Midweek: the full length of Jesmond Dene

What a difference two days make:

• Saturday: continuing miserable weather, long-running sinus headache, wimped out of parkrun, thoroughly down and wondering whether this was the beginning of the end for my running habit
• Monday: sun's out and it's warmed up, headache's finally gone, back out at lunchtime for a thoroughly enjoyable 6.4K run, loving the running buzz again

So yeah, parkrun on Saturday didn't happen. I needed to do a local one (because $kids) but didn't want to break my tourist streak, so Jesmond Dene was on the cards. Knowing that that would be a tough and most-likely demoralising parkrun if done with a pounding headache, I chose not to bother, even though it would hurt my "30 parkruns in 2023" goal. In hindsight, it was probably the right choice, for both my mental health and for the headache. Even if my next parkrun's not till the 19th August (Penrhyn 🤞), I'll still be on target for 32 by the end of the year.

Enough of that though. Let's talk about today, which was much nicer.

I've been thinking about it for a while, but finally took the plunge today and started my run with a bus journey. 😂 Yup, straight on the X63 out to The Victory at the Haddrick's Mill double roundabout. That meant I had to run back to the office from the top end of Jesmond Dene. Had I taken the quickest route back, I wouldn't have gone into the Dene at all, but that would've been entirely missing the point. So instead of a 5K run along roads, I took a more meandering route through the length of the dene (incl. Jesmond Vale) in glorious, albeit dappled, sunshine.

The bus was the only way I'd have time to get to the upper reaches of Jesmond Dene

The start of this jaunt nicely showed up how little I knew the top end of the dene as I ended up at dead ends more than once. I was determined to stay on the east side of the burn, mainly for reasons of exploration, but it bit me hard, repeatedly. 😂 First time, I tried to run under the main arch of the road bridge by David Lloyd's, but just ended up running through nettles and brambles before having to backtrack.

Dead ends #1 and #2, the first of which gave me bramble lashes and nettle stings for my trouble

Second time, I discovered that there isn't actually a path going past the Mill. At least, not on the eastern side of the burn. Cue me frustratedly scrambling through bushes to get to a higher path out of there. In fact, I'm pretty sure I ended up climbing right out of the dene on the killer of a hill that the parkrun route uses. I'd specifically been hoping to avoid that, but as it turns out, it wasn't even the run's most punishing hill. 😮

One of a handful of pretty little stone bridges, this one by the mill

At least once I was up in Paddy Freeman's park I had a vague idea of where the way back down began. I passed the viewpoint that would've made easily the best photo from the run had I bothered to stop and then it was down the too-steep-to-exploit path back into the valley. Branching off from the parkrun finish area, I continued the descent right down to the road that led to Pets Corner. Tempting as it was to stop for an ice cream at that point, I continued on through the park. After narrowly avoiding being run down by the Thomas Train, the path then took me across the bridge where I once saw the one and only kingfisher I've seen in my life and up the twists out onto Benton Bank. I then misremembered how to get into Jesmond Vale and instead ran up to the Cradlewell Bypass, which was of course manic with traffic before turning back and running under it.

Bike tyre tracks were a good indication of where the mud was deepest and wettest

Once in Jesmond Vale itself, the going underfoot was pretty muddy in places (as it had been at the top of the dene too, to be fair). It didn't last too long though and soon I was back on tarmac and heading to the culvert that marks the end of the Ouseburn until it emerges again on the far side of the City Stadium. This was where I realised I'd never actually run this final part of the vale in this direction i.e. climbing out of the valley. I'd jogged down the steep paths before, but not up. And BY GOD, they were steep. I think I'm pretty safe in saying that this was the steepest climb I've ever "run" up and, truly, I was having to fight to avoid walking. I just about managed to have both feet in the air at once while barely moving forwards. 😂 If ever I need steep hill practice, this is surely the place.

Back at street level, it was then just another couple of kilometres of traffic fumes before I was back at work. I'd done over 4km in the lush greenness of the dene, but this stretch was fairly uninspiring. Still, I knew I had to get back for a 1:30pm meeting, so there was no more time for further green adventures. I'd originally hoped to trace the Ouseburn all the way down to the Tyne and then follow the quayside back, but time was against me. I eventually got back to the office a full hour after I'd left it, having run at an average pace of 5:50/km. Not exactly fast, but considering the first kilometre took 6:39, I'll settle for it. Plus, I stopped for a few photos, as you can see. Not a run to mark on my calendar as 7.5K+, but I'll see if I can get one of those in later this week. Right now, I'm just happy to be headache-free and enjoying the running again. 🙂