Carnethy 5 and a bit of a Sunday Run

Thanks to David Allwood for the nice Carnethy Picture

The Pentlands turned out to have more snow on them than I anticipated, and there was a nasty, icy wind blowing. I enjoyed myself more than I thought I would just because it was fun to see people. Stomping up Scald Law my hands and feet went numb and I wondered how on earth I was going to run downhill if I couldn't feel my feet.
How I was going to run down hill was mincingly with frequent bouts of throwing my arms out and squeaking. Not the best of downhillers, yesterday I was diabolical. My mudclaws soon had a build up of ice between the studs = no grip. It was good to get round to the Kips and into the sun a bit. The marshals up West Kip looked like they wouldn't live much longer if they didn't get out of the cold soon.

The Howe side of Carnethy was balmy in comparison, and I even took my buff off for a while.

I knew my time was slow and I couldn't see any point in knocking myself out. I started running a few times going up Carnethy only to draw comment from those around me. "Oh Well Done" This kind of thing always sounds sarcastic to my jaded ear, and the subtext I hear is "Stop showing off" and "I hope you die". I have to be in fighting mode to ward off this kind of dark magic and I wasn't in fighting mode yesterday. I let them have their way with me. The miserable walkers.

As I eventually dropped down (screaming and windmilling - but not going very fast) from Carnethy, a marshal told me that Peter had been looking for me...but he had given up. Nice.
I had thought I was at least faster than last year (which was a PW by some stretch) - but when I checked up on this at home I found out that I was even slower by another 3 minutes. Jeezo.

My tummy had behaved itself quite well and only really started playing up a couple of hours after the mandatory Carnethy chicken pie in the school hall.

Who cares about races? Not me. It was very good to catch up with Michael G and also our friends from Cumbria who we have not seen in ages. They came round for a cup of tea and we chatted about all the people who had died since we'd last seen each other. I think we're reaching a certain age.

I hoped that a really good night's sleep might work to soothe my over-wrought digestive system and get things back on the path of righteousness, however, I was awoken at 5.08am by the sound of a mammal of some kind squeezing its fat furry body through the space between the outer wall and the skirting boards.I could hear the little scrabbling noises of claws. It wasn't conducive. I would have liked it to be a badger or a mole, but given that we live 3 storeys up in a tenement block my bet would really be on it being a rat. I couldn't get back to sleep anyway. So I got up even more tired and did more reading.

But it's a bright sunny day and it would have been just plain wrong to stay indoors all day - so I've been out for a wee recovery run. Despite the bright sun there was nothing much to see. I like the rather literal flower beds at the allotments at Leith Links. I don't really like the art in the window of the art shop down at the Shore but I couldn't go home without any pictures at all.

So now I better get back to....reading...and doing a research ethics application form. I might want to talk to some runners, but I can't tell you about it until I get ethical approval.