New Years Eve

We all headed out at about 11.30 towards the Royal Mile. Found a great spot to watch the fireworks just outside the Witchery Restaurant.

Torchlight Procession

We all headed out to join or watch the annual Torchlight procession. A huge crowd of around 30,000 out. We walked along North Bridge which was quite unpleasant with the volume of people out walking with their torches. After a coffee stop we returned to North Bridge to watch the fireworks at 8 pm which turned out to be an ideal venue to watch from.

ELO Festive Frolic

We all headed out to Newhailes House for the Festive Frolic orienteering with a twist. Hannah and Cherry's first event in a long time! The weather wasn't great but it was a good fun event.

Max did well coming 15th of 64 beating his dad by 4 places.

Beecraigs Handicap Race

Max and Colin headed off to Beecraigs for the Boxing day handicap race. The weather was quite kind with reasonable temperature and no wind. The ground was very muddy and a puddle was reaching lake proportions. Both Max and Colin ran well coming in the top quarter of the handicap and not a bad position timewise on the 7k race.

Eskapade

Colin's headed out early on Sunday morning in the rain and gales for a run along the Risk Esk from Musselburgh to Lasswade. A big crowd turned up at the start and at various points along the way. The full run to the Pentlands lasted all day but I bowed out after about a quarter of the distance as I've not been doing much longer runs of late.

Took the bus out and back which worked well.

Hannah's Concert at Usher Hall

Hannah was playing drums as part of the James Gillespies Christmas Concert at the Usher Hall.

Queens Drive Race 2012

It seemed like a very small field for this annual run round Holyrood Park. The weather was good with clear skies and temperatures around 6 degrees. Ran pretty well and was pushed along by some similar paced runners. Best time in this race by 1 min and 20 secs finishing the 5 k in 23:50.

May be getting back some form following consistent interval training at the gym.

Blackhope Scar and Bowbeat Hill

Out for a longish run this morning. Very cold temperatures but lack of wind meant it was fairly pleasant. Parked at Gladhouse Reservoir and then ran up the valley towards the hills. Climb up to Blackhope Scar where the terrain was very rough and the distance much longer than expected. Through to Bowbeat Hill past the wind turbines was still heavy going. The run back was more pleasant. 2 hrs 50 min in total.

Harps of Gold 2012

Max was playing again at the Harps of Gold concert at the Queens Hall. He has progressed from Little Donkey at previous concerts to being the first soloist at the concert. Played a complicated piece very well.

Weekend in Dundee

Cherry and Colin celebrated our 20 wedding anniversary with a trip to Dundee - it's a long story ! On Saturday the weather was great, chill and clear, so we changed plans and headed to Tentsmuir for a nice walk along the dunes and through the forest. Great location. Saw some seals bathing in the submerged sandbanks.

Nice gym, swim, dinner and shopping in Dundee.

Lasswade Walk

Lovely sunny morning. We headed out to Lasswade and embarked on the muddiest walk ever doing a circuit from Lasswade to the ruins of Mavisbank House. After that back along by the River Esk. Lunch at the Paper Mill which is a very smart restaurant opened during the summer.

Braid Hills Cross Country

Max and Colin went out to the Braids for a 2 circuit 6 mile race round Braid Hills. Max headed off strongly and held a 100 m lead for the first two miles before being passed by Colin. Max bailed out at the half way mark whilst Colin trotted on to complete the course in 48 minutes.

Dumyat Dash

A lovely cold saturday morning with clear skys. Headed out to Menstrie near Stirling to run in the Dumyat Dash which is an 8 km run including the summit of Dumyat Hill. It was pretty tough going but seemed to go reasonably well coming in around 1 hr 15 mins at 152% of the winning time.

Survival of the Fittest

Max and Colin entered the 10 K plus 10 obstacles course. It was wet and muddy this year with a few course changes to spice things up. Both ran well and got round in around an hour and nine minutes.

Puerto Pollensa and Alcudia

A final rest day to recover from the walking. We went off to the medieval town of Alcudia and looked at the city walls, narrow streets and the old Roman remains and theatre.

