"Each step forward has a sacred meaning of its own"   Sri Chinmoy

Run to the Broadway Tower, Cotswolds - February 2018

I'd only gone out for an exploratory walk/jog to loosen up my tight calf muscle but when I got through Broadway to the Upper High Street I saw a sign to the Broadway Tower. I'd jogged slowly without pain up to that point so I decided to run to the top. It's a while since I ran seriously on hills and I was wearing road shoes, but with the temperature a few degrees below and the ground iron-hard, it was like road running anyway. This site began as my mountain running blog and I've diversified a lot since (mostly in response to running injuries) so it's great to at least log a jog up a hill in the Cotswolds after such a long time. Ultimately running up hills is still my favourite sport.

I only had sheep for company, plus very occasionally a dog walker in the distance. Although rays of sunlight were touching the wide expanse of the vale behind me the sun had effectively not yet risen on the western slope of the Cotswolds, so I was greeted by my own personal dawn as I came up on to the top of the hill by the Tower.

It's hard to properly photograph the sunrise on a phone but I had a go. The whole run took just under an hour, under gloriously clear skies, with vews out over the vale into the misty flood plains of the Avon and Severn. Far beyond that I couldn't quite see the Malverns or the Welsh Mountains as the morning mist was still clinging on.

On the way down I was treated to views too beautiful for words.

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