“Bonnie” is a good Scottish word. Literally. It means “good”. So, if you asked me what the weather was like today and I said “bonnie” then you would know that the weather was good, which is good as the weather is rarely good in Scotland. And, if it is good, you might ask yourself why not just say “good”, why have “bonnie” at all?
I think we have “bonnie” because we needed a word which was both a description and an exclamation. It is so rarely “good” that when things are good we get a surprise. “Bonnie” suggests a surprise.
You: “What’s the weather like today?”
Me (standing in welly’s and waterproofs): “I’ll just check by looking outside. Blimey. It’s dry. It’s a bonnie day! I better look out those shorts I wore 10 years ago the last time the sun came out!”
So, when I describe this video as “bonnie” I mean it with maximum praise. This video shows Rob Wardell, a Scottish cyclist and coach, attempt to break the fastest known time to cycle the West Highland Way, the 95 mile trail from Fort William in the Highlands to the edge of Glasgow. Most people take five to seven days to walk the West Highland Way. Rob tried to cycle it in less than nine hours…
But don’t watch this for the cycling – though the attempt at the record is a good draw to watch – watch it for that attempt being on the bonniest of bonnie days Scotland has ever seen. Perfect weather, perfect conditions and fantastic drone footage of the West Highland Way from start to finish. By the end you won’t care if he makes it or not as you’ll just want to skip back and watch anther flyby of Loch Lomond, Tyndrum and the Devil’s Staircase.
What do you do when you don’t have any races in the future? Run an old one instead!
The only races I have booked for this year are two races postponed from 2020: Celtman and the Caledonian Etape. With no guarantee either will take place and with no other races on the calendar I thought it would be fun to revisit some favourite races from previous years and run them myself. I’m also thinking that in a backwards year it would be fun to start at the finish and run them backwards too but I’m not sure my navigation skills are up for that. Whether forward or backward, the races would include:
Kirkintilloch 12.5k;
Glentress Trail Half Marathon;
Loch Leven Half Marathon;
The Balloch to Clydebank Half Marathon; and
The Forth Road Bridge 10k.
But then I had another thought – why stop at running races I’ve ran before? I would like to support the organisers and clubs by running the races and paying my entry fee. It doesn’t quite feel right to run these races without giving something back.
Instead, I’ve started to look at races which don’t exist anymore and where I wouldn’t need to show any support to anyone as there is no one to support. Brilliant, I thought, before I realised that if the races don’t exist anymore then how am I going to find them or the routes to follow? That’s where this website became invaluable: http://www.scottishdistancerunninghistory.scot
Scottish Distancing Running History provides a great guide to old Scottish races and the runners who took part. From that I was able to find such races as the Princes Street Mile, the Glasgow to Edinburgh Relay and Scotland’s first mass participation marathon: the Inverclyde Marathon.
And from that I had an idea: as part of training for Celtman I should aim to run a marathon in April but as there are no marathons and we may still be in lockdown then why not run the old Glasgow marathon route, a race which was always ran at the end of March?
Glasgow Running Routes has plotted the marathon route
Between 1979 and 1988 the Glasgow Marathon was one of the biggest marathons in Scotland. It’s legacy continues today in the Great Scottish Run, which has started and finished in the same spots – George Square and Glasgow Green – and followed much of the second half of the race. It would be great to recreate it – though I’ll refrain from wearing a singlet, tiny shorts and sweatbands like every 80s runner.
This is a great route that will make you feel you are exploring a valley in the wilderness even though you are only 10 minutes from a MacDonald’s fast restaurant.
This route can be done either way but if you’ve not been here before then do it reverse to the way I did it. That way it’s easier to find the bridge over the river.
Start at Calhan of Campsie and take the road up past the Schoenstatt nuns. Take the turn which says “walkers this way”. Walk until you reach the green gate and then come the path and walk along the wall past the stone house. Follow the rough path. It will lead to a small bridge.
On the other side follow the trees up the side of the valley. There is a pile of stones that make a great spot to admire the view. Keep heading up onto the top. From here you want to cut down into the valley to cross the river. The further you walk the less steep the valley becomes so walk as far as you need until you find a spot to come down.
Cross the river and follow the fence. It will rake you to the path that leads down the other side.
