Training: Nuns Moor & Town Moor

After a run-free weekend, straight back into it today with a 7.5km run around the moors of Newcastle — specifically the south and central portions of Nuns Moor and skirting down the side of the Town Moor (including both the big and little Cow Hill).

The cows were out on Nuns Moor Central today; cue plenty of pat-dodging

While it was nothing spectacular, at least it took me through a bit of greenery I've not gone through before, just behind The Bike Garden. And it got me further from the office in this direction than I've been on a run to date, not too far from the Cowgate roundabout... errr, junction. I do feel like I'm hitting my distance limit, though. To go much further, I'd be looking at 10K and a very long lunch break.

Looking down at the start area for the Great North Run

Pace-wise, it was far from blistering once again. I thought I'd heard Google announce 6:30 for the first kilometre and was a bit shocked. Turned out it was 6:03, but even that feels like an unwelcome surprise. From that slow start, I picked it up a little, but only until I had to wait to cross Grandstand Road, fight through the bushes and nettles onto the Town Moor (a genuine 'path' btw) and then climb Cow Hill. Not surprising the pace dropped off there and the 5th kilometre was a 6:17. Ooof.

The smaller Cow Hill (it can't be called that, surely?) followed immediately and then it was the best part of another kilometre picking my footing very carefully across some pretty squidgy and tussocky grass on the moor itself. I guess those sorts of conditions are what I could expect on the Alnwick Pastures parkrun, if I ever make it to that. If I do, I might want to take some trail running shoes!

The view from the top of the [big] Cow Hill, looking towards the city centre

Thereafter, it was back on pavement and tarmac, weaving my way through the city centre back to work, but avoiding Northumberland Street. The weaving was entirely to make sure I hit 7.5km by the end of the run. By the time it was all over, I'd done 7.84km in a total time of 44:39, giving an average pace of 5:42/km. Underwhelming.

Maybe it's the gloomier weather, maybe it's work stress, or maybe I just can't be bothered at the moment, but I really feel like I'm slipping into a winter of underachievement. I need to pull my socks up and find my motivation again. My remaining 2023 goals are all about consistency, really, rather than speed. Should I set myself the target of getting under 25 minutes for a 5K a second time?

Anyway, rather than finish on that note, I'm starting to realise that one of the things I enjoy about writing up these runs is finding links to the sites of interest that I pass. I must be getting old if that kind of thing floats my boat — I feel like I'm turning into my dad, albeit with less smoking and fewer pies — but the local heritage is something I find interesting. And heaven knows, I need something to stop the runs feeling boringly repetitive. So, to that end, let's point out that my understanding of what Cow Hill is has changed during the course of writing this post...

What is Cow Hill?

As mentioned, there are actually 2 hills next to each other on the Town Moor. I thought the bigger one was Cow Hill and didn't know what the smaller one was called. Google Maps, it turns out, reckoned the big one was "Town Moor Big Hill" and the smaller was "Town Moor Lesser Hill". Inspired! 😂

A bit more googling revealed that Cow Hill is really the name of the broader area in which those two hills lie. In fact, as Heritage Gateway explains, the Central Motorway was actually cut through what was originally Cow Hill. And the two hills that sit on the Town Moor today are actually just spoil heaps from that excavation. Well I never. Given that the work was carried out in the 1970s, a less environmentally sensitive era (counterpoint: HS2), I bet they didn't even check what archaeological bits and bobs they were disrupting. Makes you wonder what you might find in those spoil heaps! 🤓

Anyway, from now on, I know what I really mean when I talk about Cow Hill. And I'll probably talk about "the big hill" and "the smaller hill" from now on. TIL.