Lluc to Pollensa

The last walk of the holiday was flattish slog from Lluc through to Pollensa. OK at the start but a bit dull over the latter parts of the journey. A bus took us through to Puerto Pollensa.

Puig Tomir

Hannah and Cherry got a well earned rest day in Lluc to look round the ver pleasant monastic village. Colin and Max headed off with the team to make a challenging ascent of Puig Tomir at a height of 1100 m. A long hard walk after the summit to return by a circular route to Lluc.

Walk to Lluc

The third day was a fairly strenuous walk from the Embalse de Cuber up to a mountain pass at around 1200 m height and then a steep walk into the Monastery at Lluc. Around 14 km in total and reasonably challenging.

Well done to Hannah and Cherry for getting through without a problem.

Walk to Soller

The second walk saw us drive up to a height of around 700m and then walk a further 100m uphill before a steep and winding descent into Soller. Stunning typical mediterranean scenery.

Walk from Deia to Port de Soller

Our first day of walking started with a bus to Deia and then a walk down for coffee at a cove. Then a couple of hours walking on undulating terrain near the coast saw us stop for lunch at a delightful cake shop. Best tarte tatin ever and some very cute animals. Walked on via the lighthouse into Port de Soller.

Mallorca Holiday

Had a lovely week away on a walking holiday with explore. Headed out on Saturday and arrived in Palma for a quick and somewhat rushed walk around the main sights in the city centre. Looked nice and well worth a future return visit.

Then got the train through to Soller, had a delicious ice-cream and then the tram through to Port de Soller.

Great Edinburgh Run

First race in quite a while. Lovely sunny Sunday morning and 8000 people out for a run through Edinburgh. Reasonably good form and got round in exactly 50 minutes which whilst well off personal bests isn't a bad performance. Felt pretty comfortable all the way round.

Bath University

Colin and Max flew down to Bath for the weekend for the University Open Day. Nice day looking round the Uni with a bit of time for a look round the centre of town. Great crazy golf course !

Tour de Forth

First cycle event in about 20 years. Start at 8.30 am at Ocean Terminal Leith. Headed out to Craigies Farm then Forth Road Bridge, along North side of Forth to Kincardine (did an extra bit to Alloa and back because of the poor signage). Then back along South of Forth via Grangemouth, Bo'ness, South Queensferry. Including the cycle too and from start it was a total distance of 81 miles and about 7 hours cycling.

New Rope String Band

The city seems very busy this year with Festival activity. George Street has been closed off with theatre and bars in the middle of the street outside the Assembly rooms. We all went to an late afternoon show at the Spiegletent to see a comic musical show. Nice light entertainment that was well worth the trip.

Speed of Light

We've made several trips to Holyrood park to look at the speed of light "show". Lots of runners with lights attached running around in the Park to make an "art exhibit". You can pay £25 for a light stick and join a group walk round the park to the summit of Arthurs Seat. We just turned up and watched. Hannah enjoyed it son much we have been three times ! It's actually not a lot to look at but presents a great opportunity for long exposure photos.

North Berwick Law Hill Race

First race in quite a while. Lovely evening and a great wee race from the Harbour up to the top of the Law. Pretty pleased with the run. Gained quite a few placed on the ascent and descent. Not a lot of kick in the legs on the last mile or so back into town. Finished middle of pack and beat at least one person who normally comes in ahead of me.

Meall Ghaordie

Colin and Max headed out to bag munros at Glen Lochay. The access to the chosen hills was however blocked and we had to replan so when up Ghaordie. Colin had been up before but first time for Max. Quite nice apart from at the top when the weather turned against us. 4 hr walk.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HANNAH

14 today

Physio

Colin still struggling with mild pains on right heel - probably plantar fasciatus. Went to the local phyio - Bodywell - just down the road. Helpful session on a difficult to diagnose problem. Trying to get to the root cause with the hypothesis that it may be structured running shoes changing the runninga action in an unhelpful way.

Max back from Mongolia

We collected Max from the airport after his month away. He and his friends make quite a smell - I'm surprised they were allowed on the plane ! Great to see him back and that everything had gone well and been a real experience.

