Day 9: Little Miss Wild Flower

Today, we decided to head to Reigate Hill and run from there to Box Hill, which you may know is hosting the olympic road cycling event in a few months. It's a hilly route with places that are impossible to run.

We set out and enjoyed a relatively walker free track, with a few horses and dog walkers to run round. I did have to stop for a 'Paula' moment about 2 miles in, but fortunately, most people were still in bed and there were plenty of good spots!

Between Reigate and Brockham, there is an area which is really chalky and limey, it's a really hard surface to run on, there was a narrow gorge and running was impossible. Looking over to the hill side you could see a few flowers. Steve ran down the steep bank and had a look, at what I thought was, an Orchid. I staggered over and had a look and managed to take this lovely picture. We ran on, seeing several more of what we now know are common Orchids.

It took quite a while to reach Box Hill, which was teeming with people, we had time to stop and have a (compulsory) cup of tea and a scone at the National Trust Shop, Steve had what can only be described as 'industrial sized' flapjack, I think we burnt it off several times over on the way home. All in all the run took ages, at one point the hill descends about 300 feet in a quarter of a mile, it was hard to run down, but impossible to run up, the route could be described as challenging, muddy but glorious views that you can only see if you run or walk along it. I'm not sure how anyone can say they prefer running on a treadmill when on our doorstep we have such stunning countryside.

Total miles today: 13.5
Total June miles: 61
Numbers of pieces of industrial flapjack: 1