They say a picture paints a thousand word so a video must be billions of words! Watch the video and my description will make more sense but remember I’m doing it the opposite way. Play it backwards to see the route as described 🙂
Normally I’d post a snapshot of my monthly training but that would be pointless this month as I did almost no training at all. At first, it was for a very good reason. My daughter, Rebecca, was born on Wednesday 6th January. All very exciting and, because I knew it was coming – the whole nine months pregnancy does give you a few warning signs that an infant is on the way! – I knew I would need to adapt to training around her this month.
Not that training was the only thing to change. After a week at home Mrs TwinBikeRun turned to our daughter and said: “Rebecca,is Daddy’s beard scratchy?”
I’d not shaved in over a week. It was still too soon to call my middle age bumfluff a beard but it had ambitions.
“Are you telling me to shave it?” I asked her.
“I’m not saying anything,”she said “but Rebecca would prefer it.”
Damn. It was only a week and Mrs TwinBikeRun had tried to ‘turn the wean against us’!
So, in that first week I didn’t do any training, or shaving, and just tried to help out with getting Baby TwinBikeRun into a routine. Once we knew the times she was likely to sleep through the day in the second week I started to either go for a run or jump on the bike for 90 minutes.
This is easy, I thought. We can feed her, change her, play with her and then have some time for Celtman.
And then we all got COVID.
Not that we knew we had COVID. My wife felt tired one day, I had a sniffle another day and then my daughter got tested as part of a routine check and she tested positive, which meant that we’d all had it because she hadn’t met anyone else.
While we’ve been lucky compared to others who have had it, it has meant that we had to self-isolate for 10 days from the point the last one of us had symptoms.
Which meant for most of the month I wasn’t able to do anything because, if I was self-isolating, then I wasn’t doing any exercise in order to get healthy after having COVID, even though I didn’t know I’d had it until after I’d had it.
However, everyone is well and beyond the boredom and frustration that comes from staying in one place, I can’t complain about not starting Celtman training this month, not compared to the alternatives. Instead, I look forward to starting in February.
Update from Celtman
With the uncertainty caused by COVID as to whether Celtman will be possible in June it was good to get the following update this week. It’s good to see that a decision as to whether it may go ahead will be made in March so that everyone can prepare. I suspect we’ll see a race in June but it will only be open to UK based entrants.
Two of my favorite places to walk are Loch Ardinning and Lennox Forest. You can see the loch from the forest and you can see the forest from the loch but there is no path that connects them together. On a map it seemed possible. There is only half a mile between the two paths.
I thought about doing it during the summer but I thought it might be too boggy. I decided to wait until winter and do it on a frosty day when all the vegetation had died back.
So during a recent cold spell of weather I set off with my wife to try and find a way across the gap.
It was surprisingly easy. The conditions were perfect and it only took 30 minutes of off path walking. I’d recommend doing it with a good map as due to the trees it was tricky to find the path at Lennox forest. I used https://maps.me/ as an app on my phone. It has downloadable maps so I don’t have to worry about a signal. It is also completely free.
Check out just how cold the walk was in the video below.
An interesting challenge to connect up two routes but no one I’d do often.
Parking
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
There’s a small car park in Clachan of Campise. You can park on the street if the car park is full. It can be busy on a nice day. Loch Ardinning has a few parking spots but they fill up quickly on a nice day.
Facilities
⭐
Rating: 1 out of 5.
None on the route
Nearest cafe
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
There is a cafe at Clachan of Campsie.
Run Surface
50% track. 25% off road track, 25% off road (no path, mud, heather etc)
Film Friday is a weekly (when I remember to do it) recomendation of one video to watch this weekend.
This weeks video is the story of Tim Don who broke his neck in an accident just a couple of days before he was due to take part in Iron Man Kona. This is his inspiring story to come back to fitness.
I’ve ran in all the traditional Scottish conditions – rain, sleet, shower, downpour, drizzle and, once, many years ago, even a dry day. But although I’m quite happy to run when wet as, once you’re wet, you can’t get wetter. After five minutes you’re as wet as you’ll ever be so you might as well continue. However, I don’t run when water turns to ice. If there’s a chance of slipping then I give a run a miss and do something more warm instead, like sitting in front of a fire while wearing a scarf, a down jacket and wrapped in an electric blanket. Toasty.
Last month though I had the chance to try something I’ve never tried before – a run in fresh snow, with no ice. We’d planned on running the Campsie and thought there might have been a nice dandruffing of snow on top but as soon as we started to climb the snow became deeper and thicker until it was up to our ankles. Then over our ankles and down my socks as the snow melted around my feet. Baltic.
