GREAT WHITE! (eyebrow hair)

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Ranulph Fiennes

Sir Edmund Hillary

Peter says "No-one wants to see that on  your blog!!!" And he's probably right. But I needed a better title than "Sunday Swim" (yawn) - and I did notice a great white eyebrow hair this morning, reminding me that us older adventurers do tend to get them, as modeled above on the august faces of Ranulph Fiennes and Sir Edmund Hillary. I actually googled Chris Bonington and found to my surprise that despite his age his eyebrows are kept very neat.

That's the excitement over. The rest you know from other weeks. I was dreading going out today. The forecast was for a dark cloud sharing a rain drop and a snow flake and the wind was to be 18 miles an hour gusting to 31 and Bleddy Baltic. The sky darkened alarmingly as I was setting off and cold, wet stuff hit the windscreen. "Oh here we go" I muttered to myself, but then, happily, the sky cleared, and there was no more precipitation until I had made it back to the Berlingo after my dip.

I was just going to run 4 easy miles to give my legs a rest. I ran 14 yesterday, which, while not far, was further than I wanted to go, and I was achy today. But then the harsh cold wind and the intense, low, winter light spread a kind of spell over everything and I found myself opting for the 6 mile route because I knew it would take me round the more dramatic parts of the shore.

The stinging wind offset the pain inside my legs and kept me moving. I ran much more quickly than I had intended to.

Today I was test-driving a new waterproof camera, which I was excited about. It's a skinny, light thing but still has X3 zoom.

Come time to suit up once again, in the back of the Berlingo, I was up for the challenge. I had the radio on playing orchestral versions of Christmas Carols. Squeezing yourself into a wet-suit in a restricted space challenges your flexibility and warms up your muscles. Some brave soul was already out in the sea on a wind-surfer.

It's quite good having something to divert the mind while getting in the sea. A camera somehow adds distance to what you're doing. On the tiny plane to Lukla bobbing about in the updrafts, I found as soon as I put my camera to my face I was no longer frightened and I was able to look at what was in front of me. The same happened today. Wading into the sea but playing about with the zoom and looking through the view finder, I forgot to notice how very cold it was!

My very first underwater selfie.

I managed 50 strokes, in batches of approximately 12, before my face and fingers froze (my feet had been gone for some time), so I got out and ran up the beach to warm up.

The next bit is never easy. Someone had parked their granny and then abandoned her in a car right next to where I was getting changed. I tried to show nothing that could cause offence while clumsily getting changed with frozen hands in a huge hurry to get out of the wind.

So I'm still sat with my duvet jacket and hat on. I should be showering and all that. I love my new camera.

Peebles XC

Apparently Dracula's castle here overlooks the course. I've never seen it. Lucky I finished before dark.

Anna Henly coming to get me. She didn't but she's closer every time.

I wasn't quite right for a wee while afterwards!

Porty splashathon

It was a beautiful day for the Peebles XC. We headed up to Morningside to pick up Mike and Michael and headed down the road. Almost no route finding problems until we were actually into Peebles, where we did a little bit of chasing round in squares and some mild swearing. None of it with much conviction. The sun being out helps a lot.

For a warm up I went and looked at the scary bit before the finish. Hmmm, still scary. Rocky, slimy, narrow, rooty single track with a steep drop off.

This was my 3rd race in a month and it was telling. I was back where I used to be. It was hard. The high I got from the Lauder XC and less so at Gala (I loved the course, but not the PRESSURE) had now all but worn out and I was pecking along too hard to be at all comfortable and yet too slow to be at all fast. I didn't HATE it, but....Oh well....anyway it's a nice course. I preferred when it was up or down rather than flat because I do seem to have accumulated some crafty old dogness over the years and can steal some kind of benefit when the going gets rough or tough.

The last downhill bits were good and then I saw Anna Henly catching up behind me so did my best to hold her off. I was actually quite cunning, well I thought so anyway. There was a biggish bloke who looked like he was struggling with the technical descents so I slipped just in front of him just before the scary rocky bit feeling sure that no-one would be able to get past him...this worked out until I caught up to another woman in roady looking shoes who had actually stopped completely - was refusing the small slither down to the path. I had to go round her, losing my advantage. Then it was just a horrible push to the end with all my internal alarms going off and the nausea rising...

My history teacher used to have this exclamation that I've never heard anywhere else. "Ye Gods and Little Fishes." For some reason it's coming into my mind now. Ye Gods and Little Fishes it was tough out there today. Afterwards there was the deep silence of damn all going on in my brain.

I enjoyed the merry race talk on the way home in the car.
And I liked my lunch when I finally got it.
Can't believe it's Sunday night already.

Saturday Swim

Just what you want to see - the grim reaper coming for you, walking on the waves!

One eye was more awake than the other one

God I was tired this morning. For some reason I just don't sleep in anymore though, so I got up anyway. I think it's one of those things older people do. It was hard enough adjusting back to GMT, it took me a couple of weeks to stop waking up at 5am.

And there was a good reason to get clear of the house. Peter and Richard were organising the Water of Leith half and they kept thinking of things I could do to help...what they were having difficulty understanding was...I didn't want to help! Anyway, I had a new neoprene under the wetsuit vest to try out - so I set off for Gullane.

First of all I needed a medium sized run. There's more Borders XC tomorrow so I wanted to stretch my legs without doing too much. 6 miles round the trails there woke me up. I was impressed with the size of the surf. It was a relatively windless day so I actually thought it was going to be one of those calm days when there'd be a chance to dig in and swim a bit further. It was not to be. Big rollers were rolling in and crashing on the shore. It wasn't just me that noticed. Death was out surfing already - as pictured above, and 2 other surfers arrived once I was in.

I did try swimming but I swallowed too much water and gave up on it. It was a bit frightening but also great. I went out and bobbed about in the big waves and got knocked over until my feet were frozen and then called it a day.

I have a waterproof camera on order from Amazon so hopefully the pictures will improve dramatically -

Plimmer Tree

A 14 miler up the WOL and back by the canal today. I didn't really feel like a longer run. (Anything more than 10 miles seems like a "longer" run to me at the minute) but in the interests of staying strong and probably weight control I still thought it was a good idea. It was meant to be sunny, but it wasn't. As I ran up the WOL however, the day revealed its more subtle charms. The air was cool and it was quite still. There were a lot of mossy greens and yellows.

At the skate park, there were no children for once, so I stopped to take a picture of the eskimo astronaut thing I had seen many times before and quite liked. As I turned around I thought I saw lots of crows sitting in a tree. A second look revealed that the tree was full of plimsolls. Just how long has it been like that? Anyone who has watched Burnistoun will remember their song "Whose shoes are they?"

 

Well that was in my head for pretty much the rest of the run.