Running Away: Water of Leith Half Marathon

Once more into the blog…..I admire those people who manage to blog their runs week in and week out as I really struggle, particularly when I think that I have nothing of interest to say. Looking back, I appear to have had nothing of interest to say since August. And that’s not to say when I do write a blog post its actually of interest anyway. It’s not like I run the UTMB every week and write informative witty things about it, is it? On a good day I can hold the camera straight and not shoogle it about but its not like I’m David Bailey either. What makes a good blog anyway? Who knows but I’ve not had hoards of fans enquiring about my blogging absence. Maybe that only happens with a good blog. Maybe I’m not an “influencer”(Actually I'm not sure what one of those is and if its a good thing to be but it does sound kind of cool)

Having established that his is probably a shit blog I have very considerately decided to inflict more of it on you again, dear reader. More to the point it is also a very good way of procrastinating and avoiding any of the Christmas related activities that I am supposed to be doing tonight.

It’s fair to say it’s been a spectacularly bad running year and its fair to say my lack of blog posts have reflected this but it can only get better next year. Really. Pleeeassse god. Yes, I managed a few interesting highland games races, a few 10k races and my usual Heb halfs but nothing to REALLY write home about. Work stress and a gammy knee put paid to any long mountain adventures, and even without a gammy knee I didn’t feel much like going away for a day in the hills let alone a week long expedition to the Alps.

As the autumn closed in we decided that a trip to Jordan was something we wanted to do but going away for a holiday just tripled that workload at work for the weeks leading up to the trip, being in Jordan meant I managed to run only a handful of times and then I promptly got ill when I got home so with the Water of Leith Half Marathon looming ever closer I had barely trained in about 6 weeks. To be honest though although Jordan was fascinating and an amazing country to visit and I fully recommend it, it was a frustrating trip as a lot of it was spent on a bus and under the constant supervision of a guide who had the tendency to treat us like a party of school children. How I would have loved to run though the desert at sunrise and got to where there were no people, or run through Petra and into the mountains. It did feel like an opportunity lost. Next time…….. (Travel tip – if you ever go to Jordan choose your company and guide carefully as if you are used to independent travel then an escorted trip can be a real shock to the system)

I desperately needed a pre-race confidence booster and this presented itself a week before the race in the form of a Cosmics run organised by Gillian over the Elsick Mounth, a ancient trail and drove road linking Deeside with Stonehaven. We met up in Warren woods just south of Drumoak and headed south on the trail through woodlands, firstly Warren woods, then Ashentilly woods then Currackstone Woods then Brachmount woods then Craigie duff woods - is that enough woods for you yet? No? good, because it also went through Stathgyle woods and Bruntyards wood. I hadn’t heard of any of these places before despite living less than 15 miles away. The trail is marked but you do have to keep your eyes open to watch out for the little markings so there was the odd missed turned and doubling back required. After about 20 minutes my hands had defrosted and it was a stunning icy cold winters morning and having expected frozen hard ground all the way we were in for a bit of a shock when one track took us through cold icy ankle deep mud. Deep joy.

The intrepid Cosmics crew

An icy frosty morning

Durris mast in the distance

Our turning point was Auquahillies Lang Stane which, according to the guide book, is one of the oldest standing stones in Scotland carved with an Ogham inscription. There is also a Roman Camp nearby built in 83-210 AD and 4 ring Cairns dating from the bronze age which we resolved we would look for on another Cosmic’s Saturday run.

The standing stone is in the centre of the picture, just to the right and in front of the farmhouse

After examining the stone and coming up with lots of theories about how it could have been moved their by the Picts, after all they didn’t use a crane, we retraced our steps up the hill but didn’t re-trace our steps through the mud, electing to go by the road parallel to it and then followed the trails back to our starting point in Warren woods having been out for a couple of hours. I had no idea what the distance was but assumed it must have been at least 10 miles so my flagging confidence was ever so slightly boosted for the half marathon in Edinburgh the following week.

This week the post run tea and cakes were had in the luxury of Bob's Campervan. We all decided that this should be an option for all Cosmics post winter run tea and cakes.

Mince pies and Yule log - xmas is on the way...

A cosy campervan

So the following week was race week. Happily it wasn’t too cold and no ice underfoot and the rain kept off until evening but Simon did decide to stay in bed with a cup of coffee and a good book rather than see me off to the bus, probably a sensible choice. It was nice to meet up with Alan Inglis and we had a good chat on the journey to the start line. It seems as though as the years go by I know fewer and fewer people at this race. There was no Jim Bruce at the race this year and Eric and Lynda were not doing the post race food. The end of an era.

The bus journey itself was very amusing as this is a very unofficial “race”, not SAL permitted, totally under the radar, “if you don’t finish, nobody is coming to find you” type of event (the best type as it means it’s fantastic value for a half marathon). However, the race organisers seem to have over-looked that they have “Water of Leith half marathon” plastered all over the race numbers!

Startline photo (Photo credit - Angus)

The bus had been a bit late in picking us up having got stuck behind an inconsiderately parked BMW so it was a bit of a rush at the other end to get the runners started according to their handicap. I had used my last half marathon time which was the Harris half marathon on my entry form and happily for me I’d had a stinker of a run there so I was only 3 minutes slower than my predicted time at the end, so no great disaster. I was set off with a guy who said he hadn’t been training for 6 weeks and he promptly disappeared into the distance (hadn’t been training for 6 weeks my ar….) so I settled into a comfortable pace and let the miles slip by. The first pleasant stretch of track by the river is less crowded with walkers and tourists than the path later on in the centre of town and I got a cheery shout from Morag McCelland which spurred me on. By the time I got to Saughton I was getting a bit heavy legged and it seems as though a lot of folk were over taking me without me overtaking anyone, which is a worrying scenario in a handicap race, but eventually I started catching up with people once I had reached Murrayfield. I was a bit surprised to find that I actually felt stronger as the miles went by, dodging the crowds of tourists who seemed to be everywhere, and within the final mile and a half I caught up and went past the guy who had started with me. By now he did indeed look as though he hadn’t trained for 6 weeks. Peter B didn’t catch me up until later in the race this year which is a good benchmark but I suffered a lot less this year compared to last year and, despite the interrupted training, I think I was actually faster than last year. At least Simon had the good grace to admit that he hadn’t waited for too long for me to come in. Encouraging as always.

On the startline

A wee uphill start then its all downhill

The finish line

Leith - art by the river

Finished!

Finish line selfie

A new caterer had been employed to provide the post run soup and tea and cakes and I have to admit the scones and chocolate cake were very good but nothing can beat that post race pint and bacon butty in the pub. A pleasant afternoon was had in the pub but another familiar face, Mary was missing so there was no one to make sure a beer filled Buchanan got home safely. I think he did.

Beer and bacon butty!

I always think that the Water of Leith Half Marathon means that xmas is officially “open for business” (jury's out as to whether thats a good thing or not) so it was off to find the venue with the biggest xmas tree. We didn’t get as far as the Dome but the Vaults in Leith had a pretty damn good go at claiming that title and a weekend spent running, in the pub, eating and at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society meant another weekend of successfully avoiding any form of Xmas shopping or having to carry out any infuriating xmas obligations. Mission accomplished.