Scurry to the Sea is a 12 mile-ish race from Edinburgh Ski centre to Musselburgh via the top of Swanston Hill in the Pentlands. You start by climbing up a narrow track for a mile and half and then run (mostly) downhill to the sea.

After taking part in Run the Blades last week, this would be a second near enough half marathon in one week, which I thought would be tough on my legs until Iain TwinBikeRun said:

“You’ll be okay, you use a different part of your legs when you run down hill.”

And he was right. Unfortunately, that different part of my leg was the part that’s not trained for running downhills as I always run on flat roads. I felt knackered after five miles and my legs were very heavy and tired, despite running downhill.

The race was sold out, with around 300 people starting. This makes it congested at the start as the climb to Swanston is on a narrow path. However, as the climb is steep and few are running, it doesn’t slow you down. You end up walking a large part of the climb anyway.

Once you get to the top it’s a fun and steep descent back into the city before you end up orienteering around various Edinburgh suburbs. If it wasn’t for Iain TwinBikeRun, a former native of Edinburgh, I’m not sure I would have found Musselburgh. I’d have got to the sea and someone would have said “Congratulations, you’ve reached Troon!”

There are water stops every four miles but, strangely, no water at the finish line, although there was a good banana and flapjack. Perhaps I missed the water as it would seem a big oversight not to have any (other than the sea).

Scurry to the Sea is a fun event, which offer a different challenge to most half marathons by taking you from summit to sea. I’d definitely recommend it, along with a map and compass.

It was the 10th anniversary of the Run The Blades half marathon at Whitelee wind farm and my memory of the first race is that it was a hundred metres too short. No problem with that now as, with no parking available, you have to park on the wind farm and walk a mile to get to the start line. It shouldn’t be a half marathon it should be a 15 miler! 🙂

The course hasn’t changed in 10 years and still represent an undulating route through the wind farm with a challenging climb – called “That Hill” on signs leading to it – about two miles from the finish.

After illness earlier this year, and a lack of long runs in recent weeks, I was aiming to just get round. Ideally I’d complete it in under two hours, which I did, so I was happy.

The forecast suggests heavy showers but it remained dry although very warm with temperatures in the low 20s. With only two drink stations, if you need water more frequently, then best to bring a hydration pack or water bottle with you.

The best bit though about the race remains the medal – a unique two piece medal with a spinning turbine on the front.

After the race, on the one mile walk back to the car, a man said “I watched you last night,” which was worrying if he was going to go on and say “with binoculars, from the bushes.” However, he explained he watched one of Iain TwinBikeRun’s videos about the race and recognised me as I had the same t-shirt on. I confirm I have washed it since then!

An early season favourite around a hilly course on the edge of Kirkintilloch and one which often sees extreme weather conditions. I’ve raced through flooded roads and torrential storms; ice and snow; and ever the beginning of an almighty storm. This year was not as extreme but there was a biting cold wind and the start line had loads of runners jumping and down, trying to keep warm. Or they must just have needed the toilet.

When I arrived to collect my race number the toilets were still on the back of a truck, and that truck was still driving along the road. Cross legged runners were looking desperate as I checked in. I daren’t look at the neighbouring field as I suspect some of the runners would be on the hunt for a tree or a bush.

I usually go to the toilet before the race but as the queue, when it did form in front of the portaloos, was long, I raced corked.

It was a few miles before my hands started to warm up. The wind cut through my fingers and I tried running faster to stay warm. I wonder if anyone has thought to hold the 100m men’s final in the North Pole. I bet, if they did, world records would tumble.

The course continues to be a tough start to the year with very few flat parts. However it is an enjoyable and scenic route through farm fields and across the M80 into Gartcosh and back. And, for all the climbs, the last 1 km is an enjoyable downhill run back to the start.

Back in 2016 I wrote a comprehensive report on the Nigel Barge 10k covering both its history and the course. This year, the weather was decent for January, and I had a chance to run it again without rain. That meant I could look up and around, without keeping my head down to avoid horizontal showers, and I could see the delights of… the Dawsholm Recycling Facility/rubbish tip.

