This Is A Gentle Run Including One Decent Hill....

Lower Bradfield, United Kingdom

This is a gentle run including one decent hill. If you leave Sheffield - only 15 minutes out of town - and travel into the Peak district. Park in the beautiful village of Lower Bradfield. I prefer to park near the bridge near the ducks (which my wife and daughter feed while I run). The run is approximately 3.5 miles long but, because it is a circular run skirting the Damflask reservoir, the runner has the option of running clockwise or counter-clockwise. Even of running it twice or three times for those so-desiring of physical exercise. There is a shorter version of the run by following a limestone path by much of the road (even closer to the water's edge) but this cuts out the hill. One side of the hill is a long shallow gradient needing endurance and, in my case, oxygen. The other direction is shorter and steeper and requires determination, concentration and horsepower. It is a beautiful run passing through pine trees, stone-washed fishermen gazing blankly at a fishless universe, and in lambing season frolicking lambs with irate mothers. I have run it fast (many years ago) and now jog it slow. It measures both my decline and my complacent acceptance of limited speed. It shows me the bare statistics of time and pace but positions me in a framework of space and tranquility which just makes me want to run till the day I cannot move one single mile. Then I will sit on a bench by this reservoir and watch other people take on the distance.