Sunday, December 29, 2013

South Queensferry

Maxwell was across for a long weekend. Pictured out at South Queensferry on a cold but sunny morning following by lunch at the Hawes Inn.

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Festive Frolic - Vogrie

The 4 of us plus Maxwell went out to Vogrie for the annual festive orienteering event. The puzzle element was relatively straightforward this year. Max had a good run whilst Colin and Hannah had a leisurely walk with an occasional jog. Nice meal at the Sun Inn afterwards.

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Beecraigs Trail Race

Great weather for this annual boxing day event. I went for the two lap 14 km option around the lovely woodland course which takes in a loop of a lake and a small hill. Felt fine for lap 1 saving myself for a strong second loop which never happened as I was feeling tired and ending up plodding round the second loop at a very slow pace. Lovely event though.

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Queens Drive Race

A warm but windy Sunday morning for my fourth outing in this race. A couple of weeks for fairly active training helped to pushed fitness levels up and was able to push hard round the course. Beat quite a few familiar faces by a decent margin so felt like a pretty good effort.

Sunday, December 01, 2013

Glasgow 3 Parks

Max and Colin entered the 3 Parks race for the first time in a number of years. The weather was nice this time - clear skies and relatively warm for the time of year. Courses at Garscube, Kelvingrove and Drumpellier Country Park.

Fairly decent performances but as always the competition is tough.

Sunday, November 17, 2013

SOSOL at Duns

First orienteering in ages. Travelled down to Duns on a beautiful clear but cold day. Feet were a mess after yesterday so aim was just to walk round and navigate well which I did. Place looked a nice area for a visit and walk.

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Braid Hills Cross Country

Ran at the Braid Hills Cross Country on a nice saturday afternoon. Most runners were young university students so I was right at the back of the field. Felt pretty tough. Reasonably pleased with performance even if a couple of minutes slower than last year. Blisters on heels unfortunately from the downhills.

Saturday, November 09, 2013

ATP Tennis and Once, the Musical

The whole family travelled down to London for a busy weekend in the Capital. On saturday afternoon we went to the O2 to see Federer beat Del Potro in a very close game. Very different atmosphere to Wimbledon with lots of noisy videos in the breaks.

In the evening we saw Once at the Phoenix Theatre. Very good.

Saturday, November 02, 2013

Dumyat Dash

Conditions were very harsh for this race from Menstrie up to the summit of Dumyat by a fairly circuitous route. There was heavy rain, strong winds and low temperatures throughout with body getting very cold. Popped on waterproof jacket near the summit which helped a lot otherwise might have been in trouble. Started slow and gained pace and confidence as the race progressed. A couple of minutes slower than last year but not a great surprise given the conditions.

Really enjoyed it in spite of the bad conditions.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Herb Walk


Finished the Amber weekend with a Herb walk in Dunkeld getting a short guided talk on medical and culinary uses of local plants and trees.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Ben Vrackie and Enchanted Forest

Climbed Ben Vrackie on Saturday morning. Good weather for the ascent. We extended the walk with some orienteering over rough ground and then a long hike back as the weather worsened.

In the evening we played pool and then went to the Enchanted Forest.


Friday, October 25, 2013

Dougie MacLean and Karine Polwart

Max and Colin travelled up to Pitlochry on Friday evening for the Perthshire Amber festival and show with Dougie and Karine at the Edradour Distillery. A great show with both performers doing great sets in a really nice little venue.

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Gran Canaria

A very pleasant week for Hannah, Cherry and Colin in Gran Canaria. The weather was great - a little too hot to do much more than lounge by the pool for most of the day. Stayed at the Lopesan Villa Del Conde which was very nice but we preferred the hotel from previous years - the Lopesan Costa Meloneras.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

The Tour Ride

Another cycle event. Another 50 miles this time from Drumlanrig as part of the Tour of Britain event. The full tour stage starts in Peebles and finishes in Drumlanig. The 100 miles course followed the tour course whilst the 50 miler did a loop from Drumlanrig and the latter part following the stage route. The distance is tough and took 4 hrs 30 mins to get round with a break at about mile 35. I'm pretty sure I must be last this time as I passed no-one and seemed to get passed by everyone at great speed. The weather and scenery were again great.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Othello

Went to the National Theatre to watch Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear play Othello. It was very good and the theatre a great venue. Long mind you at 3 hrs 15 mins.

Sunday, September 08, 2013

Tour of Tweeddale

Out for a 50 mile cyclo sportif from Peebles around the hills and valleys to the south of the town. Lovely weather and beautiful scenario. Much more relaxed than expected with a coffee and cake stop after 20 miles and another soup and roll stop after another 15. Tiring work. My big heavy bike probably doesn't help but I'm amazed how fast everyone else is!

