Sunday Morning on Cave Hill

I wasn’t expecting to get much done on Sunday. There was another orienteering event in Belvoir forest, but I wasn’t sure if I could make it due to Scott’s football training at Newforge. However, with the news on Saturday that all the footy training was cancelled for Sunday, I quickly reorganised my Sunday morning and franticly tried to dry my socks and shoes from the day before.

I also had the additional bonus of being invited to an early morning trail run over Cave Hill. At first I declined the offer as a 9am start on Sunday morning was the last thing on my mind at the time….but on the drive home from Castle Ward I decided it was too good an excuse to get up early and get some extra training in. There was no way I would have done it on my own, but to have a bit of company while running was good enough for me to miss a morning lie in.

It had snowed again over Saturday night and it was still snowing as I drove up to Belfast. The Sydenham Bypass was closed so I was forced to make a detour down the Newtownards Road and then back out to the M3. The road up the hill within the Cave Hill estate was well covered in snow and at one point I thought I was not going to get the car up to the car park.

I have run up Cave Hill a few times, but I would not call it a regular training area for me, which is a pity because it provides some excellent trail running terrain. The chance to run a new route was going to be good fun. We started on the trail behind the car park. At the T-junctions we turned left and followed the trail out towards the houses and continue up on the trail which leads to the car park at the top of Upper Hightown Road. Running on the road for a few hundred meters, we then cut in right and followed a trail towards and up through the wood to the old quarry. The run took us straight through the quarry and lead directly over to the top transmitter. We were in the cloud and you could see patches of blue trying to sneak through. With snow all around us and the sun, a hazy yellow glow in the cloud, it was a beautiful day for a trail run and I was glad that I made the effort. From the transmitter we followed a rough trail directly south east towards McArts Fort. After admiring the views we followed the standard route north and then back south around the base of the cliffs and then followed the gradual downhill back south to the car park. Excellent run and a route I will certainly do again. 8.6km in 58 minutes with 353m elevation gain…. and it was a nice enjoyable pace.

But the morning was not over and I was off to Belvoir for an orienteering event.

My MotionBased Route

Popularity: 22% [?]