Torchlight Parade

We knew the Wednesday night session was liable to be cancelled or severely restricted down at Portobello so Peter and I decided to go for a run with head torches round Arthur's Seat, and invite anyone who wanted to come too.

It was a perfect night really. Very crisp and still. I think  7 of us met up in the car park at the Meadowbank entrance to the park. While waiting for 5 minutes to see who would arrive we casually rescued cars stuck in the car park. It was vaguely surreal, especially as, because of the headtorches, you couldn't really look anyone in the face. Not without blinding them or yourself.

We set off for a loop of the perimeter of the park and kept a tight grouping puffing up the hill in the snow. I preferred to stand aside for the downhills and let people storm down ahead as I wanted to be a bit careful with a slightly dodgy left knee. Robert Kinnaird stayed back with me and we chatted about this and that. We regrouped again at Duddingston and ran up the road  and then along and down the other half of the perimeter back down into the park. 40 minutes had passed and we were warmed up and enjoying ourselves so we decided to go up the radical road. It seemed longer and harder than usual but we were rewarded by fabulous views of the snowy city at night. We were considering doing a loop of Hunter's Bog and calling it a day but decided for a more adventurous option of running along the path that runs half-way up the slope beneath Arthur's Seat. (It will have a name but I don't know it. Me and P call it 'the middle way'.) This got increasingly exciting as the path got increasingly marginal - many a left leg was thrust through the snow into space! As the consequences of a fall would only be a bit of a roll in the gorse this was not too alarming. Then we ran down the other side, with many a whoop. One last turn around Hunter's Bog and we were done.

It got me nearly hoping the snow lasts another week so we can do it again next week.

Haven't run for 2 days now (usual service interrupted due to severe bout of work) so need to get out there.
Too much to do this weekend. And I have homework to do for Monday. How will I fit it all in?