Saturday, August 24, 2013

More Festival Shows

Also went to see Alistair Magowan, Hazel O'Connor and Liz Lochead at the Book Festival.

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Edinburgh Fringe Festival

A busy week of festival going activity. Went to the following shows:

The Boy with Tape on His Face
Eric and Little Ern
Alba Flamenca
Mugenkyo Taiko Drummers
Paul Merton and his Impro Chums
Tubular Bells for 2

All of them were very good in their different ways.

Thursday, August 08, 2013

Archery and Kayaking

We went out for a 2 hour archery session and Auchrannie and then a 3 hour kayak journey the next day from Brodick along the coast. Both were good though the kayaking very tiring. Nice dinner on Friday at Auchrannie.

Wednesday, August 07, 2013

Machrie Standing Stones

Headed across the island walked round the stunning standing stones at Machrie. Some fantastic weather.

Tuesday, August 06, 2013

Lochranza

On Tuesday headed up the coast to Lochranza for a drive and short walk.

Monday, August 05, 2013

Holy Island

While Max and Colin were up the hill Cherry, Hannah and Les took a boat trip to Holy Island.

Goatfell

Max and Colin climbed up Goatfell on Monday morning. A fairly strenuous ascent with lots of flies about. A tough descent into Glen Rosa and decided not to tackle the other ridge as we had been out a good long time already.

Sunday, August 04, 2013

Arran Holiday - Day 1

Had a nice walk to Brodick Castle along the Coastal path. Nice weather and lots of activity at the Castle.

Saturday, August 03, 2013

Arran Holiday

Start of a week holiday on Arran. Staying at a nice big house in Brodick.

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Pentland Skyline

Max and Colin went for a long walk around the Pentland Skyline route. It was a nice and cool start at 8.15 and the clouds hung around for the first 3 hours which made for ideal walking conditions. The sky then cleared for a lovely sunny afternoon and reasonably high temperatures of around 18 degrees.
Max managed his feet well and avoided blisters by removing his socks. Food and water just lasted us to the end. Around 8 hours to get round 16 miles and 6200 ft of ascent.

Friday, July 19, 2013

Allermuir with Hannah

Hannah went up Allermuir with Colin on a hot Friday evening. Lovely but challenging conditions. Stopped off on the way back for a coke at Swanston Golf Course.

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Great Edinburgh Run

Very hot temperatures for this big city centre 10 k race. Felt in good form and running quite nicely but time was really slow at around 53 mins 50 secs. Partly lack of hard training and partly the hot temps.

Saturday, July 06, 2013

Dollar Hill Race

First long (or I think technically a Class A Medium) race in a while. Temperatures very high which made racing challenging. I was well prepared with lots of water and food in my backpack and started really slowly to ensure I would still be running at the end. Found it very tough and didn't move particularly fast round the course. 7 distinct named summits, with four above 600 m and the highest at 670 m. Race starts with a long tough climb up to Saddle Hill after which you stay up on the high grounds until the long descent at the end.

Camin 98th of 112 in 160% of the winning time. Not too bad given the length and conditions.

Finished with some nasty blisters resulting from the amount of up and down hill.

Dollar looks a nice place for a future visit.

Wednesday, July 03, 2013

Street O in the Old Town

A bit of an error prone run round the Old Town starting by Parliament. Nice evening.

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Long O - Lomond Hills

A very windy day out on the hills with threats of rain that never quite arrived. Ran the short 10 K course and was pleased with a course that wasn't too rough and gave lots of fairly easy running on paths. Very pleased to come in second place of 18 - normally there are many more coming ahead of me. They must have all been elsewhere this weekend!

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Falkland Hill Race

Colin went off with Hannah to the pretty village of Falkland in Fife. A short sharp race up East Lomond from the village central. Nice little race. Form seemed to be reasonably good. Wander round the village with Hannah afterwards.


Saturday, June 22, 2013

Orienteering at Yellowcraigs

Horrible course running through endless fields of nettles. Gave up on two controls.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Street O Colinton

Made the most of being in Edinburgh and got out for a bit of urban orienteering around Colinton Dell. Pretty good performance on a nice sunny summer evening.

Sunday, June 09, 2013

Jupiter Artland

We headed out on a sunny Sunday afternoon to Jupiter Artland which has been there for 5 years but escaped our attention thus far. Lovely country grounds with lots of interesting sculptures. Nice lunch as well.

