A mixed week

Two short mid-week races really hampered my distance miles, it was fun doing the East Lothian Summer Series stint in Musselburgh on Tuesday followed by the next evening's North Berwick Law Race. The latter is a particularly fantastic event, really great atmosphere, lots of crowd support and the route, well, is self explanatory. I remain amazed at the speed and agility that some of the seasoned hill runners take the descent from the Law......

I'll be brutally honest, these two events were really a convenient excuse to avoid having to do any distance - I'm having a little problem with distance running motivation at the moment. I'm enjoying short races just now and my speed is picking up nicely, but this is all too much of a distraction from the task in hand - marathon training. With two months left, I do have the time but there is now no room for further procrastination!

I had made a mental committment to doing a longer run this weekend, I hummed and hawed all day, finding other stuff to do, but by 6.00 I decided enough was enough and just got out there. It was a beautiful, still summers evening, and when I was out running I felt that I sometimes have to pinch myself to remind me how lucky we are - the countryside around here is simply amazing. We live on the eastern flanks of the Lammermuirs, with ready access out of the back of the house to hills, secret tracks, woodland, moorland with superb views across the Borders, then over the Forth, to Fife and beyond. Really made for running and walking, and with little in the way of traffic on the many minor highways and byways that cut into the hills.

My route took me from our house over Doon Hill, down to the Brunt, headed over to Innerwick via Woodhall and then to Thorntonloch. Unfortunately, the last few miles of my route took me via a more industrialised viewpoint, passing Torness and Dunbar cement works. This was necessary, as I had elected not to go deeper into the hills, wanting to keep my distance to around 14 miles. Mercifully it was no more than that as my legs had decided to give up, yet my lungs still had plenty of go in them.