2021 The year that was. Part 1

 

2021 The year that was part 1

I’m always impressed with the diligence with which Peter Buchanan and Mary apply to keeping their blogs updated. I guess the WHOLE IDEA of a blog is to keep it updated regularly to keep your readership entertained and informed, a task at which I keep failing. You would have thought during lockdown I would have had plenty of time to do this but that doesn’t seem to have been the case. I didn’t really feel that I had done anything inspiring enough to write about anyway.. I thought maybe I could get away with it by making this just a list of highlights for the year but somehow I don’t think this post will even qualify as a list of highlights, “highlights” doesn’t seem to quite cover this this year when leaving the house could be considered a highlight.

At the end of 2020 everyone breathed a huge sigh of relief, thank god that’s over, and then 2021 came along and said “here hold my beer” To be honest though the pandemic was the least of my problems, a lot of the year was spent under a deluge of misery, emails and teams messages in what was The Job From Hell. More on that later.

Still once lockdown was lifted spring was well underway to lift the spirits and I made a start on the Deeside runners checkpoint challenge –

A Checkpoint on Morven

This beauty was sunbathing on the path

There were those Saturday runnings of #nottheparkrun when parkrun was still banned for God knows what reason so the route was run and coffee and cake was had in the glorious sunshine. Good job it was sunny as some neds had burned the Hazlehead park café down. Life (outside The Job From Hell) seemed to be on the up.

Some races made a reappearance too such as the Blair Atholl trail outsider weekend of races where the glorious sunny weather continued and I did the 10k and most of the field got lost. I followed a guy who had downloaded the route on to his watch so I didn’t get lost. Sensible chap. Simon also caught up with race machine Mark Gormley who he hadn’t seen for years. I don’t think i've ever met anyone who races as much as Mark.

And the fantastic wee Clashmach hill race starting and finishing in the Huntly cattle mart

Sometime in the pre pandemic distant past when lockdowns were only a thing in thriller novels and plagues were something in history books I had entered a race in wales, The race across Snowdonia. It was an ultra race and a mountain race and it looked fabulous but lack of access to train on the hills due to lockdowns and the demands from The Job From Hell conspired to ensure that there was no way I could do the race so I didn’t start. In hindsight it was a good thing I didn’t attempt it, no women completed the course over the two days of running required with the quickest female finisher on day 1 taking 16 hours. I’m not sure even “type 2 fun” describes that adequately.

So what to do? A holiday in Wales beckoned and we spent 10 days in glorious sunshine and an ascent of Snowdon in my own time. I think I quite like holidays without races. I can only conclude This pandemic has made me lazy.

Art Deco

Crabbing in Conwy

Llanberis lake swimming

Beer in my favourite beer garden

A visit to Morcambe

WW2 History nerding in Llandudno

Pete's eats in the only place to go to re-fuel after a hill run

A crowded Snowdon summit

Dolphin watching

Back to my favourite beer garden

Can you see why its my favourite beer garden...?

More war history nerding

Sunsets

Sea swimming

More sunsets

Seal watching

The Welsh Wizard

It wouldn't be a trip to Wales without a visit to a castle

Lockdown lifting part 3...or 4?...whatever.

This time round it seemed to have been a long dark winter in lockdown with ice covering the pavements for a number of weeks. 6am runs in the sleet on pavements that more often than not resembled ice rinks were normal but then so were some lovely sunrises witnessed on early morning running and ski outings around Hazlehead park so it wasn’t all completely grim. 

 The first lockdown was easier to cope with, everyone had to stay within 5 miles of their house and it was just the luck of the draw whether you lived in Aboyne and could run up a hill or whether you were consigned to the city, but this time it was harder. Someone who lived in Stonehaven or indeed who lived just 2 miles to the south of where I stay could drive all the way to Braemar to run or ski on the Cairngorms yet I was stuck due to an arbitrary boundary. This made no sense. However, I stuck to it as it seemed like the right thing to do and came up with some creative routes of my own in order to entertain myself and then when some of the restrictions were relaxed and group training was allowed we made the most of the urban trails around the city and it has to be said, Aberdeen is well off for parks and open spaces. 

As has been the pattern throughout the year on the morning that each lockdown has been lifted I have headed off to the hills for a quick pre-work trot on the hills just to relish in the freedom of being on the hills. Due to my antisocial start times I haven’t had any company on my previous morning runs but this time Bob Sheridan joined me. I think he was feeling sorry for me as Deeside runners were well underway with their checkpoint challenge but there was only 1 out of the 100 checkpoints I could have grabbed while staying within the lockdown rules. Now it was my opportunity to start my attempt on the checkpoint challenge – a morning jaunt up and down Mount Shade. 

