Snowy Pentlands

Another trip into the Pentlands - the low level route to avoid the worst of the drifts. We met Scott and Amanda at the car park at Flotterstone and set off up the road. We texted Richard before we went but there was no response and Ben couldn't come for reasons unspecified. As soon as I jogged across the carpark I realised yesterday's run had taken more out of me than I intended it to. My legs were already stiff! We set off at a reasonable pace and I was not too far back but the going underfoot got more and more difficult as we climbed.

Amanda and Scott must have been doing some weird ninja snow-floating training as they kept up a pretty good pace. Peter was stopping to take photos and chase rabbits etc. so he was behind. I had to knuckle down and keep working to stay in touch at all - and by staying in touch I mean Scott and Amanda stopping and waiting for me at each stile.

The surface relented for a while on the other side of the hills but was replaced with a very sharp witchy headwind which tried to peel the top layer off my face and whipped my skinned lips and nose. Then the piece de resistance was wallowing uphill into the wind in thigh deep snow. God that was tiring. Scott and Amanda applied their Ninja techniques again and seemed to be sauntering off fairly quickly as I tip-toed, post-holed, tumbled over sideways and cursed my way up behind. By the time I caught them up they were nearly dead with cold which will serve them right. Peter was...oblivious..."oh look at that...oh look at that over there!" he chirruped on as I churlishly told him to fuck off and shut up I was working.

The run down the other side should have been easy but my legs were shot from high-stepping, wallowing and what-not. I was a sorry state by the time we arrived back at the carpark. Anyway, 11.5 miles done. Amanda had baked some of her gob-smackingly good muffins so we sat in my big cafe van and ate them. Richard wasn't there for his so we had to eat that too!

Think I'm going to have to rest up tomorrow. Think I'm going to be sore! Cold feels much much better though.