The Ponton Plod

Richard and I decided that we needed a bit of exercise, so I entered us for the Ponton Plod. I chose this event because it starts a few miles from where we’ll (hopefully) be living soon and I thought it would be a good way to get to know more of the area. Given that the route is 27 miles long, we did indeed see our fair-share of Lincolnshire countryside… slightly too much if anything!

The race started in Great Ponton and heads over the A1 to Stoke Rochford. This village has a lovely hall and gardens and provided a lovely start to the run. We then headed to Skillington and then to Buckminster, where refreshments were served (6 miles into the event). Then we passed through the pretty village of Spoxton (pronounced Sproston), then Saltby, where we got lost temporarily on the way in. Then we headed to Croxton Kerrial, where there were yummy refreshments again :-)! Then, we plodded… and it was a plod by this stage… on to Harston, then Denton, and then Denton Reservoir. Around this area we started seeing flour arrows, circles and dots on the ground and we realised that the Rutland Hash must have been running in the same area. We didn’t see them, but when we arrived at Harlaxton, someone honked at us on the road, and we confirmed later that they were indeed hashing from Harlaxton. This gave us something else to think about other than the tired legs, which was good! We ended up running at the same speed as two other runners and so we grouped together and chatted, which distracted us further from our increasingly tired legs. Soon we were at Wyville, where there were even more refreshments, and then after another three painful(!) miles we were back in Great Ponton. The post-event fuel was fantastic; soup and apple pie :-).

We had a nice day, saw a lot of countryside and definitely had a good dose of exercise! Thanks to the Ponton Plod for organising, and for allowing us to copy their pictures.