Weather man got it all wrong.. well bits of it it rained it was windy, the sun shone it was warm and the wind died down.. just another day of our good auld scottish weather

To the run, well.. confused is a word better known for car insurance, but on The Stride today there were a lot of bloody well frustrated and confused people as they tried, and most did suceed, to run along the newly opened Clyde Walkway. It was in no way the organisers fault who tried as hard as humanley possible to have the route signed, but when neds and.. ADULTS (who really don’t like PEOPLE passing there house on a public path) remove and vandalise signs what chance do you have???????

Personally I started of slow, by the first bridge across the Clyde, maybe 1 mile, I had stopped to remove my gloves, jacket and fleece and a nip into the bushes.. you gotta go and all that!! I was sitting in the proudest places of LAST… hehhe, I’m getting good at fighting for and winning the hounor.

My plan was 12.5 min miles all the way. Not much chance when I left my garmin at home and had to rely on.. a quick look at Stans map shortly before the start. 2 miles to the Kingston Bridge.. got there in 20 something so new I was going to fast, but I was catching folks and even RAN with & SPOKE to some… gawd I’m getting soft.
Anyway, quick version, I ran faster than I wanted to, felt like a bag of shit, planned on retiring at CP2 as I was having an evil day.
(Did I mention I got stung on the forehead by a bloody big bee.. and it hurt like blazes!!)

Then I met Stan, who had took a slightly different route than me, this happended a lot to a lot of people we gabbed I forgot how bad I was realy feeling and we plodded on. Got lost soon after, diversion to somewhere, found our way back, and met Tim coming out of another part of the route we tagged together till almost the Check Point. Tim however thought it much more fun to cross major motroway junctions, we took the other route All joined up again at Strathclyde Park CP2.
Me and Stan left first, Tim shortly after at our backs.
Onwards we plodded, it rained, the jackets went on, Tim caught us then fell behind. Stan was soon struggling with a long term injury to his toes. He stopped to stretch his foot, I pushed him real hard down an embankment (ok thats a lie) but ran on and left him struggle on his own anyway

Plodded plodded plodded as you do in these runs, then low and behold, Bobby is joining me from the wrong path that he took… and added at least 4 miles to his run. Not a happy bunny!! We all run together, then Bobby and the I think Italian guy? he’s running with fall behind. So on I plod to CP3.

Quick as I can I eat and move on, why give them a chance to catch me I have about 12 to go. On I plod, and soon I catch up with a couple of ex colleauges from London Rd… hehe, snigger,snigger, young whipper snappers are not getting to beat the auld crabbit one today…. much to my delight and thier disgust

By now I’m hinging in and struggling on.. walking bits, shuffling most but knowing if I don’t put one foot in front of the other I’m never going to finish, and all I wanted was to finish. So, on I plodded.

What a great finish, I had never been so glad to see the end of a run in my life!!! I’ll tell you’s about the bloody gawd damed awful loop that took you to 100m of the finish then made you run another mile up hill down hill before actually getting you to the finish, gggrrrrrrr, some other time as it is still too raw

2 bits of knowledge I wish to pass on,
if you don’t enter you’ll never finish
never underestimate your ability to be motivated by sheer blind stupidness

Karen