New route, new distance, new shoes

[Sqkr]

I got an email from Great Run cheerfully reminding me it's 12 weeks to the Great North Run, so thought I'd better ramp up my running before the football season starts again and I lose my long run weekends. (Lost to begrudgingly working on the football, not watching it.)

I'd plotted a new route out west, and of course everything looks lovely and flat on the screen of a laptop. Sadly I have chosen to live in a beautiful, wild and green city built on 7 massive stupid hills, one volcanic, and so whichever way you go you're likely to have to go up one. And whilst you might tell yourself it's brilliant training, and how great it will be to come down the other side, getting up is still no mean feat. My legs went really stiff at 7k, so I confess I did a small walk on Corstorphine hill as I'd started inexplicably running like old man Steptoe. I told myself it was OK as I don't think any of the halves I have coming up have hills like these, thankfully! (famous last words?)

It was a really nice run on the whole, lots of woods and rocky trails. I got lost pretty frequently, as can be seen by the stubby red bits on the map where I ran in circles a bit, or doubled back. Wildlife count: fields of tiny, fat horses and beautiful yellow flowers, a garden full of friendly cats, seven robins (or maybe the same one following me?) and a magpie stealing a baby blue tit from a nest I flapped my arms and hissed like a velociraptor but to no avail.

So the end result of my run varies depending whether you go by Strava, which I ran continuously so I could follow the map, or my Garmin which I stopped when at traffic lights, talking to cats, taking photos of the view, losing the path, failed magpie interception etc. And naturally which I forgot to start up again quite regularly. I must remember to switch it to automatic so I don't keep losing bits of my run! I'm going to keep the Garmin version for more accurate data, but screencapped the longer Strava distance for encouragement..!

And when I got home I bought the cloudflyers I've been coveting, because they were the last pair in my size for the comparatively good price of eighty quid, and also because why not. I hope I like them, no physical shops had a pair for me to try on so I'm going on vague recommendation and the fact they have 'cloud' in the name :/

[C3PO Marathon]

This sounds like an amazing run. Well done! Running hills now will definitely pay off later.

[Sqkr Half Marathon in reply to C3PO]

Heh it's definitely not paying off today! I keep getting stuck in my work chair

[C3PO Marathon in reply to Sqkr]

Poor you!

[roseabi Ultramarathon]

Beautiful run report and illustrations! Great run too, well done.

Hope the shoes suit

[pinkaardvark Half Marathon]

Fantastic run report. Look forward to seeing a pic with new shoes and you doing the velociraptor impression. I always feel a bit of shame when I read your posts and see the pics that I don't know my capital city better despite having family that live not far away in north Glasgow, I have been too long down south I did walk up calton hill to the observatory last year and thought at the time i'm glad i'm not running up this hehe.

[Sqkr Half Marathon in reply to pinkaardvark]

I've not lived here all that long myself, just over eight years or so, so I still look at all the wilderness and drama of the landscape with the wide-eyed admiration of a girl that grew up in quaint and manicured Oxfordshire and Kent. Which is also lovely, but definitely different! I've not run up Calton Hill yet, at least not sober, but it's on the list...I think I'll do a flat run to the beach next weekend though. And I've told myself I can have an ice cream when I get there 👍

[Langley-Loper Half Marathon]

Lovely descriptive post! Keep working at those hills, it will pay dividends. So many people stopped to walk on Sunday in my HM while I powered (inched) past.

[Sqkr Half Marathon in reply to Langley-Loper]

Goodness I hope so, they don't seem to get any easier though! I enjoyed sailing past much more seasoned runners on the way up towards Arthurs Seat on the Edinburgh 10k, but that was a hill I know very well. It's a bit different when they feel like strangers. Big, steep, horrible strangers...

[Hidden]

Eek that means it's not that much longer to the great south run! That is randomly 10 miles rather than a hm but I still need to train for it hills included.

[AnnieW55]

Good run and report. All that hill training will serve you well 😄. Hope the Cloudflyers live up to your expectations, that price is bl**dy brilliant!

[APScotland]

Sounds like a really interesting run. Well done! Can you still see and hear the wild animals in the zoo from Corstorphine Hill? I went for a memorable walk up there years ago when I lived in Edinburgh and saw a fox, an owl and a badger - the latter was pottering up the hill towards us when we spotted it. We stopped dead in our tracks and held our breath. It took a few minutes before it looked up from its snuffling and saw us, then took off at top speed! I think we saw zebra thru the zoo railings too