Hadn’t expected to be heading down the road this weekend, but Ian Beattie’s midweek proposal for a Friday night run from Milngavie to Balmaha was just what I needed three weeks before the West Highland Way Race (did the same with John Kynaston, Joe Sheridan and others at the same stage in 2007) so I arranged to stay Friday and Saturday nights with my parents in Cardross, pencilled in a hill run for the return journey on Sunday and set off after school on Friday. (more…)
30 May 2010
23 May 2010
Slowly quick on Cruachan
Think yesterday (despite being hot with only intermittent cloud cover) was probably the right choice for a meaty hill run because it’s been absolutely bucketing so far this morning! (more…)
18 May 2010
Sounds friendly, sounds good
So who could describe a 55 mile trail run as ‘an attractive-sounding short ultra’ and how attractive (or short!) might that still be sounding when you’re standing on the start line seven months later? (more…)
9 May 2010
Not Fyne but Shira!
So here I am, five miles up some private road up Glen Fyne when I should have been leaving it for the open hill after four-and-a-half max, acutely aware that absolutely nothing squares with my recollection of the map (which I haven’t actually looked at since leaving Kinlochleven). So why didn’t said road start from the east side of the bridge where I parked the van? Why did I run past a fairly substantial lochan when I don’t remember it being marked? And why is this road now taking me steeply and obviously east when I should be leaving it to the west? (more…)
5 May 2010
Surprised to be sailing
Sometimes these things are just so unexpected but, with Fly still out of the water needing work and Twig Olsen lined up to help get her sorted for 2011 (when I’m not going to be training obsessively for running ultras!), I was taken aback to get a phone call last night from a short-crewed Peter Watt inviting me to join Vaila for Glencoe Boat Club’s first race of the season tonight. So I thought aloud for about ten seconds (‘can’t afford to miss a night’s training… need to get out for a run straight after school… yes I’d like to come!’) before agreeing, then kicked myself out of the house for a quick blast up to the Penstock and back (4.6 miles/c.1,200 ft ascent) almost as soon as I got home this afternoon. (more…)
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3 May 2010
Not last year now!
It’s a year to the day since my post announcing my withdrawal from the 2009 West Highland Way Race, but it’s not last year now! From December 2008’s write-off to December 2009’s icy trail runs… from spring 2009’s sporadic, ‘pretend’ training to spring 2010’s solid, committed build-up… everything’s quite simply different. Last year the fire just wasn’t there (never really got lit and couldn’t be fed), but this year it’s raging and it’s now or never for that coveted PB because I never want to have to work so obsessively at this again! (more…)