Marcothon Nights

Still in the throes of the Marcothon (running every day in December, 3 miles or 25 minutes minimum) - and just because of the way other things are, I've been running at night. I've been finding the running everyday strangely restful as the mileage isn't remotely demanding. Its the first time in years that I've regularly done 3 and 4 mile runs and I'm kind of liking it. Its a change not to feel stiff as a post at least a few days a week.

Wednesday night a few of us met up for a torchlight run around Corstorphine Hill led by Rob Flett, potential Portobello member. He seemed like a nice guy but don't ask me what he looked like! We ran up to Clermiston tower and round the perimeter of the zoo - and who knows where else - in the mud and the dark - some ice. Pretty nice.

Yesterday evening we went out to catch the tail-end of Hurricane "Bawbag". I'd walked to and from work when Bawbag was at his wildest and it was ...stimulating! I liked the relative scarcity of people in the streets, traffic on the road and people in the shops too. Maybe I shouldn't live in a big city or maybe I should move back to the 50s. Anyway by 7ish bawbag was on the wane and Peter was mightily disappointed. He could have gone out earlier but he waited for me. By then the winds were only devilishly cold and  about 40mph.

Tonight the moon was full and it was cold but fairly still so we thought we could head up to the top of Arthur's Seat with the gorilla pod tripod and try to take pictures of the moon etc. Its good to have a project. The moon was a bit high and small and cloudy but there was a good view of the city below. At first I thought there weren't any students up there for once and then I realised that I was the student at the top of Arthur's Seat tonight! Should've had a bottle of cider to celebrate.

Anyway it was bloody cold and much scarier than usual at night in the cold and the moonlight and the odd little glaze of ice. It was quite a relief to get down a bit lower again. We went over the radical road from the tame side to get further views of the lights etc. and almost took out a man who had had the same idea of taking photos of the moon but with his black camera on a black tripod which he was standing next to in a black coat and hat. If there hadn't have been a wee red light flashing on his camera I definitely would have charged right into him.

I've got a week off work - well my regular work - if bank work comes up I might need to work, but potentially I have a week's holiday, so I'm going to drink a bit of wine to celebrate that tonight and maybe even go for a run in the daylight tomorrow.