There is a chapter in the novel ‘Trainspotting’ titled “The Worst Toilet in Scotland”. I’ve read Transporting, I’ve seen the film, and all I can say is that author Irvine Welsh must have missed out the Lidl in Musselburgh.

Scurry to the Sea is a point to point race starting in the Pentland Hills and finishing with a run along Musselburgh beach. There is an 8am bus to take you from the finish line to the start, to make it easier to park at the end and run from the start. But, as Iain TwinBikeRun and I were both driving, we met at the beach, parked one car there and drove the other to the start. On the way, we thought: “We can avoid the normal queue for the toilets before the race by stopping on the way – and, look, there’s a Lidl, it’s bound to have a toilet.”

The first red flag should have been raised when we couldn’t get to the toilet without going into the store and asking to squeeze past people queuing at the till. One way doors didn’t allow access to the toilets behind the till until you’d queued.

The second red flag was that this is a Lidl and Lidl operates on a one employee, one massive queue, one toilet model. If it costs money, Lidl doesn’t pay it.

The third red flag was Iain going into the toilet first and coming out and saying “Don’t go in there.”

Like a driver for Ferrari driving round the track, I thought the red flags were urging me forward and I went in.

I came straight out.

This is a family blog and Trainspotting is a graphic and adult novel of drugs, abuse and squalor so all I can say is: Chose life. Choose crossing your legs. Choose any other toilet in East Lothian.

The race itself was well organised and there was plenty of time at the start to get ready. The first mile and a half is a straight climb/slog up to the summit of Swanston in the Pentlands, before the rest of race, around 10 and half miles descends down through Edinburgh, around Braids Hill, out through Brunstane, finishing in Musselburgh.

Most of the race is off road or through parks or cycle paths so it never feels like you’re running through a city. However, with quite a few streets and turns on the way, it was helpful that Iain TwinBikeRun knew the route, as, even with other runners around, and markers to point in the right direction, I think I would have got lost.

Overall, an unusual challenge, a 10 mile downhill section, and a good run to start waking the legs up after Celtman.