The Squash Court - Aberfoyle

Second week of our holiday was at a self catering cottage in Aberfoyle. The bad weather unfortunately continued with no sunshine at all. Kept busy though, with a boat trip on Loch Lomond to Balmaha, a walk up Conic Hill, Badminton a couple of time in Callander,  a walk up Ben A'an, trip to Inversnaid and Loch Katrine, Go-Ape  and a long cyle from Aberfoyle to Killin on the long distance national cycle route 7.

Holiday at Crieff Hyrdo

Cherry, Hannah and Colin headed off to Crieff Hydro for the first week of the summer holiday break. The weather was unfortunately very poor with no sunshine and quite a lot of rain. Stayed at the chalets again. Enjoyed a busy sporty time nevertheless.

SOSOL at Hopetoun House

Cycled out to Hopetoun House to take part in the SOSOL event. Nice cycle there and back mainly on cycle routes. Running the light green to protect my heel. Pushed hard and generally ran well on an easy course beating all the juniors and pensioners on the short course.

Max leaves for Mongolia

Max headed off on Saturday for his month away in Mongolia.

Olympic Torch

We headed off to Bruntsfield Links to watch the Olympic Torch go by. A big crowd out on a lovely sunny evening.

Middle Distance - Inchmarnoch

Final day of orienteering. Colin got lost at control 6 and gave up. Max did really well on the black course coming in much faster than he did on the first day. The speed of the top athletes on these events is amazing with the winner coming is at around 32 mins to Max's 75.

Lovely location beside the river Dee which looks like worth revisiting for a cycle in future.

Robert Gordon University and Banchory Sprint

Headed to RGU in Aberdeen in the morning. A good look around the Garthdee Campus and the City Centre. Got a good look around the architecture building and time with the course tutor which was really nice having just turned up on spec.

Sprint race later in the day at Banchory. Max was on the elite race and so was carefully quarantined and put through special lanes to approach the start. Both Max and Colin were a bit slow !

An Socach

A day off from the Orienteering to climb a munro. Headed from the A93 up to An Socach. The climb to the high ground wasn't too hard but the long cold walk to along the summit ridge, several km there and back was quite tiring.

Colin had a trip near the end and badly bruised his left ankle. Able to walk OK but looks quite nasty.

Munro 64 bagged for Colin. 5 hours walking in total.

Scottish Championships

Max and Colin headed up North to the Dee Valley for a long weekend of orienteering and hill walking. Saturday was the individual race of the Scottish Championships in Glen Feardar just outside Braemar.

Colin ran OK on the M45L course coming in a bit quicker than expected given recent form. Max did OK on the M18S and being the only competitor was the winner of the class.

Rigg Race

First entry to this race from Balerno. Nice monday evening event with a reasonable sized field of a couple of hundred. Pleasant road course out to the edge of the Pentlands. Pleased with how I ran after the exertions of the day before.

Long O

Headed out to the Pentlands on a scorching morning for the annual Long Orienteering event. With the temperatures high I set off slowly to conserve energy. Did OK until around control 13 when the heat and time out go to me and needed to move to a steady walk for the last hour or so. Good course and made extra challenging by the heat.

Slieve Bearnagh - British Champs Race

Travelled down to Newcastle with Max Snr to take part in the short race in the British Championship series. The weather was nice most of the way round and some great views from the summits. A steep and very rugged race with lots of hard rockly terrain to battle through. Peformance was generally ok but need to push harder than I've been doing. 171% of winning time and very near the back of the field. Nice, well organised event.

Meadows 2 Mile - again

Another Wednesday night race at the Meadows. Hannah came out to support this time and the encourage helped achieve a better time of 13 min 54 seconds. Had to really push hard to get below 14 mins but pleased to have got a somewhat better time.

Stuc a Chroin

A tough race in tough terrain, climbing the summit of Stuc A Chroin at 975 m height.

The race starts easy enough along forest tracks with a steady climb before a climbing a grassy hill and descending to Glen Ample. Then the tough bit starts with a sheer climb to Beinn Each and then rough terrain like that pictured through to the summit of Stuc. Nice weather and great marshalling make this a painful but pleasant race.

