This is Whitehorse Hill (Wiltshire) in the distance. It was an iron age hill fort for the Celts and has a 400ft. wide white horse carved on the hillside. The road you see is the Ridgeway, a 5000 year old road that cuts through the heart of southern England. I am about to run up it on a very cold but sunny Winters day. The Horse itself is a genuine bronze age chalk engraving widely associated with the Celtic Goddess Epona (but that's probably a load of bol***ks). You can't really see it from the ground. No one knows why they drew it but I guess the celts loved horses, and the area is still a big horse trading area because of the soft ground for training.There are many ancient burial sites here like Wayland Smithy, connected with the Saxon God of Blacksmiths, Weland, who purportedly forged Beowulfs chainmail shirt.This whole area vibrates with the memory of the indigenous people of Britain which is why I enjoy running here. It once would've been border country between the Saxon Kings of Wessex (fighting to defend England) and the Northern Danelaw or "Vikings" who have now thankfully been beaten back to their strongholds in places like Newcastle.I really feel like I'm connecting with something when I'm here. This doesn't tend to happen on short runs, you have to go further. The exhaustion of the long runs makes the experience stick in your mind for months, and the wild countryside seems to seep into you when you're alone on these trails.
The whole day really lifted me after what has been a difficult winter. In all the 20 miles took about 5 hours , mainly because I kept stopping and perpetrating unspeakable acts. I would definitely like to run the whole of the Ridegway this Spring. It's 87 miles in total and such a great route, entirely cross country.
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