Number 2 of 50: Ely

As my home city, Ely (pronounced Eee-Lee, not Eee-Lie or Eye-Lee or Ellie) was always going to be early on in the 50. The route we ran wasn't my usual running route; it was a much more interesting one and we had lovely company in the form of excellent local friend Vicky (who is making a cracking job of RED January) and, possibly for the first time ever, our daughter Lucy joined us for a proper family run

Bright eyed and bushy tailed

Two bad things happened. First, I paused my watch when I took some photos and forgot to start it again. This, right at the start of this challenge, means I won't have a neat set of runs all in the same place recorded by the same device. It also meant I was extremely grumpy all the way round because more than I hate running I hate not knowing how long I've been running or how far.

Fortunately, Vicky was also recording the run, so I can still give you a picture of it here. Look! We went even further than 5km! Be sure I shall resent that 230 metres for a long time to come. The second bad thing is that the evening of the Ely run I went down with a horrible cold and cough that a week later I still haven't shifted. So, there you have it, running makes you ill.

The first place we headed to was Roswell Pits, now a nature reserve and a site of special scientific interest, but originally the site of gault pits - a type of clay that's used to shore up riverbanks. The lake is intersected by Kiln Lane, a hill I decided we'd run down at the start rather than up at the end (more on our Fenland hills later). There are many things to love about Roswell Pits: it's a rich source of fossils, it has some amazing wildlife and is a lovely place to walk. Obviously, when you run through it you miss all the good stuff.

The other thing about Roswell Pits is that it's the site of one of the very best views of Ely Cathedral. We were running on a rather overcast day, but if you catch it at sunrise or sunset or on a beautiful day it is absolutely breathtaking. Views like this make it easy to see why they call the Cathedral 'the Ship of the Fens'. Built at the heady heights of 26 metres above sea level - the highest point around here - you can see it for miles and miles and it's easy to imagine, before the Fens were drained, that she looked just like a ship in the middle of an ocean.

We headed towards town along the river. Ely is on the River Great Ouse, a 143 mile river that runs from Northampton and to the North Sea via the Wash at King's Lynn in Norfolk. The flood meadows either side of the river are home to a wide range of birds and animals. In fact, I spent a very happy minute or two watching a stoat prance around nearby when I walked the same route a few days later. Much of the land around Roswell Pits and the river is now looked after by an organisation called Ely Wildspace which is doing a brilliant job of protecting the area and has put up a series of information boards about the kind of wildlife you can see here.

Anyway, all too soon, we had run the river section and, having run down Kiln Lane, were faced with the hill we had to run up - Cherry Hill. Now, having failed Charfield Hill, I was determined to beat Cherry Hill. And so I bloody should. Compared to most places in the UK, the hills in Ely are really nothing more than slopes. So, I took a picture from the bottom and then grumpily and wheezily dragged myself to the top, ably assisted by Vicky and Lucy who cheered me on all the way.

The bottom of Cherry Hill

And the triumphant top

After the hill, it was straight past the cathedral. There has been a religious building on the site since the 670s and work started on the existing Ely Cathedral in the 11th century. the Octagon Tower was added after the collapse of some of the original building in the 14th century.  It had a bit of dodgy 16th and 17th centuries (Neither Henry VIII nor Oliver Cromwell that big on cathedrals & the like, I understand) but actually got through those tricky times remarkably unscathed. A couple of restorations over the next couple of hundred years, and here it now is.

The thing I love most about this building is that it has at least one, sometimes two regular peregrine falcon visitors. I can watch those beauties for hours as they soar above the towers and perch on the ledges and sills.  

And that was pretty much our 5k. We ran through the market square (which I refuse to photograph because the beautiful original marketplace has been replaced by the most revolting buildings) and there was just time to take a photo of one of our excellent local businesses - Silver Oak Coffee. Not only does Silver Oak make absolutely delicious coffee (roasted locally), they also, until she left for university, kept Lucy in gainful employment and taught her how to do latte art. Highly recommend stopping in for a coffee if you're passing through.

And that's Ely. I realise there is actually a lot more I could have said, and perhaps later in the year I'll run a completely different 5km and share that. I can't decide if that would be cheating or not. In the meantime, if you have a local 5km you think we should come and run, then please let us know. And, of course, we're doing all of this for Pilgrims Hospices to thank them for the care they gave Dad and if you have some spare cash, you can donate to our fundraising efforts here.

Let's do this! Number 1 of 50: Charfield

Before we start, let me tell you what we're doing.

In 2019, my dad, Alan, died. He had a long illness and his wish at the end of his life was to be at home with the family. We were able to fulfil that wish with the extraordinary help of Pilgrims Hospices which provided some of the most compassionate, considerate and excellent care to Dad and to the family that I've ever experienced. 