Time was slow as expected given lack of form at 4 hrs and around 2 mins. I was around 30 mins faster 2 years ago ! Still, pleased that I was still jogging at the end after 4 hours.

Meadows 2 Mile

Midweek race over 2 miles at the Meadows. Slowest ever run round this distance in spite of feeling reasonably good. Time of 14 min 13 secs.

Loch Leven Cycle

Hannah and Colin headed out to Loch Leven for a 14 mile charity cycle for Scottish Cot Death Association. The weather wasn't great but it stayed dry and was a pleasant enough 3 hour cycle.

It was a there and back event to the RSPB reserve at Vane Farm.

Pedal on Parliament

Hannah and Colin joined a large crowd cycling from the Meadows to Parliament to ask for better facilities for cyclists.

PHOTOS TO FOLLOW

Mountain Bike Orienteering - Glentress

Second attempt at Mountain Bike O got off to a bad start. Really struggled with the map at first and the challenge of spotting the car trails from the one way single track routes. Got some help from another cyclist who was interested in the sport. Eventually got into it and made some ground although still a few mistakes. Just got back within the allowed 3 hours in 5th of 6th at the time of finishing. Full results not in yet.

British Champs - Coledale Horseshoe

Travelled down to the Lake District for the first British Championship race of the season. This was a Medium distance race of around 8.5 miles and 915 m of climb. The weather was a bit mixed with conditions ok at the start but there was snow on the first climb to Grisdale Pike at about 790 metres. I started slow near the back of the field and pretty much stayed there the whole way round. After a descent to the head of the valley there was a very steep ascent which was a scramble in places. Then decent run along the undulating ridge on the way back. Descent strong finish managed to pick up a few places and beat a few of the people I'd been running beside earlier in the race.

A time of just over 2 hrs which was about what I expected.

JK Day 3 - Craig a Barns

Another day orienteering at Craig a Barns just above Dunkeld. Another tough day in the forest with lots of windblow trees and slow movement through the forest. Max was again 4th but Colin was a lot further down the finish list this time.

JK Day 2 at Dunalastair

Max and Colin headed off to Loch Tummel and Dunalastair forest for the first day of the JK and some tough orienteering. Huge crowd of people here for the event from all over the world.

Both Max and Colin did pretty well. Colin was 6th in the M45S and Max came 4th in the M18S.

Hannah and Cherry headed off to the Loch of Lowes to see the Osprey and other wildlife and then walked around Dunkeld.

JK Sprint - Livingstone

Max and Colin headed off to Livinstone for the JK Sprint. We arrived early to help out with the set-up. An hour spent creating the tape grid and then another hour pinning numbers to a string ! Then 2 hours setting off the runners and finally a 20 minute sprint race. Both did reasonably OK.

In the evening we all headed off to Dunkeld for two nights at the Hilton and for the next two days of the JK.

Pentlands in the Snow

Colin headed out for a walk in the snow covered Pentlands. After temperatures hitting 20 degrees a few weeks ago the temperature in April had dropped down to freezing and the hills near Edinburgh covered in snow. Not great weather for 2 weeks off work.

Kilomathon (half)

Colin got up early to head down to Leith to run in the kilomathon (really a half kilo). One of the nicest courses I've ever run on going along the various cycle paths in North Edinburgh. Very cold to start off but the temperature rising throughout the day. Good strong pace throughout - although the time not brilliant compared to my historic best. Still - it felt good to be pushing along quite strongly throughout. The finish was in Murrayfield stadium so very nice end to the race.

Came 136 of 516 runners.

Jogged home afterwards and later on cycled down to Leith with Hannah to collect the car.

Deuchary Hill Race

Colin headed off to Dunkeld on Sunday morning to enjoy a long(ish) hill race in blistering hot weather. Race organiser required everyone to call full waterproof body cover but temperatures reached around 20 degrees on the course.

Lovely and very scenic course taking in relatively gentle climbs and the modest summit of Deuchery Hill. Nice views over the Perthshire countryside.

