Woodmill – I Walk Alone

Mist, bridges, jetties and inspiration

The Millers Pond episode proved to be a turning point, of sorts, for plotting my next book. The Botany Bay, Sholing characters wouldn’t talk to me because the plot didn’t work, no matter how much I tried to make it. As soon as I stopped listening for their voices, I heard the other characters clamouring to have their say. They weren’t in Sholing at all. They were in Eastleigh. On Valentine’s Day, Commando dropped me off outside a foggy Eastleigh Railway Station on his way to work. I hoped walking the five miles home would prove inspiring.

Where is my bench?

Friday 13 January may not have been the most auspicious of dates for my inaugural 2023 walk, but it was the first non-stormy day that I felt well enough to risk venturing further than the local shops. It was still cold and windy, so I planned a route that gave me plenty of chances to cut things short if the weather turned nasty or my post-Covid tiredness got the better of me. I began with a slow stroll along the cut way beside the old St Mary’s College playing fields. I wanted to see if building work had started on the site since the College closed.

Two bridges and a boardwalk

This weekend I was having a spring clean of my blog and spotted a post I wrote back in September 2019, but somehow, never got round to posting. It was the story of one of my Clarendon Marathon training walks with Kim. Why I didn’t post it is a mystery, but, waste not want not, I’m posting it now, three years late.

Checking on the mill

With parkrun back and most restrictions lifted, it really felt as if things were getting back to normal, so, on 11 August, I decided to risk a walk along the river. I had two aims in mind, the first of which was to check on the repairs to Woodmill. Back in May, some silly joyriders had somehow managed to crash into the side of the mill demolishing part of the wall. It had looked pretty grim when I went to inspect the damage, but since then, repairs had been made and I was interested to see how they’d gone.

Disaster at Woodmill

The walk along the river to Woodmill has always been a favourite of mine but, since the first lockdown, it has been a walk I’ve regretfully abandoned. The parks have been too full of people for my liking. It was the news that finally dragged me back. On 11 May 2021, a stolen Nissan Micra drove into the side of the mill and badly damaged the building. From the report I’d seen in the Echo, and on the local news, it looked worrying but the initial work to repair the damage had been completed and I wanted to have a look for myself.

The last training walk

27 September 2019

With just over a week to go to the big day there was time to fit in one more, fairly short training walk before the Clarendon Marathon. At this late stage we didn’t want to tax our legs too much or risk any last minute injuries so we decided on a gentle, and most importantly, fairly flat, eight mile route to Lakeside and back.

Twenty Miles

12 September 2019

When I set out this morning to meet Kim it was perfect walking weather, dry, cool and slightly overcast. This was good news because we had a very long walk ahead of us. Marathon training plans suggest a longest run or walk of between twenty and twenty two miles, followed by a tapering period of around three weeks. As we have just over three weeks left before the big day, today woul be our last really long walk. The plan was to cover twenty miles.

The rule of threes

29 August 2019

As we went through the kissing gate onto the unknown trail I couldn’t help thinking about the rule of threes. So far today there had been two, luckily fairly minor, disasters. Theses things come in threes though, and I was breaking my own rule never to take an untried path in the middle of a long walk. It felt like a recipe for disaster but, as mother would have said, rules are like pie crusts, made to be broken.

Eighteen miles

29 August 2019

This morning I set off bright and early to meet Kim. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the walk along the river to our meeting point at Woodmill was lovely. The morning air was cool and I was singing a little song in my head as I walked. Heat might become an issue later in the day but I was fairly confident this was going to be a beautiful, if rather long, walk.

All about hills

6 August 2019

One of the worrying things about the Clarendon Marathon, apart from having to walk twenty six point two miles in under eight hours, is the last five miles. By all accounts they are very hilly, including a trek up Farley Mount (the Mount part is a particular worry). With this in mind I thought our short walks should be hilly ones. On Sunday morning I scouted out part of today’s eight mile route and I was fairly sure Kim wouldn’t thank me for it, at least not today. Maybe on Marathon day though, she would.

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30