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.