Friday 3 July 2009

Elie Day Out













A day in Fife today with friends and fellow Porties Scott and Amanda. Peter was away to Barra so missed experiencing the Elie chain walk. Sounds alarming and guess what, it was. The sun gave way to drizzle as we arrived in Elie but undeterred and dauntless we set off up slithery polished wet rock with the comfort of a wet chain for safety. I honestly thought it was going to be a p of p being accessible to the general public as it is - but it wasn't. I had a few moments of quiet terror. Me and P used to climb so I had to call on forgotten arts such as concentrating on what you want to happen rather than what you fear - ie don't keep imagining yourself in a bloody heap at the bottom of a cliff as you make it more likely to happen! Despite the rain it was lovely going round the coastline and seeing hidden coves and inlets. Haven't been to the beach in ages.

Next stop was the Elie Deli for cake and coffee to fuel our flagging limbs for the next treat...The Sandy Slither! This year the race route was changed so it started and finished in Elie.

The old course was good but so is the new course. Its a great combination of road, grassy path, sandy trail, hilly grass, sandy beach and salty sea-water! It was touted as 5.7 miles and the Garmin said 5.69 so I reckon that's pretty accurate. No results out so I have no objective evidence for how I did. I felt a ran a fair race, starting off steady and working my way up the field a few places as we got onto more hilly and tricky terrain. A couple of years of more off-roading now seems to be showing. Not being Peter I didn't have time to charge up the road to the car to get the camera to take pictures of other people finishing so no pictures of the race unless I can nick someone else's off le web. Borrowed the beach picture off Fife AC website to illustrate roughly where we were.

Amanda's still coming back from illness and injury so I think finds racing a bit of a downer still. Never mind Amanda you will be back in top form soon!

Damn I'm tired. It was a good day. Apparently the weather is nice in Barra. Pretty wet here.

2 comments:

Climbingmandy said...

Hey Mary
like the photos and don't believe you that you were scared. It so didn't show!
I heard about your car - I'm really sorry :(
My post-race bad mood seems to have lifted. Sorry if it put a downer on what was otherwise a great day out :)

Yak Hunter said...

Hey climbingmandy it was a lovely day out and I really enjoyed it. We've managed to bend the frame of the car door back so it seals at the top so that will do for now!
Glad you're feeling better. It will all come back you'll see!