Some beauties in the hills

The summer has come and its time to get off the roads and back out on the hills. The whole world was out in the sunshine this weekend but I was at work. I had a good time at work but I felt left out. Last night I hatched a plan to head for the hills with my camera and go a long easy run. We have the 7 hills of Edinburgh race to run next Sunday and the Lairig ghru 28 mile race at the end of the month so time to get some training in.

It was sunny today but windy too which kept me cool.

The hills were incredibly pretty. There were lots of tiny wild flowers and lovely grasses. Unlike Peter I don't like stopping so I did well to take as many pictures as I did.

Its been dry for quite a few days in a row so it was perfect underfoot. What would sometimes be boggy was springy to run on with good grip. The larks sang all the time and the wind constantly blew. I ran for a while along a slate path that made a musical kind of noise and I realised that I had turned it into some kind of Russian folk tune in my head. Why Russian? Who knows.

I saw a small figure ahead that appeared to be wearing a space suit. It made me think about a program on the first landing on the moon which we watched recently. The astronauts all seemed to have gained some kind of altered perspective on their existence from seeing the earth from such a vantage point. One said, for instance, that he never complained about the weather anymore, because he'd realised that all weather is amazing and that the earth is like an oasis in space. When I got closer it was just an old lady wearing pale clothes walking up the hill. The mind is a funny thing.

I ran all the hills from Turnhouse, over West Kip then turned back down the Drove road and when I got to Black Hill decided to cheat and take the low road that skirts down the side. This was a good decision as my legs were getting pretty tired and it was nice runnable track rather than deep heather.

I skirted round the side of Bell's Hill and then went over Harbour Hill and then took the track to the road and back down to Flotterstone. c. 13.5 miles in 2hrs40mins.

27/1/08 More Pentlands

Another run in the Pentlands today. This time with Scott and Peter. We all raced Buchlyvie 10k yesterday so it was an effort to get out of bed and it was with dread that I thought about trying to keep up with Scott and Peter in the hills. To my surprise, once I'd warmed up I was going better than I thought I would.The wind at the tops was once again blowing fiercely.

There were more runners out than we've seen in a while. I guess people are recceing the Carnethy 5 route.

Black Hill was sodden with the recent rain and made for some very boggy running. Peter went down twice in two minutes, stepping up to his knee in some apparently solid ground.

Scott had cycled out to the Pentlands into a headwind and we were sympathising anticipating driving home in a nice, quick, warm car however fate had other plans...

When we got in the car we realised right away that the heater blower had stopped working again so you have to drive with the windows down or the windscreen steams up.Then in town there were tailbacks (roadworks for trams - damn, damn, damn!) - in the end we went through Craigmillar to get to Leith. When we got in the door we got a text from Scott to say he was already home safe.

Anyway, stats; We ran from Flotterstone to Turnhouse, Carnethy, Scald Law, S. Black Hill,East Kip, West Kip and Black Hill, then back to the car. Total Distance 12.58miles, time was 2hrs 36mins.

14/01/08 Windy Run in the Pentlands

Yesterday we went running in the Pentlands for 2hrs 40 mins. We set off from the Flotterstone Inn car park and then ran (and walked) up Turnhouse Hill, Carnethy, Scald Law, S. Black Hill and E. and W. Kip. It was blowing a gale and particularly on West Kip we had moments when we thought we would leave the ground. Thoughts of Alison Hargreave. We ran off the end of West Kip and then took the coward's route round the paths and road back to the car park. The burn was a raging torrent and Peter and Richard waded through where the water level was a foot above the stepping stones. Happily I saw an easily jumpable bit just upstream. Haha.
Richard was in old road shoes. I think he might not have realised we were going over the very tops of the hills but he managed fine. Peter and I were forging ahead a bit with more up-hilling in our legs and more grip on our feet, but on the downhills he seemed sure-footed and relaxed even though it must have been slippy. I was glad of my walshes.
Once we were back on the paths and roads I was the one lagging behind slightly so I tried to think about keeping good form even though I was tired and the shock from running down metalled road in Walshes was making my legs hurt.