Omnibus Edition

Pony's hoof? No, it's my tooth.

Les Parapluies de Leith

Is it always the same gull sitting up there?

It's been a busy week. Too busy for blogging. On Monday I went to have my tooth seen to. One side of it was wobbly while the other side was not. It was broken under the filling and under the gum. It's the same tooth that I had root canal work done on 4 days before the 2011 Highland Fling, so that as others were making their way along the WHW and as whoever it was that was Royal got married, I was in the dental hospital getting some antibiotics as my face had blown up like a balloon.

I think my dentist's always felt a bit guilty about that because she said "Because you had the root canal treatment I think we can save the tooth!" I don't know why she wants to save the tooth. The half that came out was a horrible thing not unlike a small pony's hoof. She poured in a lot of amalgam. Hopefully that will be that with that tooth. It's cost me about £150 so far, and a race.

I missed my run on Monday because of the tooth shenanigans.

On Wednesday I had to be super-brave and go out in cold and rain, way early in the morning, because if I didn't go then, I wouldn't be going at all. I did it and I liked it!

Thursday I was at a cardiology appointment to see how I am a year or so after getting the ablation. Apparently I've got and have  always had an abnormal ECG. The consultant (who was the same one who did my operation, and who I like) told me he's 90% sure it's "just me", but it could be a sign of something bad they can't see, so I'm not discharged yet. I was a bit disappointed about not being out the woods but then I realised we're never truly out the woods are we? Even if we get out of one woods there's always another woods that we can happen upon and get lost in. And it's not that bad in the woods.

The weather forecast for this morning was dreadful last night. I thought I'd play it safe and not go to the Pentlands. Just make up something on Arthur's Seat where if I get too cold it's 10 minutes home to a hot drink and a shower. But then this morning the forecast had changed again, the sky was clear, the air was baltic and there was a freezing wind. It was a little intimidating but the thought of trying to invent some artificial route on Arthur's Seat that would give me sufficient hilliness just seemed exhausting. Once again I headed to the Pentlands for some bigger hills.

It was bright and sunny on the drive there but pretty soon the sky was lowering and I had a stiff and very constant wind in my face all the way up the Drove Road. Up West Kip the view was stunning and I wanted to get my camera out but the wind was desperate and was threatening moment by moment to knock me off the ridge and down the steepish slope below. I probably would have come to no harm but the loss of control entailed in suddenly being thrown down a slope didn't appeal so I fought bravely to stay upright. It was icy underfoot and  the traction wasn't good. Meantime my hands had frozen solid. Because the last few weekends have ended up feeling a bit survival-ish I had a warmer hat and warmer gloves in my rucksack, along with a jacket and windproof trousers. It didn't seem like the time to start faffing around with kit though. It seemed like the time to get the hell off the ridge. Going over East Kip my heart was gladdened to see some fast runners doing what I reckon was a Carnethy recce. The middle one was Stewart Whitlie. The one at the back could have been Gareth Green - but I couldn't be sure. The wind was pushing on my eye-balls and blurring my eye sight. And all hill runners look much the same, except for Stewart Whitlie who looks like a bear. ( :-) )

I had thought about dropping down to the Howe from East Kip as the wind was so intimidating - but then the sight of those proper runners gave me a surge of pride, so I went up Scald Law too. Coming down the other side Carnethy was in sunlight and looked quite appealing and I thought maybe I'd go up there too, but once out of the wind I found I didn't want to go back into it again. It was just so sapping trying to fight it and not get knocked over. So I headed down to the Howe and from there back down on the path to the car.

8 miles and not that many peaks. It's still not really what I'd like to be doing in preparation for the C5, but was probably better than what I would have managed running up and down Arthur's Seat and getting fed up.

Peter is off to some Master's XC  in the borders today as preparation for the Forfar Half marathon tomorrow. Meanwhile I have rather a lot of reading articles and writing things to do, which is a shame because I fancy a snooze.