Monday, November 27, 2006
Rainy Running Round
The onset of cold days has coincided with my discovery of the “bag of hot chicken goujons for £1” stall on Oldham Market, and my lunchtime trips there have necessitated a return to the ways of the runner, in order to shake off my increasingly wobbly belly.
I'm a bit bored of the old route into Whitefield, so tonight I varied my route to take in a bit more of the Ward and see if I could spot any issues of note. I have found no better way of truly testing how good pavement and street lighting provision is, than by running on wet and leaf covered roads in the dark. And so it was tonight as I ran the 5k(ish) from Clifton Road, down Bury New Road, turning onto Hilton Lane, right on to and up Butt Hill Road, onto Barnhill and Agecoft Road East, right on and up to Butterstile Lane, round Prestwich Hills, back down Butterstile and onto Sandy Lane, down Lowther Road and St Anne’s Road and back home along Bury New Road.
It sounds quite impressive when I write it like that!
My feet were hurting quite badly (that must be where the goujons go), and I was a bit worried at one point that I was having a heart attack, but I survived. I have been looking a bit too closely at that British Heart Foundation advert with the man with the belt tightening across his chest. I was nearly that man tonight.
Anyway, it turns out that there are a few problems I encountered, although they are ones that we have mentioned before. The pavements are still a problem on Butt Hill and Barnhill – it’s not easy to run in the wet and dark with loose chippings everywhere. Also, the leaves on St Anne’s Road are very slippery and forced me onto the road more than once – a situation not helped by the overgrowing hedges and shrubs from people’s gardens.
Local Liberal Democrats have been pressuring the Council to try and rectify these problems for a while now. Progress isn’t as quick as we’d like (the Council get a lot of requests for leaf-clearing at this time of year, as you’d expect!), but we’ll keep the pressure on.
I will check out hitherto unexplored areas of the Ward next time I’m out! The problem is that getting down to Rainsough requires running back up the hill (!), so I may send out Cllr O’Hanlon instead, and have a look round Sedgley whilst he struggles!
Rick
I'm a bit bored of the old route into Whitefield, so tonight I varied my route to take in a bit more of the Ward and see if I could spot any issues of note. I have found no better way of truly testing how good pavement and street lighting provision is, than by running on wet and leaf covered roads in the dark. And so it was tonight as I ran the 5k(ish) from Clifton Road, down Bury New Road, turning onto Hilton Lane, right on to and up Butt Hill Road, onto Barnhill and Agecoft Road East, right on and up to Butterstile Lane, round Prestwich Hills, back down Butterstile and onto Sandy Lane, down Lowther Road and St Anne’s Road and back home along Bury New Road.
It sounds quite impressive when I write it like that!
My feet were hurting quite badly (that must be where the goujons go), and I was a bit worried at one point that I was having a heart attack, but I survived. I have been looking a bit too closely at that British Heart Foundation advert with the man with the belt tightening across his chest. I was nearly that man tonight.
Anyway, it turns out that there are a few problems I encountered, although they are ones that we have mentioned before. The pavements are still a problem on Butt Hill and Barnhill – it’s not easy to run in the wet and dark with loose chippings everywhere. Also, the leaves on St Anne’s Road are very slippery and forced me onto the road more than once – a situation not helped by the overgrowing hedges and shrubs from people’s gardens.
Local Liberal Democrats have been pressuring the Council to try and rectify these problems for a while now. Progress isn’t as quick as we’d like (the Council get a lot of requests for leaf-clearing at this time of year, as you’d expect!), but we’ll keep the pressure on.
I will check out hitherto unexplored areas of the Ward next time I’m out! The problem is that getting down to Rainsough requires running back up the hill (!), so I may send out Cllr O’Hanlon instead, and have a look round Sedgley whilst he struggles!
Rick
# posted by Richard Baum @ 20:41 
