Day 238: Gel hell, towpath turnarounds and crane calamity on the canal

RUN: 12.2 miles

It's Sunday and time for a big run. There were 14 miles on the training plan today, so I planned a good route along the canal from Baildon to Saltaire to Apperley Bridge and back to Baildon.

It was a lovely cool, frosty (not icy) morning, which became a gorgeous sunny (but cool) day as I ran along. As usual, there were lots of other people out on the canal walking dogs, cycling and running.

This was my longest run so far and I was prepared with an energy gel to keep me going. Half way along I gave it a try, and it was... disgusting! I'm not usually a wuss, but I didn't even manage half. Throwing up on the towpath is not really the done thing on a Sunday morning, so I decided to stop trying to force down the gloopy orangey slime. Here is the offending article...

Maybe orange isn't the flavour for me

I was turned around twice along the towpath, with closures at Hirst Locks near Saltaire and at Apperley Bridge due to winter work on the canal. With a little bit of my 14-mile route cut off at each end, I had only done 12 and a quarter miles in the end, but I'm still quite pleased with that.

 

Having seen it in the paper, I was pleased to visit the 90-tonne crane in the water at Dobson Locks. It seems I wasn't the only one, since there were lots of people gathered round gawping at the huge upturned machine in the canal. It seems like it's going to be there for a while judging by this latest story.

Not something you see every day

Here's today's biggest run yet