Standing around in the car park waiting for Bob was quite a weird sensation, I didn’t actually feel as though I should be there. Had too much lockdown time in the house made me agoraphobic?! I was worried too about the climb as I was very out of practice on hills, Bob was going to have to seriously slow down a lot to run with me. It was a glorious morning though, clear blue skies and great views as we did the little route to take in the summit checkpoint, Bob led the way and I did my best to keep up while Bob did his best not to get annoyed at my inane excitable chatter – I can’t help it, don’t get out much these days. After a slow steady climb up the inevitable summit photos were taken and then we headed back down to the car park. There wasn’t even enough time for post run coffee as I had to get back home in time for work. How antisocial or a first hill run back. There was cake though. 

Once again it was great to be free of hill related lockdown restrictions and being able to get back on to the hills (and chasing down those checkpoints) but I couldn’t help being more hesitant in celebrating this time round. Would another lockdown be on its way in a few months time? Surely not.

A Winter in Lockdown

 Like, well, almost everyone else Scotland I haven’t ventured too far since before xmas so I do hope that you are not expecting this blog post to be very exciting because it isn't. Local we were told it had to be and so local it has been. For weeks. I’m not actually too sure what I have been up to over the last few months since the last lockdown kicked in as life has taken on a sort of groundhog day feeling, a sort of constant repeating rhythm without the real highs and lows of life pre-covid. Having said that I seem to have plenty of photos of the great outdoors so I must have been up to something. I don’t seem to have too much to write about just now so I think I will just fill this blog post with photos.

These are the pre-lockdown ones

The Cairngorms before lockdown part.....whatever kicked in

A winter wonderland on Lochnagar

The summit of Lochnagar

Poppies 

Everythings going to be alright....

Creag Choinnich

The last group runs before lockdown

After Xmas the mini beast from the east struck and we had the best snow in ages and then couldn’t go play on the ski slopes because of lockdown restrictions. I was miffed, which is putting it mildly. Oh well, no point in grumbling, just had to make the best of it and the best of it was at Hazelhead park at dawn or after nightfall to avoid the crowds at weekends. My new skis are a dream and fish scales are a revelation, especially after last year when I had been coating my xc skis in glide wax rather than grip wax. That made ascending particularly tricky and descending particularly exciting and it was only after a clumsy night ski at the Clash when Colin suggested this could be the issue did the penny drop. What do you mean how could I have got that the wrong way round? The instructions on the wax were in Russian. I managed some nice wee trips on the new skis and only one descent into a snow covered bunker on the golf course where I got stuck in the same manner as a beetle on its back.

And these are the post lockdown pics

Sunrise skiing

Combined with the snow and ice came the inevitable winter storms (the ones that have names) and then the thaw where the river burst its banks and the paths disappeared under water and running turned into paddling. On the plus side though “inclement weather” means there are less people venturing out on the trails and so sometimes the local paths and trails were a little bit quieter.

A submerged park bench

In amongst the snowy days there seemed to be many when the pavements and trails were covered in sheet ice and runs were often reduced to stretches of slow jogging or walking but going out running meant I was rewarded with amazing sun rises and wintery scenes. And then there were the dark evenings and the early mornings when the sleet battered off the windows and the run still had to be done. Creative challenges from various Cosmics members did make getting out the door that bit easier – the animals challenge, the bridges challenge, the water features challenge, the of course 12 hills of Xmas challenge. Although nothing compared to the hills our Aberdeenshire dwelling friends (aka lucky b%$&*) have access to there are some smaller hills within the city boundary and so 12 were selected for this particular challenge for between xmas and new year. The instructions were simple, get to the top and take a selfie for the Cosmics Facebook page. It did result in some pretty terrible selfies alongside the stunning wintery sunrise and sunset shots.

Who is hunting whom?

Snowy riverbank

Snowstorm moving in

Sheet ice and mud

Just sheet ice

Early morning mists

A (covid legitimate) trip to Edinburgh

In case anyone is wondering the 12 hills within the Aberdeen city council boundary that make up the 12 hills of Xmas challenge are as follows, Broad hill, Tullos hill, Kincorth hill, Tollohill, Kirkhill (The Tappie), Hill of Marcus, Elrick Hill, Brimmond Hill, Kings seat, Gairn Hill, Gallowhill and, very tenuously, Castlehill (it has hill in the name and there was a castle there once upon a time so it counts. Afterall, these are desperate times)

Icy trails to the hill of Marcus

Brimmond hill summit

Castlehill

Gallows Hill

Broad Hill

Tullos Hill

Sunny winter days