Despite falling between two of Glasgow’s nicest suburbs, this is not a pretty race. It’s two laps of Glasgow University’s vet school and a spot to dump used sofas. It’s also very lumpy with an undulating route, run twice over to two circular laps.

Saying that, its a good race to start the year as it’s very well orgainised, has a good post race buffet and a strong (usually) sell out group of 400 runners.

“Is he still alive,” asked the woman next to my wife.

“I think so,” said my wife, “otherwise this would be the Jimmy Irvine Memorial Bella 10k.”

Good point.

I’ve written about Jimmy before – see here – but what I missed then and my research pick up now was that as well as being a brilliant runner and volunteer for the club, he was also its founder. I can’t believe I missed that in my original entry. It’s a bit like writing a biography about Elon Musk and not mentioning that he is a massive bellend. It should be the first thing you mention.

This year my wife and daughter joined the spectators to watch the race, which was handy as it turned out to be surprisingly warm after a cold and damp start to the day. I wore a running jacket but decided to take it off after the first kilometre and throw it to my wife. Which was fine in theory. But in practice she was surprised to get a rolled up sweaty jacket thrown at her face.

“Eeeeeeeeeeeekkkk!” she screamed.

“Sorry!” I said as I ran on.

The race has now used the same route for the last few years and seems to have settled into the idea that it should start with a several hundred metres of climbing. A tough start but not as tough as then running it a second and third time as the race loops round Bellahouston Park.

The Jimmy Irvine Bella 10K remains an enjoyable, albeit hilly, race to end the year.

“Headshot!” shouted the Stormtrooper from Star Wars before squirting a water pistol in the face of a runner racing towards him.

“Hee hee hee hee!”

I only saw a handful of runners in fancy dress at this year’s Great Scottish Run. This was a surprise as it was also the largest ever event with nearly 30,000 runners. I thought in proportion the number of runners in fancy dress would also increase but, other than the stormtrooper committing unwanted liquid assaults across the course (though to be fair, it’s not like Stormtroopers are ‘good guys’!), the only other person in fancy dress was Batman. Which is to say that a runner was dressed as Batman, not that Batman was in fancy dress as a rhino or a deep water diver.

Not the the Stormtrooper was the strangest sight on the course. Around mile five I saw a man jogging while juggling three balls. I assume he must have been juggling them from the start. It would have been strange for him to get to mile five and then think “Wait! I’ve got three balls in my pocket, I could juggle them!”.

I assume there’s a real skill in juggling while jogging. For a start you need to throw the balls forward to run and catch them while moving forward. There’s no point throwing them straight up when you would just run under and passed them.

But why juggle? At what point in their juggling career did they think: “this is no longer a challenge, I should jog too!”. Or, in what point of their running career, did they think: “Running half marathon is easy, I need a challenge: I could juggle!”.

And did they build up to this? Did they juggle a 5k, a 10k and finally the Great Scottish Run? Are they building up to a marathon or an ultra? Or are they going to add more balls until eventually they’re juggling 10 balls and spinning a plate on their head?

And then, after writing that paragraph, I goggled jogging and juggling and discovered that, yes, it was a case of adding a challenge to a run: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-68451536

And it’s an actual sport. Well, I say sport. According to this report there are 600 jogglers competing around the world. More people take part in Chess Boxing, which is less a sport and more a sport based on a random word generator.

I didn’t juggle but I did have a self imposed restriction too: I ran with Iain TwinBikerun!

Iain was recovering from COVID so I ran with him for the first nine miles until he started to get too slow, and then, good brother that I am, I left him and ran to the finish line.

The route felt a bit more open this year, and I think that may be as a result of the large number of runners taking part. The race was split into several waves, and some of the large crowds from last year were better dispersed around the course. However, due to the number of people taking part, the start was severely delayed as it took nearly 25 mins to reach the start line.

