TATE

last weekend was a pretty busy shift..with all the bonfires and such. KAren and I braved the horrible weather and did a short 4.5m round mugdock and last night we met at mine and did another 4..
I didn't run on Tuesday but I did do something else.

Some of u may know that I had tickets to see the amzing Airbourne Toxic Event, (TATE) at the ABC...with a plan to meet Mrs Mac, DQ , Dino and Subversive.

Well against all the odds I did...and the gig was fantastic...moshed my way to the front and loved every second....they even had a little dallience with the Smiths.. shyness is nice and shyness can stop u..from doing all the things in life u'd like to....moving from Ask to Panic..(I was the only one singing along to that bit..think they all thought I had a secret Toxic album) but for me it was the icing on the cake to have made it one of my top gigs EVER!!

After the gig Jeremy and I managed to catch up with the others in a bar down the road..(to the right Sub!) And a few more drinks were drank and it was good. I was trying to see how good the video was (of the gig) on my phone....which got smashed at the gig...Not great sound but specially for those who were there who I doubt will mind..here's S A M. (Anyone not a the gig I'll put the shiny new video below instead.).

And Now for something Different...a word from my running mate Karen!

Having featured on Rachel’s blog more times than I can remember, I actually feel that I have accomplished my first Cameo Role……so without further ado, here goes!
Now I had a work meeting on Saturday, and Rachel had her usual run of hefty shifts from Thursday until Sunday this week, so we had to plan our long run around this. Let’s face it, she doesn’t exactly have a boring office job where she can sleep off the effects of a long run, combined with the all essential socialising tasks one must undertake of a weekend, so long on Sunday was off the table.
So, we agreed Friday night we would tackle 14 miles; now we don’t normally enjoy road running such distances, but being an evening run we decided to head off from Rachel’s, and meander through Milngavie and Hardgate until we reached the Erskine Bridge. It was a great night for such a target for the out and back run and the bridge provided a great vantage point for the variety of fireworks going off all around us.
On the return I needed to stop for the usual call of nature, and not running on our preferred terrain meant ‘the ever ready bushes’ to hide in were few and far between. Rachel suggested I use the loo of the pub The Lovat; now I’m not normally that shy, but hey, it was Friday night, and the last thing I wanted was to be spotted running into a pub with my running gear on, JUST to use the loo!!! I was already considering running in a balaclava incase anyone I knew passed us in their car; I almost made us a sign for the back of our rucksacks saying “it’s gin and tonic in our water bottles”. Anyway, on the way back the rain started and it didn’t seem to stop. It’s a slow slog back from the bridge with what seems to be a constant pull all the way back up to Milngavie; at times I felt I was running as slowly as treacle running through a sieve!!!
Well, one thing’s for sure, Rach and I can sure talk through a 14 miler, so I guess if we’d taken the G n T we’d probably still be out there:-)

Trig Point 365

Was Dayshift on Thursday (5th) and should have therefore expected to be late...and so it was perhaps a little daft of me to arrange to run with the hill runners and invite Bob along..a Crew Commander from Springburn...who was also working!
But u can't not plan things can u?

As it turned out I recieved a txt from Bob to say he was on his way to mine...at 18:05...At that point I was heading down the Grt Western Rd in the big red truck..as the daylight faded the jets and rockets had decided to come out to play...giving us many oportunities to spoil everyones' fun by dumping a load of water on their lovely bonfires. Eventually we pulled into the station to hand over to N/S an hour and a half late.

Back at home Jeremy had been doing a little redirecting of his own and had sent Bob up the road to The Professor's house..the meeting point for the hill runners.

Knowing that they often don't leave on time I decided to try and catch them. This was not as hard as I had thought as I made it there before Superfit Dave!

And so it was, we did the trig point 365 catching a ww2 decoy bunker (Douglas Muir?) on the way.
At the top we had a pretty good view of the numerous fireworks being deployed and the occasional siting of a flashing blue light!! he he.

Mugdock-whw-Beech Trees

Following the wee runs through the week which I can't even remember now, Karen and I opted to have an 'easy' week and aim for 8 miles covering the all to familiar start of the WHW.
Now I enjoy running in the rain, and I am looking forward to some good hard winter training runs, but on this particular morning it was absolutely bucketing down and really uninviting.

Rather than setting of from the clock in Milngavie we decided to set of From Karens which is in Mugdock Village. Looping down to the the West highland way and hopefully adding on the extra mile we needed to make the run to the Beech trees a round 8..(why is this so important to me I don't know. But a run always has to end on a .5 or a whole one!)

So we ran..it was cold and wet but a fairly good run, we are so familiar with this route and so we managed to get a fair amount of chatting done before reaching the pub...

Unfortunately the pub wasn't open and so, realising that we had arrived at the destination half a mile short and before our taxi (Karens Husband (the VERY handy and musical) David we ran on a quarter of a mile and back to make up the distance!

No pics of the run this time although David did mention that he wished he had taken a shot of us shivering and huddled underneath the little information post....so I'll post one of him..helping me with the shower room!

Rowardennan-almost Inversnaid

OK So it has been noted that I haven't blogged for a wee while! I have however been running..so that's ok I think!
I have run around the local streets in the rain a few times and I've gotten very wet and deserving of much coffee and cake.
On 23rd of October Karen and I decided to drive out to Rowardennan and run almost to Inversnaid and back...almost cause we were limiting ourselves to 12 miles and we figured the whole distance would be 14.


In the week leading up to this Karen was off on holiday and she had done a substantial amount of research regarding our commitment to the Fling...never one to do things by halves!! And so as I rolled up..at her door..a bit late, missing a few items of clothing and a camel back full of water assembled wrongly. Karen was well prepared, she'd done the home work and had a camel back full of Nuun (cola flavoured), a 'bunch' of grapes, granola bars for the end and our very delicious favourite brand of hot chocolate.

Now this may sound excessive for a wee 12 miler and we have run this distance and more with a wee hand bottle but we decided to train as we plan to do the race..and get used to running with a bit of juice and whatever else we decide to test run.

And so that's what we did. We set off and hit the trail..a fairly undulating bit of the route (more so cause I had remembered it as pretty flat) and it was a bit drizzly...perfect for running. We took it easy as speed is not our focus and despite gasping up the 'inclines' at first we soon got into it, loving being out doing our long run on a Friday..while the rest of the world were at work or school.

The grapes were a big hit..and the Nuun was surprisingly good too..for marathons and training we've always used the sis gels...(or as we call them sensation breaks!) they do the job but I'm not sure I could stomach a whole 53 miles on them!!

When u get to the turning point on an out and back run in a location like Loch Lomond there's a temptation to carry on..it's just so beautiful and fresh and you feel so good...on this occasion there was further reason as a keen looking guy had agilely picked his way along the path behind us and caught up with a certain amount of ease. I wasn't surprised to find that he was a crazy man called Murdo (the other one) and by crazy I mean it in the nicest possible way..in the way that my friends have been calling me crazy woman since I told them about the race...ok they may have a point..but I mean that Murdo was instantly recognizable as a whw race regular. Underplaying his achievements..just out for a wee stroll kind of chat...yea right!!

Anyway we were so busy chatting to him we over shot a bit. The look on his face when we turned just half a mile shy of Inversnaid was a picture...like 'how can u get so close and turn here?'


Worry not..we will return and do it soon....and more. And hope to bump into Murdo...BTW

And so we returned just making it to the car b4 a really heavy downpour, steamin the windows up with the hot chocolate and munching on granola. Fabtastic.
13 miles in all.