Wimbledon 2025 Photos (Andrew)
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Celtman Solo Point Five 2025 – Photos
CELTMAN! Extreme Scottish Triathlon 2024
Outdoor Swim Review: St Ninian’s Beach, Shetland (Andrew)
The one that got away. After trying the most northerly beach I could find I was looking for another beach but only found this one on the last day, and only a few hours before catching the ferry back to Aberdeen. It was too late to swim. Everything was packed and I didn’t have a towel to dry off. There were a few others in the water, and someone SUPing round the cliffs. It was a blue sky, hitting 20 degrees and look at that sand. It was perfect! But I didn’t get to swim it. If you’re in Shetland through at any time, do check it out!
REVIEW
Ease of Access: There’s a car park right beside the beach – and, when we were there in September, a portable sauna box too.
Water quality: The beach is sheltered and, with two sides, there’s room to choose a calm spot..
Swim Quality: I’m guessing, like the rest of Shetland, it will be colder than the mainland, even if the water benefits from being in the tailed of the North Atlantic drift.
Other People: It’s a popular spot.
Would I go back: Yes – I definitely missed out on this one.
Review: Fozme Running Belt
After several years of using the same running belt to hold my phone when running home, the zipper broke. In search of a new belt I found via a long and detailed search (Amazon then sort by price low to high) a belt by the Chinese company, Fozme.
I knew it was going to be good as Fozme don’t make any other products. Check out their Facebook page: Fozme. It only shows one product – their running belt. And again, on Amazon, a search for Fozme will also only return one product: their running belt.
I thought if that’s all the products they have then they must really know their stuff about running belt. No company is just going to sell one product if it didn’t believe in it.
“It must be the best belt in the world,” I thought.
And I was right, even if Fozme itself was too modest to respond to my emails congratulating them on their achievement. To busy perfecting perfection, I expect.
Anyways, if you’re looking for a running belt that holds your phone and you don’t want to spend too much on it then I have the belt for you.
Link to belt: Amazon
Running on Holiday (Andrew)
“Do you know the way to Detective Jimmy Perez’s house?” asked the two Norwegian tourists.
Not only did I know the way, I knew exactly what she was talking about. Detective Jimmy Perez is the lead character of the novels and TV show, ‘Shetland’. And he lived in the Lodberie House, an old Victorian home on the edge of Lerwick’s harbour.
“It’s 20 metres further along,” I said, “look to your right and you can’t miss it.”
I’m not sure why I was asked though. Did they think I was local and would know? Or did they think I looked like a fan of the show?
“That man looks like he enjoys a good murder, let’s ask him!”
Instead, and lucky for them, five minutes earlier I had stood outside the house, and I had googled “what is the Lodberie House?” and had found out all about it. Now, five minutes later, I was Google.
Part of running, for me, is exploring. When on holiday, I love to run the streets around me to get my bearings, ticking each street off like Pacman in his maze, though without the pills. Or the ghosts.
I was always so keen. For years I would take my trainers with me on holiday. I would have this idea that I would go for a run when I’m away. That it’ll be a chance to explore a new city or town and get a fresh perspective of where I am. Yet, every time I come home, I find my trainers have reminded firmly in a well wrapped bag.
(The bag has to be well wrapped as trainers, well, there’s no,other way to say this, STINK. And the very last thing you want to do is place your trainers tightly in with all your fresh holiday clothes in a closed bag because soon everything will smell of your feet. Eeugh.)
A few years ago, just before lockdown, I decided that there was no point planning a holiday run. I was going to be away for two weeks, I had to bring hiking boots and taking a pair of trainers too and it felt like I’d be using too much space for footwear I would only use for a few hours, if that.
And, if I didn’t take my trainers, I wouldn’t feel guilty about not going for a run. You can’t feel guilty if you can’t do something. Just like I don’t feel guilty about not going to the moon, painting a stunning landscape or eating beatroot (it’s purple – only bruises and dinosaurs are purple).
But, when I started to pack I realised I would have space for trainers if I wore my hiking boots onto the plane. If I didn’t pack them, but wore them instead, I’d free up both space and weight. And then I thought, why not take my trainers but instead of thinking I should go for a run I would only aim to cover a mile instead: The Holiday Mile. A simple goal, less than 10 minutes and it would meet my goal of seeing more than just a hotel in wherever we stayed but would also be short enough that it didn’t feel like an imposition during the holiday. It would be over and done before breakfast.
And, as it turned out, if I went out for that first mile, I would also carry on if I was enjoying it.
Perfect.
Until I got there. ‘There’ being Dubai and I tried my holiday mile at the end of September when the temperature was 42 degrees and it was horrible. It wasn’t running, it was cooking. And I was the main course.
But I did it. And I kept doing it and gradually my runs became longer until I now enjoy running while on holiday.
Alloa half marathon
I ran the Alloa half marathon
Ultra-trail Snowdonia by UTMB 2024
Indoor Swim Review: Lewis Sports Centre (Andrew)
When is a 25m pool not a 25m pool? When it has a wall which rises from the floor and reduce the pool to 15m.
While many swimming pools will have group classes throughout the day, the Lewis Sports Centre in Stornoway is the only one I know that has a wall rise from the floor to split the pool into two while the class take place. You can be swimming only for an attendant to warn you that the a class is about to start and the pool will be reduced.
You can check the class timetables in advance but I’ve never quite worked out which classes trigger the wall and which don’t. Perhaps, the Isle of Lewis’s most famous descendent can answer: Donald J Trump, whose mother was born just outside Stornoway.
Cost: £4.80 as a non-member.
Facilities: Decent size cubicles and nice and clean changing area. However the showers are right beside the pool and open to everyone so not suitable for a proper wash, only a rinse.
Swimming pool: The lap lane is wider to allow more swimmers but it operates an anti-clockwise swimming lap where you don’t swim back and forth but more in a circle as you swim a few metres to the left or right at the end of each lap.
Other facilities? You can pay extra for the sauna, steam room and jacuzzi.
Busy? At the times you would expect and quiet when not.
Recommended? Yes.
Twin brothers swimming, cycling and running in Scotland 