Wednesday, June 05, 2013

View from Greenwich

Got the tube out to Greenwich after work and then walked back to Canary Wharf


Saturday, June 01, 2013

Haddington 10K

First race in quite a while. Not feeling on great form so headed out at an easy pace with modest ambitions. Soon found I was even slower than planned and couldn't bring the pace back up to my 50 min target. Ended up with a time of around 52 min 30 secs which is slowest ever 10k.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Pedal On Parliament

Hannah and Colin joined 4000 others for the Pedal on Parliament. We headed off to Morningside first to join a feeder ride to make the cycle a little bit more substantial. Good fun going down the Royal Mile with no traffic about.

Friday, May 03, 2013

Wild Thing

Max dressed up as Max from Where the Wild Things Are for his last day of school

Saturday, April 06, 2013

St Andrews

After Normans Law we headed to St Andrews for a short visit and overnight stop. We went out along the beach on a cool but sunny evening. Dinner as Zizzis was a bit disappointing. They didn't quite get it right.

The next day we visited the Castle and Cathedral and then the Botanic Garden.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Normans Law

Max and Colin, supported by Cherry & Hannah went to Normans Law in Fife for a nice little hill race. The weather was still cold with lots of snow on the ground making running slow and hard work. Max set off strongly quickly getting 100 m ahead and then well out of sight of Colin. At the foot of the main ascent Max seemed to be slowing and Colin managed to pass just at the summit. Nice descent home with Colin coming in about 2 minutes ahead.

Nice cakes and tea afterwards.




Thursday, March 21, 2013

Night O at Riccarton

Max and Colin enjoyed some great night orienteering at the Heriot Watt Campus. A quick sprint round the university buildings with some pretty sound navigation.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Yikes - 4 weekends without a race !

Changing jobs and colds have put me out of action for the best part of a month ! Still got the tail end of the cold and sore, swollen mouth. Hopefully get back to full speed soon.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Night O at Craigmillar

Hannah and Colin headed off to Craigmillar for a night O event around the park surrounding the Castle. Tough course including a bit through the housing estates. We got round pretty efficiently in just over an hour.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Cati - O at Dalmeny Estate

Hannah and Colin headed off to Dalmeny Estate for a come and try it orienteering. Did pretty well on a reasonably challenging orange course with Hannah navigating pretty well.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Monday, February 11, 2013

Carnethy Talk

Hannah, Max and Colin went along to Kings Buildings to hear an interesting range of talks. Michael Nowicki talked nervously about his London to Edinburgh run and late Andy Mouncney talked about his ultra running exploits. All very interesting.

Sunday, February 03, 2013

Esoc Sprint

Colin did the annual ESOC sprint orienteering, this year at Riccarton Campus. Very pleased with the results coming 7th in the MV category and 23rd of 69 from all competitors.

Monday, January 28, 2013

Big WeekEnd

A very busy weekend of orienteering. A night event on Friday at Kind Buildings. Short sharp race taking just over 20 minutes.

On Saturday there was a long city race starting at Bristo Square and going through the Old Town. A good performance probably as I know the area very well.

On Sunday a prologue on Arthurs Seat and some bitterly cold weather. Time was pretty poor for this one. Then a chasing event in the city centre starting and finishing near the Parliament building.


Sunday, January 13, 2013

Tri-Trail Race Pentlands

White out conditions for the Tri_Trail race in the Pentlands. Weather was fine at home but on arrival at Threpmuir Reservoir the snow started and didn't stop for the whole race. A new event and first of a series this race brought a slightly different crowd of triathletes as well as hill runners. I started very slowly and was falling off the back of the field over the first half mile. Eventually moved forward into second last place and enjoyed a very slow paced jog in the freezing snowy temperatures. Was struggling a bit at Carlops but after snacks at Nine Mile Burn and a bit of a walk up the hill to Monks Rig I was pleased to run at a reasonable pace over the last couple of miles. Around 22 km in 2 hrs 43 mins. Tough but enjoyable.

Sunday, January 06, 2013

Glentress



Colin headed off to Glentress for a ride round the blue course. Around 1 hr 45 minutes to complete the loop.

Wednesday, January 02, 2013

Greenmantle Dash

Another festive favourite. Temperatures were relatively warm at 8 degrees although the ground was very wet. Felt tough at the beginning and wasn't expecting a good time but was very surprised to be hitting the road at around 20 minutes and pushed hard to get a personal best time by just 3 seconds from previous best in 2007.

Tuesday, January 01, 2013

Portobello Promathon

My 7th time running on this new years day race. A nice clear morning and first year the race has run at a new start location and with pre-entry. Organisation and parking seemed to be an improvement. Set off at a steady pace and got HR up to around 164 and maintained this for a couple of miles. Pushed harder at the end but finished with a slightly disappointing time of around 29.45 which was my 5th best time at the event.

Later in the day we had a wee trip to the National Museum, the Caves and then to see Life of Pi in 3D.

New Years Resolution - never, ever go to a film in 3D again !