Week ending 20th February

Photo Courtesy of John Kynaston

On Saturday Morning i was out at 7am, back on the Forth and Clyde Canal, the underfoot conditions were bad with surface water in many stretches, on the  way out towards Bonnybridge i met a new runner to the ultra distance, David Allan, David a local from Bonnybridge who owns a furniture restoration business has entered the GEDM, a nice introduction to the distance, I wish David every success in his ultra running career, we had a chat on route what our plans were for the season ahead. i stopped my watch when i went for a toilet stop and forgot to restart it, only realising  just over 4 miles later. i about turned at the sign for High Banton and headed back home, i managed to get in 25 miles in just over 3.5 hours.
   I recieved a text from Sam organising a 2 hour run from the Nicholson at 9.30 on Sunday morning but i had to be back early, i met John and Marco for a run over the Kilpatricks as they were setting off at 7, this was ideal as we all had other things to do, John arrived first on his motorbike followed by myself then Marco, we waited 10 minutes in case anybody else arrived, when nobody turned up we got on our way, this was my first time over the one of many courses that Marco has, weather conditions were great but  the underfoot in sections was a bog with still a lot of snow lying, we were going along at a steady pace stopping for John's Customary picture at one of the trig points then we continued on. we had a good chat and i managed to pick up some points for the WHW and how to get other information on my watch  we completed the route,just over 19 miles in 3.5 hours then we had a final photo shoot at the car park before we left.
  It has been a good weekend with 7 hours of mixed running totaling 45 miles, so now i can look forward to my next run on the WHW next weekend, it looks like we have a bus load turning up for the run from Beinglas farm to the Kingshouse.