The Gullane Loop

Where to go to avoid ice and slush? The beach of course. So we devised another afternoon adventure, this time to Gullane. This route was 1st thought of when our friends from Maine were coming over and we were thinking of what we could do to show them a good time. They were injured and over-subscribed with things to do however so we never did it. The plan was to drive to Gullane, run back towards Aberlady then go round through the wild-life reserve (respecting the wild-life of course), down onto the beach, right along to Yellowcraigs and then back via Archerfield, finishing at Falkos the Konditormeisters for some serious cake. A nice multi-terrain route of about 12 miles.

We phoned up Amanda and she'd been climbing in the morning, so was up for some afternoon running. After yesterday's slushathon the surfaces were really good and it was nice to have some honest (sometimes a little too much) dirt under our feet. We picked up the pace and my legs were hurting a bit but the whole thing was so enjoyable it was easy to forget that. The sun came out and it actually felt quite warm running along the beach. The sea had thrown up some driftwood for jumps. We got a bit lost in the dunes and paths at Gullane beach, adding some distance to what we had planned. The sun set but it was a long time til dark because the sky was so clear. We ran along on the sand and the pink and purple rocks in a warm pinky-orange glow. It was delightful.

We made it back to Gullane in the dark, just as the denizens of Gullane had collected in the town square for the ceremonial switching on of the lights as a cartload of children sang "Follow the Star". At the risk of sounding churlish  all this rather monkied with my plans of eating cake washed down with pints of tea. Falkos were open to take food away but as they were sponsoring the putting on of the lights and serving up mulled wine afterwards we couldn't sit in. We bought three cheese tongues which tided us over til we got home. Amanda met up with Lucy so stayed for mulled wine and more festivities but we were shaking with cold by this time (and I couldn't drink ) so we headed back to Edinburgh where we made the second course of lunch - to follow the cheese tongues we had cheesey rolls with bacon and cheese filling. Extraordinary!!! Phenomenal! Quite a lot of cheese...

So, partially because of Marcothon madness coming to town (even though I haven't been running every day) I find I have run my highest mileage week since the week of the Highland Fling, despite the snow.