Tour de Fife Volume One

Last night was the first night of the Tour of Fife. A 5 mile race from near Strathmiglo village hall. The whole day was a race just to get to the start line. My legs are completely unused to starting to run without much of a warm up and I felt stiff throughout but by 3 miles in I was into a racing mindset and did what I could to claw back a few places I'd lost along the way.

I was pleased to realise the course involves some of legs 3 and 4 from the Devil's Burden so had been there last January with Amanda when there was sheet ice on the paths down from the forest. Now everything was in full summer bloom, and the cattle frolicked in the fields as we passed.

Racing and then eating late at night led to some strange and troubled dreams. Dream one; the "coverage" for the arsovertit race is interrupted due to a poor satellite link. Dream two; someone tells me that Brian Cruikshank has killed a competitor as he is jealous that he is not running the tour. "He shouldn't have done that." I comment in a sudden streak of moral brilliance.

I am glad to be awake again really.

I was very delighted to win a goody bag right at the start of the tour. Even more delighted because it contains drink! In an effort to lose some extra weight I've made a new but somewhat flexible rule that I'm only allowed to drink drink that I win. (At Harris this rule was superceded by another rule, "You've got to have a drink at Harris" and there is another rule, soon to become relevant, which is "You can't not drink when you're in America") So now I have a non-brand name Bacardi Breezer and a miniature of Whisky! Quite the mini cocktail cabinet! There are also lots of other goodies in the bag, I will photograph when I get time.

So I'm off to work again in a minute. Tonight's schedule for getting to St Andrews will be even tighter unless I can persuade the folk at work I need an hour's time due. My aim is either to get a better warm up or I'm going to have to invent a warm up you can do whilst driving....

(In one of these reversals that happen in life, the photos are taken by Julia Henderson while Andrew Henderson is running not only the tour of Fife but another tour the following week ...which I've forgotten the name of!)