Sheer Hell!

Actually it wasn't that bad! I got round the course in 1hour 43 ish I think - although a group of eight or nine of us did an extra couple of miles because of an errant marshall. At least that's our excuse. We missed a turning and ended up on the wrong route anyway.

It was pretty muddy out there with a few bogs and a couple of streams to jump over or wade through, but I did expect to be much wetter by the end. I was certainly pretty muddy though, as you can tell from the pic!

I heard the reason there wasn't so much water was that a lot of Mugdock Park is classified as areas of special scientific interest, so they weren't allowed to put a running route straight through some bits! Unlucky!

It was nice to just run without knowing exactly what was coming next. A lot of the run was on trails - including part of the West Highland Way - that I'd run on in the past, so I found myself wondering when the nasty bits were coming.

I didn't have to wait too long! Suddenly the course would do a 90 degree turn up a serious slope. Some of it was too steep and everybody had to walk for a while until the gradient levelled out a bit, other times it was possible to keep running... slowly.

It looked like we were on for a good time, until our wrong turn so that is a bit frustrating. However, it wasn't a run about times but just about getting out there and having some fun - like being a kid again splashing in the puddles! I'm definitely sold on the Hellrunner. In fact, I could even try a bit more of this off-road stuff as a nice change from the hard tarmac surfaces of road running.

Thanks to the girls at Spike communications and to the sponsors for providing me with some gear for the run. There'll be a follow-up article in the Evening Times in the coming week and another convert to the Hellrunner!

Hellrunner - Scots to the Slaughter

This is a run I'm doing tomorrow night. I say run... sounds more like punishment for some sin from a previous life, but we'll see how it goes! There's basically going to be lots of mud 'n' lots of slippery hills. Here's a piece I wrote for work on it. I'll put up any pics I can get on Sunday or Monday.

More info at www.hellrunner.co.uk

Edinburgh Marathon 2007 sponsorship

I've just received this email from Maggie's Centres after sending in the rest of our sponsorship money. It should be noted that, although it is in my name, this was raised by both Meg ans myself!

Thanks to everybody who sponsored us in the marathon.

Here's the email:

Thank you for sending in your sponsorship donation of £740.00

This makes your team’s grand total so far (including Just Giving) £1006.22.

This is a fantastic great amount to raise as it is no easy task training for the race and raising money too, I know it tends to take over your life!

Events like the Marathon raise much needed funds to help run our established centres and to build new ones. Every penny raised by yourselves will go towards supporting those whose lives have been affected by cancer. You should be very proud of yourself!

www.maggiescentres.org