It was fantastic to run in such conditions and I thought it worth sharing some tips in case you ever get the chance to do the same.
Tip 1 – Don’t do it.
Just like wild swimming, you should never run alone. If you trip, twist an ankle or run into trouble then you could be a couple of very, very cold miles away from help. Running through ankle deep snow is hard, hopping through it on one leg would be even harder still. That’s why pirates stuck to the Caribbean and you don’t see Alpine climbers with peg legs.
Tip 2 – If you’re going to go sledging, test your sledge first
At the top of Meikle Bin we met four three guys from Kilsyth who’d hiked up with sledges and were aiming to slide all the way back down the Campsie.
“WHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”
Went the first guy as he pushed off from the top and shot down the southern slope.
“WHEEE – DAMN!”
Went the second and third guy as they shared a sledge for 10 metres before it snapped in half because a child’s sledge is not designed for two grown men to bobsleigh together. Went it snapped, they looked like someone had just told them that Santa Claus was not real. They were not happy.
Tip 3 – Gaiters are your toes best friend
Speaking of Santa. Did you know that Santa is the only lie that that the news will repeat and will never challenge? Every year the news will pretend Santa is real, which must be why Huw Edwards always gets great presents. He’s top of Santa’s nice list.
If I had a chance to get a present for running in snow I would definitely choose gaiters. As mentioned above, the snow will quickly rise above your shoe and the space between the tongue of your shoe and your ankle will build up with snow until it looks like your playing keepy-up with snowballs. Then it will melt and you have frozen water running down you foot and refrigerating your socks. Gaiters will stop that. Or…
Tip 4 – Just accept you’re feet are going to get wet
Because gaiters are not going to help when you put a foot down and find the snow was covering a path or a patch of heather but rather it was a trap and underneath the snow is a deep muddy bog. While most bogs will be frozen, some will crack as soon as you stand on them and your foot is going to be ankle deep in slush mud. Ugh.
Tip 5 – it’s fun!
Accept you will not go anywhere fast. You will not beat any personal best or challenge for any world records. Running in snow is sluggish and challenging as you stamp down to punch through the snow and find the earth beneath. But, on the right day, with pure snow, a blue sky and no wind then you will have fun.
Tip 6 – dress correctly
But remember to wear the right clothes – I wore three layers (long sleeved t-shirt, short sleeved t-shirt, thick running jacket, a running skull cap, waterproof trail trainers and a pair of gloves).
Oh, and bring a pair of scissors if you want to get your trainers off at the end as your laces will freeze and you’ll never untie them until they melt….
The plan was to walk to Burncrooks Reservoir from the Whangie and then return by the same route. That was the plan but…
The Whangie is a hill I don’t go to very often. It is usually too busy and the route is too muddy. Neither of which I enjoy. The last time I was here was with my dad. He first climbed it 50 years ago and hadn’t done it since. He climbed it when he was 18 years old. He had been drinking in a local bar, the Carbeth Inn, and someone had told him about an interesting rock face nearby. He’d wondered off drunk to see for himself. I’m impressed that he found it and that he made it back to the pub to tell everyone what he’d seen.
My wife and I came here early to make sure it was quiet but even at sunrise there was already five cars in the car park.
We didn’t have to worry about the mud as the recent cold weather meant it was very frosty under foot. Unfortunately my wife had the wrong type of shoes and struggled to get a good grip on the icy sections. After slipping and sliding our way to Burncrooks we decided to take a different way back.
During the walk one of my dogs tripped up my wife. She was fine but amusingly I was filming at the time and caught it all on camera. Does You’ve Been Framed still exist and do they still pay £250 for a funny faceplant video?
I’d like to do a multi day run this year but I don’t fancy doing the standard routes everyone else does ie the West Highland Way. So instead I’ve created my own route – The East Coast 100. A coastal route from North Berwick to St Andrews. 100 miles of sand, sea and sightseeing.
The route takes in some of my favorite parts of the east coast – the beaches of east lothian, the edinburgh bridges and St Andrews fudge donuts
Delicious!
I hope to do it during the Easter break but I’ll have to wait and see whether covid restrictions ease.
I’ll plan it and then see what happens. Now to decided how far to run each day….
Twin brothers swimming, cycling and running in Scotland 