To say thank you, my three siblings (Anna, Clare & Simon) and I have decided to set ourselves challenges this year to help raise funds for their valuable work. It's our family year of fundraising.

Many of you will be aware of my history with running. A glance back through the archive of this blog will give you a flavour of just how difficult I find it. My Twitter feed is regularly splashed with #haterunning and despite several years working with an excellent running coach whose strap line was 'run happy', I have never enjoyed it one little bit. I also always run alone, preferring to be slow and lumbering and miserable by my grumpy self. It embarrasses me to run with other people. 

So, to make a challenge hard enough to be fundraisable, it has to involve running. I have already done a half marathon and, even though I did triumph over a Care Bear on that occasion, I swore I'd never do another, or do a greater distance. I'm 50 in September and so we thought perhaps a good challenge would be to run 50 different 5km routes in 50 different parts of the country. So, that's what Steve and I are going to do. We hope that friends and family will join us on some of the runs. So it's a triple challenge: the running, the logistics and, possibly the hardest bit, the company. 

I enjoyed blogging my half marathon training last time, it kept me focused enabled me to reflect and it gave me an excuse to remind people of the fundraising element of the challenge, so I thought I'd do the same thing this time. A blog about the runs, the places and the people. 

So, without further ado...

Run 1 of 50: Charfield, Gloucestershire.

New Year's Day after a night out at The Plough in Charfield (appropriate really because it was Dad's local for many years) Steve and I were joined by our old friend Sam, one of the very best people, who was at primary school with Steve and secondary school with both of us, for 5k number one.

Steve, me and Sam about to set off

43 minutes and 14 seconds 🐢🐢🐢

I have  decided, in the spirit of openness, to share all the details of the runs I do, including the terribly slow time which is only partly affected by stopping to take photos and look at views. That way, you'll see that I really do find running hard going and appreciate my effort all the more. After all, if I could nip out and knock off a 5k in 20 minutes, where would the fun be? So, here's a screenshot of my Fitbit app for this run. And I should say that both Steve and Sam ran quite a bit faster than this!

My family lived in Charfield for 19 years - it's a village in Gloucestershire on the edge of the Cotswolds. Steve lived here too and his dad still does, so we visit reasonably often. Some parts of the village date back to the 13th Century, but the majority of it is built around the railway line. The station opened here on the original Bristol and Gloucester Railway line in 1844 and the buildings on both platforms were designed by Brunel (no wonder my dad, a lover of the  railways, was drawn here). The station became a victim of Beeching in 1965 and pretty much ever since there have been unsubstantiated rumours of a great reopening.

Charfield bloody Hill. From the top so you can't really see it

As a Fen dweller, I am particularly bad at hills and have vowed to factor more proper hills into this challenge. I chose a route that took in Charfield Hill, knowing it was a beast that would defeat me (it did) but wanting a difficult start to make the rest feel better. That worked and after walking 3/4 of Charfield hill, we ran almost all the rest. Steve ran it all, eating up the hill as tho he'd never been away.

The one interesting, rather grim,  piece of Charfield history is the fatal railway disaster that happened on October 13 1928  in which 16 people died, including two children whose remains were never claimed. There is a memorial to the dead at St James' church, a beautiful old church originally built in the 13th Century with wonderful views that we ran past. 

St James's Church, Charfield

Local folklore maintains that on the anniversary of the rail crash each year a mysterious woman in a chauffeured car would come to the village in the early hours, stop on the railway bridge and then leave flowers on the grave. She was rumoured to be some kind of royal or aristocrat who couldn't claim the children because it would have created a terrible scandal...I never met anyone who has actually seen the woman, but regardless of whether she existed or not, it's a sad tale of two children that nobody felt able to claim.

View from the top of the easy hill

Down about a kilometer of very smelly farm hill and then back up on the other side to more lovely views (despite the fairly dim weather) at the top of a smaller hill that I did manage to conquer and we were soon on the home straight, back into the village. At this point, Sam's endorphins kicked in and she became unbearably cheerful. I didn't reach quite Sam's levels of singing. dancing, leaping about joy, but did have to admit it was quite fun to mess around with a good friend, even if you have to do it while running.

Charfield Primary School past pupils

There was just time before we finished to check out Charfield Primary School where Steve and Sam first met. I think they were in a school production of Aladdin together once.







So, there is it. The first of our 50 5kms. My hips hurt by the end, but I got round and ran the vast majority of it. We now have more than 20 suggestions of other runs to do and I'm actually looking forward to the next one.

Please tell us if you'd like to join us, especially if you have a favourite 5km route that we can run with you. And, if you have some spare cash, please consider supporting our fundraising efforts.