Well, I’ve been away from the blog for a little while longer than intendedwith the move up to Aberdeenshire being a little more stressful than intended and the absence of telephony, internet and even TV on arrival!

Well, we are all set up now, and on Sunday I took the opportunity to compete, if thats the right word, in the Bennachie Ill Race near Inverurie. To be fair it was my first hill race, and completing the 8.1 miles in 1 hour 33 just about met my bottom line.

The race itself is a phenomenal loop out of the forest at Back ‘o Bennachie, climbing up onto the hill, along the ridge and back down. I found myself walking large chunks of the ascent, due in part to those in front of me doing so, and in equal measure because I was knackered! The run along the ridge was quite pleasant in the sun with a cool breeze, gusting at times. The descent was quite simply something else, hitting 4 minute mile pace downhill through boulder strewn tracks certainly sets the adrenaline flowing which I am very enthused about. To top the day of nicely, I ran up a Marilyn too! although I will have to go back to take photos.

In the interim I have finally settled my race calendar for the remainder of the year, with the Aviemore Half Marathon this weekend, the Glen Ogle 33 ultra at the start of November and the Fraserburgh Half Marathon at the end of November. I have also started to plan the events that I wish to enter in next year, including 4 or 5 SUMS races which I am in the country for. I’ve also put in a good week of training in and around Warwick Uni, various runs along the Deeside Way from Aboyne, and on our honeymoon got in a few runs including 7 miles on treadmill, a couple of hill runs around Kanchanaburi, and an ill fated run along the beach at Hua Hin which ended with a machine gun being pointed towards me behnd the royal paace. Och well!