Flooding and endurance testing

Today it wasn't raining. In fact, it was better than that, the sun was shining and the sky was blue, the wind wasn't blowing a hoolie and it just seemed a lovely day to go for some endurance testing. (Don't tell my friendly physio, she might not be quite so friendly.) No running, I'm not that naughty, but a nice long walk at a reasonable pace to shake off the holiday cobwebs and excess mince pies. I thought I'd head off in the vague direction of the river somewhere, to have a look at the water levels after yesterday's deluges, and then take it from there.

After about an hour, I couldn't get any further:

so I doubled back on myself a bit and tried a different route to a different part of the river. Couldn't get there either:

This is actually a field to the side of the road, but the footpath beside the field was under water too, with a very large puddle in the road through which cars were splashing with abandon, and I didn't fancy that much. So I doubled back again and tried another way. By this time I'd done about an hour and a half and was having a lovely time. It wasn't too chilly and I was feeling very comfortable with my walking pace, concentrating a bit on not banging down too hard on my heels and maintaining a good posture. All going well then, until I got deluged by a learner driver not paying attention to the road conditions and the surroundings, and whizzing through a huge puddle too close to the pavement. I hope they failed their test…

At last I reached a point where I could see the river:

On the opposite bank is Dapdune Wharf where I was volunteering in the summer. It's closed now for winter but some of the buildings require some cleaning out from the floods over Christmas, but not until the danger of further flooding has receded a little. This side of the river the tow path into town is under water, and those parts of the tow path not currently flooded but where the river burst its banks last week are quite considerably damaged:

I'd gone far enough now but still had to get home. I took a quite big loop rather than go straight home, and ended up having done 9.76 miles in a smidge over 2 1/2 hours. My hips felt a bit weary and there are two little tender areas on the balls of my feet which would have blistered if I had carried on - but it is a good thing to know where I am susceptible to things like that so I can take precautions when I get to my longer distances. Overall though, it was a great walk (I am a little sore and stiff now but don't think I've caused any major setbacks). I think when The Run is over I'll go back to long distance walking; it's much more comfortable and enjoyable than running and you don't feel guilty if you stop to take a few pictures!