Struggled quite a bit. Did a 3 hour cycle the day before and this may have sapped a little of my stamina. Pleased at still having some legs to run the last segment of the race.

No sign of results or race photos yet but too around 2 hrs 30 mins to get round.

The Hunger Games

Three of us headed out to see the Hunger Games in Imax. Good film.

Also went out of cycle to Gladhouse reservoir on new bike.

The Doll

Hannah was acting in her Drama club presentation of a short spooky play called The Doll. Hannah was excellent as amongst other roles a funny old granny.

Mountain Bike O

Hannah and Colin went out to the Pentland hills for our first attempt at mountain bike orienteering. A three hour score course. Colin ignored Hannah's suggested route and proceeded to pick off the lowest scoring controls on the course ! Good spirits were maintained throughout the 3 hours. Nice social events with tea and sandwiches provided at the end.

More Pictures from Chapelgill

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Cherry, Hannah and Colin went out to see this at the cinema on Saturday night. Enjoyable light viewing. Worth watching.

Max was away to West Linton for a weekend training for his Mongolia trip with World Challenge.

Chapelgill Hill Race

Officially the steepest hill race in the UK. Saturday saw glorious sunshine and reasonably warm weather for this early season race near Broughton. A very tough, steep ascent and relatively poor form meant I was quickly walking and swearing on the hard climb. The descent was also rough and steep and I got passed by 4 or 5 people on the way down. Great fun in spite of the pain. Rubbish time - 2 minutes slower than in the 2 previous outings at this race.

St Andrews

Colin went away for the weekend to St Andrews for some city orienteering. Saturday was the Scottish Sprint championships were he put in a reasonable performance. Fairly slow but accurate. Sunday was a street race and got around the 1o k course in just under an hour which was pretty pleasing. No major mistakes on either day.

Max went off to North Yorkshire and the Lake District for a geography field trip.

Richard @ 50

Travelled down on the train to Stevenage to visit Richard and celebrate his 50th. Gathered in the local pub in Little Wymondly for a nice meal on Saturday afternoon. Bit of a flying visit as we returned home on the train on Sunday morning.

Gran Canaria

A weeks holiday in Gran Canaria at the Meloneras resort. Nice to get away from the cold weather and enjoy a week of clear skys and 20 degree temperatures. A fairly lazy week of poolside lounging and nice meals.

Sprint O

Max and Colin headed off to Blackford Hill for the annual sprint O organised by ESOC. A decent largely error free run from Colin gave him 7th place in the MV class. Max was 53rd in the overall classification of around 84 runners.

Max was tired and missed the chase at East Craiglockhard. Colin was a bit slower this time and lost a places finishing 8th.

Nice sunny morning with the temperature rising to around 6 degrees.

Burns Weekend Orienteering

Colin and Max took part in a pair of orienteering events in Edinburgh City Centre over the weekend. Saturday was the street race taking in Pollock Halls and Southside and Old Town. Decent runs from Max and Colin with Colin having the edge.

On Sunday we both went on the green course in Holyrood Park. Colin came 6th and Max 13th of the 84 finishers.

Norwegian Orienteering

Max and Colin headed out to Corstorphine Hill for a Come and Try It event. The Green course was a Norwegian style with no map just a small map segment at each control indicating where to go next. Challenging but we both seemed to get on pretty well with it.

Nigel Kennedy

Colin and Cherry went to the Usher Hall to see Nigel Kennedy play the Four Seasons and other stuff. A very alternative take on the music with a lot of jazz influenced stuff. Generally very good although went on just a bit too long.

Greenmantle Dash

Colin headed down to Broughton for the Greenmantle Dash. A short sharp tough race involving a jump over a wall, a river crossing, a muddy marshy field then very steep up and down Trahenna Hill. Time pretty poor at over 26 minutes my worst effort in this race.

Portobello Promathon 2012

Max and Colin headed down to Portobello for this new year running event. A very big crowd this year - 386 runners - almost twice as many as in any previous year.

Colin performed pretty well coming in at 29 mins 29 secs in 193rd place. Max was a bit under the weather but did well to finish in 33 min 26 secs.