Runners at the “Night Fright” in Surrey, UK, at the weekend
Happy Halloween!
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The Beast of Bardsey
It’s now that time of year again in the UK, Autumn is upon us so we have darkness before 5pm.
I went out to get an armful of logs in the dark and heard a distinct rustling of some kind of footsteps in the leaves of the garden.
“I should have put the outside light on”, I thought, and “what am I spooked about anyway?”.
But those steps sounded to be coming from something big, and were quite close. Being a complete coward I threw a log in the direction of the noises. Something grunted and careered off down the garden and into the fields at the back of the house.
The following late afternoon I went on one of my regular runs out into the country along a disused railway track, it’s pretty good under foot but with lots of leaves and a bit dark with embankments on either side.
What had happened the night before was running through my mind when I heard a distinct rustling of footsteps behind me. Or was it? Had the wind whipped up a few leaves? Was it my vivid imagination at work?
Just in case, I quickly looked behind me and of course, there was nothing there. “You silly man” I thought, until it happened again, much closer to me and regular enough to not be the wind.
Another quick glance behind, nothing, but by now the adrenalin had kicked in and I decided to put the boot in and get to the end of the railway track as quickly as possible. The problem was, the footsteps were keeping up with me – this wasn’t my imagination.
Time for action – I stopped to face whatever it might be and turned around to be faced by…….. the smallest, fluffiest dog you could imagine – and cute by any standards.
It was so small and close up behind me that as I had glanced back I missed it. I noticed it was hardly panting so I couldn’t hear it. In the distance I could hear the owner calling so I jogged back with my new friend until it latched back onto its boss.
I think on that particular run I burnt more calories through fear than actually running!