Still building up road mileage for London I headed out on a 14.8 mile circuit starting and finishing in Aboyne, and heading out to Tarland and Dinnet, and returning via the South Deeside road.

The first six miles or so were pretty much uphill, followed by a long downhill into Tarland throughout which the pace was pretty good.  Then I ran out of liquid.  I wasn’t entirely surprised as it had been pouring down the back of my neck when I fixed my socks about 6 miles in.

The final 5 miles was much slower, and I took regular stops to keep my body temperature down in the bright sun.  The rain had been torrential in the morning, so I left later in the day once the sun came out, but the view of the torrents on the Dee made the final 5 miles somewhat less tormentuous.

Overall I have to be happy with the run, although I do need to learn how to run slower when I intend to, as the 8.5 min miles that I ran up the hill into Tarland were outwith the 10min/mi I intended to do, but that said I averaged around 9:30 min/mi over the entire run which is 30sec quicker than intended, although that does not include several sunbathing sessions on the South Deeside road.