Summer holidays for the kids can be so boring when they would rather be at school….don’t you parents agree??. To keep Finlay busy and get my creaking knees going we have done a few things. As part of the Bouroughmuir Barbarian U16 Rugby training we have done another series of 7 hill running sessions to get the lads out of bed on a Sunday and keep them fit and motivated for next season. They are a good bunch and in amongst them could be the future of Scottish Rugby and maybe even the future of Scottish Hill running in a few cases. Runs have been an hour long and up to 9km including beaches, the Esk Valley, the Pentlands and the last one this Sunday at 1100 on Arthurs Seat if you want to join in. We’ve had all kinds of weather and including the odd river, reservoir or sea to get them wet.
Having up’d the hill fitness a bit I conned Finlay and Sparky to a bus trip to Nine Mile Burn and he did his first 11 miler along the reverse of the First leg of the Skyline back to hillend in just over 3 hrs. That seemed to go well so when on holiday in Cornwall we entered the Man vrs Gig race which is a fun event with runners against 6 ‘gigs’ who with a team of 6-8 rowers row while you run. Gigs were originally built to take pilots out to incoming vessels in the Atlantic. It is a hilly coastal route out and back including 2 miles of killer soft sandy beach in the middle. The winner was Keswick’s Carl Bell who showed his Wasdale Skyline winning pace to all challengers and won easily. Finlay, who had to act like a youthful 21 year old to get entry, came 18th. I puffed in 23rd/100+ runners and accepted Finlay’s pint for him as consolation for loosing again to the lad. We did a warmdown family walk from Looe to Polperro along the SW Coastal Path which looks like one cracker of an Ultra route or week+ of walking, camping, running….if anyone fancies it.
On the way back home to Edinburgh there was 2 good days of weather forecast so having stopped the night at Kendal to break up the journey, we packed for a lightweight walking reccee of a few legs of the Bob Graham round. Both had sore knees and so took a fairly fast walk from Dumail to camp at Wasdale and then Wasdale to Honister, ticking 22 hills over 30 miles and around 4000m ascent. We confirmed that Yewbarrow is a bugger of a climb, that the Lakes hill are sometime wee and rocky, and that Finlay was suitable tired but the end when thunder, lightning and rain stopped play, so we missed that last and first legs which we ( I ) had planned and bagged a lift to Keswick for a B&B and a bus and train home.
With a few weeks school hols to go….what next for the lad?
Man vrs Gig Results: http://mudcrew.co.uk/event/the-man-v-gig/
Mark Hartree