Sunday, December 04, 2005
I won again!!!
Im so tired now after the goats gallop near
Gifford
.more about that later. Will do the week
review first
.
Last Monday I didnt stick to my original plan as it
was dark, frosty and cold when we got to Peebles.
Instead I slept for a couple of hours in the car, to
overcome the unnecessarily early start that Brian made
me have that morning. Then later I drove to Peebles
and did a short run along the back road to Kailzie
gardens and back to the car. It was about 4 miles
again but not bad for the third day on the trot.
Tuesday night was club night, with a low turnout for
the women with only me, Sheila Morrison, Lindsay and
Anne running. We headed out for a tour of West Barnes
first of all to view the Christmas decorations and
lights and then up the back road, round the harbour,
round Walker homes and back along Kellie Road.
Thursday night was the handicap 5km again and guess
what????? I won again!!!!! Dont quite know how I
managed that I could barely breathe on the way round
but I was determined to catch all of those that headed
off before me. Somehow dont think Ill be winning
this one again for sometime though
After the run on Thursday the ladies headed off to the
Indian for our Christmas Party night. The wine was
flowing well (although the water did seem a bit
confused when he picked up a bottle from our table
that they didnt sell there
.how odd!). Too much
food, wine and toblerone was had by all.
Saturday was a day off this week due to the Goats
Gallop taking place on the Sunday. Now when I first
mentioned the Goats Gallop to Karen she said on that
will be hilly then
I dont know why I didnt pick that
up. Even when Anne said that it was going over Lammer
Law, I didnt twig that this meant it would be up a
big hill
.it was only when reviewing the Dunbar
Running Club news section that I got that I would be
running over a big hill
.oops. For anyone who has
been following this diary you will know that me and
hills are not the best of friends, certainly not when
Im attempting to go a bit faster than slow speed
.
So the Haddington and Dunbar runners taking part in
the run met up at the Goblin Ha in Gifford at 10am
and headed out to the start point at Longyester farm
cottages. The ladies set off slightly earlier than
the men, but not by much. I was knackered after 5
minutes of running, and was finding the breathing a
bit difficult (something to do with the cold air or
perhaps the altitude!). Yep, the hill is big. I
walked up most of it. Dont think that was a bad idea
though. Got to a gate near the top and ran round the
cairn the highest point in East Lothian apparently.
Then we started to run downhill. To say it was wet
underfoot is a bit of an understatement. We started
running through a drainage channel, with freezing cold
water running down with us. Then we had to bound
across the heather I was behind Sheila and she was
bounding. I was more tripping through the heather!
After a few minutes of this we came to a standstill at
what I can only describe as a cliff. Now the men will
have run down this Sheila and I couldnt decide on
the best route so ended up sliding down bits on our
bums and then tripping down. When we got to the
bottom we were surrounded by slipping mossy grass and
ice cold burns, but at least we had a path to follow.
The scenery was beautiful heathery hills, burns and
then we ran alongside Hope reservoir. Sheilas
stomach was rumbling audibly so she had to slurp down
some lovely blackcurrant energy gel. I had a quick
slurp too consistency and taste was terrible, not
sure it worked but apart from that it was great!
We carried on trotting past the reservoir, running
through a number (at least 4) burns of freezing cold
water before we joined the road again. And then there
were more hills
.only tiny hills in comparison to the
first one but at this stage of the run they felt
pretty tough. Fantastic at the finish though
especially when we received some Starburst just what
we needed after that.
If only someone had told me we were going fell running
I would have been so much better prepared (ha ha ha)
Will I run it again next year? Wait and see .
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