Pentlands in the evening

Richard had been suggesting for a while that we should get together for a meal - and that maybe we should run the low level Pentlands route and then go to the Flotterstone Inn to eat afterwards. We made the odd arrangement for meeting at 5pm at the Flotterstone carpark to go for a run and then dinner at 7pm. Normally that would feel like breaking up a good running day too much but I was glad to have heaps of time to get ready as I was overtired and a bit hungover when I rolled out of bed at noon on Sunday. I had a sleep deficit to make up from work and then 2 glasses of wine the night before were enough to compound my state of dehydration and make my head hurt. What a state. Richard came and gave us a lift at 4pm, by which time I had struggled out of my pyjamas and drunk enough fluids to feel okay.

Amanda and Scott were at the carpark. Amanda shivering with cold to begin with. We set off up the hill into a stiff breeze and pretty soon we were all perfectly warm.

I felt like a human ache, struggling along at the back, remembering belatedly that all these buggars are better than me. I hadn't run since Friday though, so was kind of up for a battle so battle on I did. Peter had run Goatfell on Saturday so that had taken some of the shine off him, and Richard had run from Edinburgh to North Berwick. Amanda had been climbing all day Saturday. Scott had been locked up in a shop so he was probably the freshest. I had been sitting on my arse all day Saturday so reminded myself to keep fighting on...

Its always great to get up to the top of the 3 miles of climb to the Howe and set off on trails between the hills on a more moderate gradient. The last time Peter and I had been here with Scott and Amanda we realised was in the big snows, when we spent a fair amount of time wallowing and post-holing. It had turned into a lovely warm evening.

I remembered the raised walkway over marsh land I'd found on a previous solitary run around the Pentlands so got the others to come and try it out. They liked it as much as me. There's something intoxicating about running on a platform raised above the ground. Like being a train!

The rest of the run was a bit of a blur. I determined to dig in and keep up as good a pace as I could, ttook shortcuts whenever I could, kept plugging away. Got dropped quite badly on the long slow trail back over the hills but did not give up. The run down the other side was mostly a pleasure because I heard no complaint whatever from my recently dodgy leg.

We were back in the carpark for 7pm and I was glad to see the others were sweating and huffing and feeling that they had worked hard too. We had a skanky wet-wipe bath and changed into everyday dress and went along to the Inn.

The food was really good. If you ever do this don't leave it too late though. As we went in they said could we order as quickly as possible as the kitchen closed at 7. You would have thought they might have mentioned that when Richard phoned to book a table.

Amanda said, and I agree, that we need to get back out properly into the hills though - so next time we go its the high tops. I've got some annual leave soon so am trying to think of somewhere new to go that we haven't gone and thinking we might use Steve Fallon's book to go and check out the route for the Glenshee 9 which is on the way to my mum's - and so make in-roads into the Cairngorms.