Petite Feet Runaway

Don't tell the physio...  ...b ut a week back I started to run to Glasgow from Edinburgh with my pal Ally MacLeod who is training for the Marathon de Sables. My physio said that I wasn't to run two days in a row so I didn't. Since I hadn't run on the Thursday, the Friday was mine to play with :)  Obviously the Scottish winter weather provided similar conditions to what Ally will experience in the desert. We made it to Ratho before our first coffee stop and rain shelter. Later during our canal run Ally showed me the sights of Linlithgow where I got my second hot drink break. It was cold, the canal was muddier than I expected and we were repeatedly passed by a suspicious looking man with VERY short shorts riding a bicycle. We decided to stop at Falkirk before our chat got too bad and instead rode the train home sharing chocolate bars. And that, my friends, is how athletes prepare for important upcoming races.  Ratho coffee stop   A...

Training for the conditions is probably a good idea. Some may even say important. Then there are others who just feel the pull of a snowy Scottish trail the week before their sun-beaten road marathon and think 'well, it'd be a shame not to.' I am one of the latter. So I had a gentle two-day, 40-mile taper on the West Highland Way the weekend before the Gran Canaria Marathon. There was some good chat of weddings and meeting of new folk. No one broke their leg coming down Conic Hill and there was some romantic snow on the Sunday. But then, you cannot force 24 degrees upon a Scottish winter anyway so don't fret and jog on. Thanks to Ian Minty for organising and taking a rather wet, talkative Kiwi to the train station afterwards. And Lucy Downie, for that brilliant hot chocolate! Sorry to all for being slow. Heather and I Last time Scott and I went on a marathon holiday with Norm and Ally, I blitzed them both and ran a personal best. We ended up in some Star Wars the...