On that first Saturday of half term, armed with a picnic and a vague plan we headed off into the Surrey countryside for the day. We were hoping to find some yellow fields to take our yearly photos in but didn’t find any. However, we did end up near Reigate Hill and Gatton Park, a beautiful National Trust area that just happens to go through my old boarding school:

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I have been back to Gatton Park and my old school for both school reunions and with my family for a day out but this time found we were on a different route….my old cross country route. The memories came flooding back:

I really enjoyed running cross country and 1500 metres and was actual;y pretty good at both (even if I do say so myself)!  I was the fasted girl in my year, broke the school record for 1500m and competed in competitions for both. I  represented the School at District Level for Cross country and County level for 1500 Meters….I really did:

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I remembered many of my friends hating cross country and trying to cut the corner of the route by crossing the cow field. I only did it once before I discovered I could run and hated it. Dodging the huge cow pats, being chased by massive cows and tripping in the long grass wasn’t for me. I was quite happy to take the long route and quickly realised I could run it well too:

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I must admit though it was more uphill than I remembered:

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So many memories came back to me as we walked round and I happily shared details of my school days with my gorgeous girls. Looking at the upturned trees I couldn’t help remember the year of the massive storm when all the trees fell down and we had to dodge huge tree trunks as we ran around it. I wonder if some of the trees the girls were climbing on were old ones from back then? Probably not:

Funny but in all those years I ran around this route, I never once imagined I would end up back here with a husband and three children on a day out years later:

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We didn’t really appreciate the grounds our school were in when we were younger but they really are beautiful. Just miles of rolling hills and beautiful Surrey countryside:

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Karen x