Bonus Day

Since Richard dropped out of the WHW (as did another 58 people I think) we didn't spend the night in Fort William and so we were unexpectedly at home today and free to go a run. Well I was. Peter is dancing about in a light suit on Arthur's Seat this evening so by rights shouldn't really be going running anywhere, but when I said I was going to go to Gullane and do a 12 mile loop he got more and more morose and then said he was coming too. I tried to talk him out of it but he was set!

I really wanted to train a bit harder than we sometimes do. Some of the club were out running 15 miles this morning as they've decided to do the Loch Ness Marathon. I do admire them and they are going really well, are motivated etc. etc. but the thought of all that road running was putting me off. (Also getting up early!) I wanted to do something comparable to what they had done in effort. I could see Peter was in the mood for running along chatting - which is fine for him, but takes all the wind out my sails if I'm trying to make an effort and someone is telling me a whole argument that they had on facebook last night and then "Look at that over there! The Red Arrows! Oh no its not!" So I had to lay down some ground rules. No talking. It was clearly such an effort for P. I nearly relented, but did not.

So I kept on trucking and he clearly kept taking pictures of his grumpy little girlfriend!

The day was fabulous. There was the odd surly shower of rain but then followed by magical blue skies and hot sun-shine. All the wicked weather seemed to have scared most people away and so most of the beaches were deserted and empty, flat and unmarked. I usually don't like running on the beach; too flat, too unavoidable! But today I was enjoying it. We had a slight tail wind, and maybe going to Bert's interval sessions at club is helping me to face the flat, unavoidability of running.

At Yellowcraigs we came back up off the beach and onto the road back to Gullane, picking up to about half marathon effort (but not pace) to finish off. In the end I was well pleased with the run.

Peter is off out for his 2nd running session of the day. A 6 hour shift up Arthur's Seat. We'll see what that does for his plantar fasciitis....