20th Birthday

I forgot about it at the time but only later realised that yesterday was the 20th anniversary of me starting to run regularly. I had made a start on a number of occasions but failed with the all-important follow through of going out regularly until I got better. A year doing a masters in Stirling was what swung it. The other people on my course would not go out to the pub during the week, so there was nothing much to do of a week night (other than study). At first I went out only under the cover of darkness and was disappointed when the evenings got lighter and I had to go out and be seen.

Anyway, we went a kind of strange cycle-run yesterday. Peter had been so pleased with getting pictures of owls the other evening there that he wanted to set off cycling the 16 miles to Aberlady so we would arrive close to  sunset, do a smallish run, get in some nature photograpy and then either cycle back or go to Prestonpans or North Berwick station and get the train home.

The point of cycling was to get some fitness miles in and save Peter's foot. It was only a short while into the ride that I wished I had just taken the van to Aberlady and gone for a longer run myself before Peter arrived on the bike. He was pushing the pace and harrassing me. I was going fast for me and also didn't want to kill myself for today because I need to knock out a 20 miler. It was moderately good to be out on the bike, but that road is busy, I've got mountain bike tyres on so the vibration from my wheels was making my hands go numb, and the continual pressure to go faster (which I resisted) was pissing me off. If he had have been nearer I might have told him where to stuff his owls.

As it turned out all the owls were off somewhere else - maybe in the woods or something, we didn't see a single one. There were plenty of deer however and we did catch a spectacular sunset. After my legs got over the shock of all that cycling then the running was nice. It was a cold night though. The tide was right out so we ran round the mini-subs and headed back in.

On the way back to the bike under a darkening sky all I could think about was chips, so we stopped in Gullane at the Gullane Super Fry. Half the town seemed to be wedged in there ordering chips and pizzas. The chips hit the spot perfectly, washed down with Irn Bru. This gave us the courage for the rather alarming night ride onwards to North Berwick. The on-coming car lights were dazzling so I got an eerie feeling that I was cycling into total blackness and I just had to hope that there were none of the super-pot-holes at the side of the road that appeared elsewhere after the last two hard winters. We arrived in NB unscathed though and had a short but boring and cold wait til the train came.

So now I better get ready and get long running...It looks nice out there, maybe it is.