Barnstaple to Instow

12 miles of the Tarka trail today, with a friend from the local running club. Last summer when I had just moved to North Devon I did the majority of my training on this trail, either taking the route westwards to Bideford or on the other side of the river to the villages of Braunton and Saunton, but today I found this route strangely difficult. It wasn't the distance or the wind this time, so much as the hardness of the ground along the trail. After the tenth mile the concrete seemed to be hitting me through my shoes, not the other way around, and my feet and knees took a battering. I am aware that I probably need new shoes but as I'm running low (pun intended) on cash I haven't got around to replacing them yet, and today's session seemed to hammer the need home. We've resolved next time to find some softer ground around the coast, maybe going onto the sandy beach for part of the way to give our soles a rest, but in the meantime I think I am going to have to be careful with my choice of runs for the rest of the week. I guess the dog poo park doesn't seem such a bad idea now....