I thought long & hard about posting this, but thought it may prove useful to somebody one day.

On Sunday I parked at The Cow & Calf, in Ilkley, & headed off for a run over the moors with no particular route in mind. I ended up running to the "Shooting Lodge" on Burley Moor & headed down towards Horncliffe Well, a stretch of The Bradford Millenium Way. it's a great path & you rarely see anybody on it. Halfway down I noticed what I thought to be a dummy laid down with it's legs in a puddle. I couldn't understand why somebody would go to the effort of putting it there.I thought it was some sort of prank. As I got closer, to my absolute horror, I realised it was a dead body. Panic & fear set in but I instantly rang 999. After a few minutes explaining that the man was definitely dead & giving my location & details I waited for the ambulance & police to arrive. Unfortunately there is a house in Burley Woodhead called the Shooting Lodge, which is where the emergency services first went to before ringing me again to ascertain my exact location. It took them well over an hour to finally get to me as they had to leave their vehicles & walk to me & the body. By this time I was shivering uncontrollably from shock & cold. Luckily, long or short run, I always carry a bum bag with my phone, waterproof & gloves, all of which were needed. Anyway, they eventually arrived & walked me back to the ambulance to try & warm me up & check me over (I couldn't stop shaking for about 2 hours). The police then took me home to provide a detailed statement & they even took a Strava printout of my run!

I didn't sleep on Sunday night & was advised to go to the doctor to get checked over for shock & exposure. I spent over an hour on remote moorland with a dead body & am struggling to get the image of the poor man out of my head. The police have said it is "not suspicious" as you would expect up there.

I suppose the reason I'm sharing this is to make people aware that anything can happen out there. Be prepared & always take a phone if you're going somewhere remote.