Trails from Walstead to Lindfield

IT WAS A beautiful day to get out for some run training over the local trails.   I wanted to pick up on an old route running down the main Lewes Road and picking up the trails around the back of Lindfield heading for All Saints Church at the north end of the village.   It's been quite a while since I last did this run, but wanted that experience of getting off the main roads and being somewhere familiar.

The start of the run has a degree of difficulty, with a large hill up Northlands to the Lewes Road, after that it's downhill ending with a slight incline to Lyoth Lane.    This takes you past the Snowdrop public house, which is an amazing little pub.   It's a short walk from the house and a place I sometimes take myself in the evening for a pint of Guinness and a good book (I always have a book on the go).

At the end of the lane you cross the main road and start the trails run, down the side of a farm house and into the woods.  After a short while I reached a stile which crosses a field, normally with horses in it, run a bridge across a small river and circle back to cross the horse field again further down.

It isn't long before I reached the next field which has footpaths running through the end of the seasons sweet corn.    It's always a great feeling running in nature, which is close to you and makes you feel like you have increased your speed.

At the end of the field is the main road, cross that and back onto roads for a short distance before going back into woodland.   This time of year brings a few other problems, especially if the woodland has oak trees.   Wearing headgear of some sort really helps when you have acorns being dropped from height.   They can hurt and cause injury and best to be prepared for that, the sound of a falling acorn really resonates through your head.

As I came to the end of the run, going past Wilderness Fields, I found All Saints church was open to the public.   There was nobody inside and I decided to make a stop and sit in the church for a while.   It's odd but you really feel a closeness to God in a church, with the rich history, stained glass windows, alter and crucifixes it has a very calming effect.

Being there on my own made me consider my own well-being, mindfulness and allowed me to contemplate where I am and where I wanted to be, especially important as I have just retired after 32 years of public service.

Somewhere there was just me in a quiet space, away from the noise, just having a few moments to myself.   It was a great feeling.

Once out of church I needed to make my way home, running down through Lindfield High Street, cross the common and past the cricket pavilion back on the roads that took me back up Gravely Lane and home.