so I just decided to get there and attempt to run back. If I run more than 10k my body starts to break so I was a little worried about the distance I was going. It was well worth the effort and time.

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After showering and breakfast, Rich and I headed to Nasa Goddard, aware it was Easter Sunday but according to the website they should be open. The weather was not brilliant but it was nice to be chatting and seeing more of the city. The car park at Goddard seemed rather empty and so it proved that the place was shut. Bugger. So we headed to Arlington.

Arlington Cemetery is one of those places that are fascinating to visit but leave you feeling bad about humanity and what we do to each other. We saw JFK’s grave and also the Lee house on the hill. The Pentagon was just peeking through the mist and rain now and then it it is HUGE. A reasonable walk took us to the United States Marine Corps Memorial, the Iwo Jima Memorial, and the size of that is breath-taking. Just incredibly large. All of the places we saw are huge. I think everyone feels so comfortable with Washington DC because they have seen it on TV and film that they don’t realise just how much space and how big everything is. That and I come from quite a small island just off Europe which has no space and small twisty roads even in the cities.

We drove back home via Safeway and Barnes and Noble, where I bought my postcards and then we had lasagne for dinner. The evening was filled with Guitar Hero and Rock Band playing. Nice to have someone to share a game with. We mostly played Metallica guitar hero.

October 7 2012October 7 2012

Mapping My Run

Here’s a map of what has become my standard 5 mile (8 km) run. At the time of writing I am running this in the dark with my trusty head torch. It is about 3.5 miles of cross country running and 1.5 of road or pavement running. I really enjoy it.

Find more runs in Eccles, England

July 25 2012May 7 2017

Proud

I am rather proud of the run I did today. It was 4.85 miles, which isn’t the main thing. The thing I am most impressed with is that I ran around Burham Nature Reserve which is comething I’ve been meaning to do for a while. It was also rather hot today (26C).

[There was an iframe here that was linked to my MapMyRun account. But I have deleted the MapMyRun account. This is no more.]

This is a picture of the monument to the Battle of the Medway. Not to be confused with the Battle of the Midway!

July 23 2012

Vineyard Summer

This was taken by WW while out on a run today.
Beautiful [just like WW].

June 2 2012

Lovely View

Out on run yesterday and had just climbed 5-O hill (more later on that). The view over the Medway valley is lovely. Makes the climb worthwhile. For the route of the run click here.