The end was equally busy and we had to queue for a finish photo with the finisher’s bell. As we queued the man in front of us, an American, asked if we could take his photo as he didn’t have a camera and could we then email him the results later. We did but it was only in the evening that I realised we’d missed a golden opportunity: we should have photoshopped his photos!

Overall, the Great Scottish Run is extremely well organised, with plenty of water stations, good support throughout the course and exactly the same complaint I had as last year as they used the same course: it’s still one of the least scenic routes you can design through Glasgow. But it is almost flat and therefore perfect for jogging. And juggling.

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.

There is a shop near me that sells paintings of post war Glasgow for £10. In the many years that I’ve passed this shop, I’ve never seen a single painting sold. It may be that the reason it doesn’t sell any paintings is that the shop is not a gallery, instead it’s a print shop filled with photocopies and industrial printers. The paintings do not appear in the shop at all either. They are just in one window, facing a side street. The window contains a handful of paintings and a very faded price. Or it may be that the paintings are awful. Not Iain TwinBikeRun awful – see here – but awful in a way which suggests the Glasgow post war was mainly smiling barefooted children in tenements and trams. I’m not surprised no one has ever bought a painting. You couldn’t give them away. Unless they were handed out at the end of a race.

The Jimmy Irvine 10k always has a hand made t-shirt with a black and white drawing showing runners and the man himself, Jimmy Irvine, and it is alway… well… let’s just say the artist must like trams and tykes too.

However, don’t let that stop you entering one of the most popular late season races in Glasgow. With over 500 people taking part, it’s a great race that is very well organised and one which presents a undulating end to the year.

This year, an early cold snap meant parts of the course had to be gritted with sand to help remove any frost or the chance of ice. But, while cold, the day itself was a crystal clear blue sky and I was glad to be wearing a t-shirt in the sun.

As the race is hilly, with some longer slopes, rather than any steep climbs, I was hoping to finish in around 48 minutes. However, I was feeling strong and kept pushing to run faster, and finished by surprising myself with 44 minutes. This is the fastest I’ve run a 10k in 20 years, which either shows how much I’ve improved in the last couple of years, or how slow I was 20 years ago. I can’t decide yet…

If you examine the map above you’ll notice two things about this year’s Great Scottish Run:

First, you’ll notice the route is largely out and back with a large section using the same roads.

Second, you’ll notice most of the route avoids nearly evert park, tree or hint of a plant in the Southside in Glasgow, which is quite an achievement. Glasgow is know as the ‘Dear Green Place’. It has more than 90 parks and gardens. It has beautiful tree lined streets, particularly in the Southside and, yet, the Great Scottish Run chooses to run through some of the most deprived areas and avoid anything which makes Glasgow nice (unless you’re a Rangers fan and love to see a glimpse of Ibrox stadium).

It even finishes in Glasgow Green, one of Glasgow’s biggest parks. But it only uses a few hundred metres as a dash to the finish line. Can they not use more of it? Would you hire a Ferrari to just use it to park it in a Park? Of course not, so why run the Great Scottish Run and not use the very things that make running in Glasgow great.

Great Scottish Run, more like okayish Scottish Run.

At least this year, the route was the correct distance after previous races has seen record had to be scrubbed as the official distance turned out to be less than 13.1 miles. But to do that, they’ve had to add in a 50m detour down a road and then back up again. They couldn’t even add 100m in Glasgow Green. Instead we a Ferrari and a quick spin up to the next level in QPark.

Saying all that, and trying not to be too grumpy, the race is very well organised with groups released in waves to help spread people around the course. There’s three water stops and the route is almost flat.

But if you want to see a tree, try another race. Or try my race. Instead of running around the Southside, howabout running from George Square to Kelvingrove Park, then to the university, the Kelvin walkway, the Botanic Gardens, Great Western Road, Hyndland and Clarence Drive, over to Victoria Park, before back down Dumbarton Road, the banks of the Clyde and longer run through Glasgow Green. Easy.