Put on the spot!

Turning up for the Sunday run has become something of a routine for me lately and I like the discipline; it used to be that I never had the time (or maybe I preferred having a lie-in?) but now it's just part of my schedule. So this morning I rolled up to make a foursome - me, Mike, Amanda and Rob - and Mike asked if I had a route in mind to take us all on. It took a few moments to pull something together but then I realised that what I love to do is head out in a direction that we usually overlook; in this case pretty much due North. Thinking ahead I reckoned that we could proceed all of the way to the Coppetts Wood nature reserve and enjoy a rarely-visited green oasis:

Coppetts Wood next to the A406

So we headed across the Heath Extension on the soft horse track (no evidence of equine activity to be seen) and through the Suburb, via Rob's house (next time we stop for muffins!), before encountering the North Circular and Long Lane Pasture. The latter is, in many ways, one of those secret backwaters that charms by being both open and unspoilt; for small children it's a delightful cornucopia of insects, ponds, wild flowers and blackberries but unfortunately the gates are locked until 10am. So we didn't dally but instead took in further North Finchley back-roads as a way to both avoid the traffic and explore new areas; in this I think that I was successful! Coppetts Wood was a great hit too (you can hardly believe that six lanes of traffic is just down the hill) and this naturally turned us all back to Muswell Hill and yet more woodland shade.

In fact we all could have easily continued on for a good while but Amanda had a date with the London Marathon. Well not personally you understand but Josiane ran today and so Amanda wanted to get down to Mudchute, on the Isle of Dogs, to provide vocal support. With our little run put into a proper perspective we finished off with a charge up the Bishops Avenue:

And then there were three

To be honest I quite enjoyed the chance to lead the way today and share a few of the short-cuts and cut-throughs that I've got to know so well in recent years; it's certainly more fun that just running them by myself with no one to experience them with. OK so the overall route was a touch longer than usual but how else are we going to get the chance to break new ground if we don't extend our range? So there are no apologies here on that score!

Distance: 9.3 miles

Time: 1h 22m 7s