Stevenage

A few days down to Stevenage between Christmas and New Year to catch up with Percy and the other Westons.

JGHS Festive Concent

Hannah was drumming at the big christmas concert at the Usher Hall.

CATI at Mortonhall

Planned and organised an event at Mortonhall. Full SI controls so a bit more complex than the summer sprint events I have done recently. Enjoyed the many trips over the past few months checking out the area.

Conditions on the day of the event were terrible with heavy rain and high winds. It was just a Yellow status from the Met Office so I went ahead and the small number of participants seemed to have a great time.

Marshalling at Tinto Hill Race

With my knee still suffering I was on hill marshall duty at the Tinto Hill Race. I was about half way up the hill and enjoyed watching the parade of all abilities slog up the hill and then down again. Just the first 10 or so runners still managing to run the moderately steep section where I was.

Almondell Walk

We all headed out for a fairly length walk (around 2 hours total) from Almondell Country Park in Broxburn along the river as far as the Union Canal. Nice weather and lovely autumn trees.

Bridges

Cycled out to Hopetoun House and back. The new bridge is making good progress.

BBC Young Writers Award

We joined Hannah at the BBC for the National Short Story Awards and a live broadcast of the Front Row programme.

Almond Park

We took Les for a short walk around Almond Park in Livingston to celebrate his 61st birthday. Lunch afterwards at the Beefeater.

The Secret Herb Garden

Nice we trip to the herb gardens at the southside of Edinburgh. Enjoyed a nice wee lunch and walk round the gardens.

Morven

Final race of the Scottish Championship series was at the Morven Hill Race Deeside. With my leg still sore I had a reasonable ascent to the top but felt the need to protect my leg on the way down and got passed by quite a few runners and finished very near the back of the field.

The good news was that I had managed to finish all 6 championship races which only a very small number of runners had done.

In the final positions I finished 30th in the over 40's and 39th man overall. 

World Masters Wales

A long weekend down in Wales for the World Masters Mountain Running Championships. A great event at a great location with runners ranging from 35 to 83 at the event.

With my sore knee and limited training I wasn't expecting much. The course was relatively straightforward; more a hilly trail run than a mountain run but very pleasant nonetheless. I was right at the back of the field but delighted that a nice gentleman from Italy came in behind me to avoid the embarrassment of last place against the other 45 to 49 year olds. 44th place in the world sounds much better.

Kelpies

Lovely sunny day out with big crowds out to enjoy the Kelpies and surrounding parkland.

Glasgow 3 Parks

The 3 Parks Champs has moved to the summer and what a good decision that was ! No more sitting about in the freezing cold between races.

The first race this year was at Cathkin Braes which has been the site of many orienteering disasters. I headed out taking great care and this seemed to pay off with a pretty much error free run and a much better than expected ranking after the first round.

Race 2 moved on to Queens Park which should have been easy but I had a number or careless mistakes early on and then lost contact with the map twice in the middle of the course. Dropped several places down the rankings.

Race 3 was a Pollok Country Park and went very wrong in the forest section with an easy control taking 8 minutes of wandering around to locate.

All great fun but a poor performance in the end.

Portobello Park Run

I signed up for park runs about 5 years ago and finally managed to run my first event at Portobello. Max came along and we ran together for the first 4 km before I moved ahead for the last part of the race. Very nice weekly event which I should do more often.

New Trellis

Nice work !

Seven Sevens

A trip across to Northern Ireland for the British Champs long race. Nice to catch up with Maxwell and see him in much better shape after recent illness.

Sadly my right knee injury meant that I wasn't confident that I could make it round this long and brutal course. There was also a cut off at half way that I was very unlikely to make. I decided wisely just to climb to the top of Sleive Donard and see how I felt. A nice day for the race and some great views.

On the way back my knee was definitely feeling the worse for wear and it was definitely the right decision not to run.

Jupiter Artland

A family trip out to Jupiter Artland. Most of us had been once before but it was the first visit for Max. A very nice place with lots to see.

Two Inns Race

The second long race in the Scottish Championships. An interesting route from the Creaggan Inn to the Clachaig Inn near Glencoe. Lots of very remote hillside to traverse over generally rough and boggy ground with a few segments more rocky.

I set off very trepidatious with low expectations and hoping just to finish without embarrassing myself. I started slow and was in last place for around 20 minutes before starting to pass a few runners over the course of the next hour. The good news was that the legs held up well and I was able to finish feeling reasonably strong and able to run on the pathed bits of the last few kilometres. A really great race and was delighted to do well enough to get 2 championship points on the MV40 competition.

Running time was 4 hrs 58 minutes and came in 191% of the winning time.

Lingmell Dash

The Short race in the British Championship series was up to Lingmell from Wasdale Head. A "short" race but still climbing to a height only just short of Scafell Pike which was the next mountain along from Lingmell. The weather was great and the scenery stunning. In the end I had decided to make it a long day trip up which was a lot of driving but not too bad apart from some slightly dubious GPS directions.

The race itself was tough. After about 800 m a very steep climb commenced which took me up around half the height before a steadier climb began. As so often with these races the hill just seemed to go on and on and every time you thought you were at the summit another km or more came into view. The running was pretty nice on the higher ground although I was moving pretty cautiously particularly after the guy in front of me took a nasty tumble.

The final steep descent was very tough and I felt my legs drained of all energy in the final run in.

1 hr 22 mins and 191% of the winning time.

Home

We headed back home on Friday. We had intended to stop at Leven's Hall in the lake district but found it closed on Fridays :( Headed back via Moffat where Hannah was delighted to buy some Moffat Toffee.

Saltaire

Another great day out to the old mill town of Saltaire. Really interesting and pleasant town.

Haworth

Our next stop was in the Bradford area staying at the Premier Inn which was a big step up from the Travelodge. We had a nice trip to Haworth and a walk to the Bronte Waterfall and up onto the moors to visit the "Heathcliff" cottage. Good weather and a really nice walk. Haworth was lovely.

In the evening we visited Warren and family at their home in Leeds. Really nice to see them again.

Bristol

We headed on to Bristol and a somewhat unsatisfactory stay at the Travelodge. A very poor welcome and rooms that were only just acceptable - thankfully the single disappointing hotel in our travels.

The next morning we visited the Brunel ship and museum which was really excellent and very interesting.

Eden Project

Another great day out this time at the Eden Project with a mix of great outdoor gardens and two big indoor domes.

The Lost Gardens of Heligan

We had a nice morning on the beach building sandcastles:

In the afternoon Colin and Cherry went to the Lost Gardens of Heligan which was really excellent with lots to see in the many different parts of the garden.

Bovey Tracey and St Austell

The journey continued with a short stop in Bovey Tracey to visit Cherry's aunt and a stop at the world famous house of marbles

We headed onwards down some very windy roads to get to a hotel in a tiny village, Goram Haven. A lovely little cove and beach. The Llawnroc hotel was quite nice, stripey carpets excepted, and had a pool table which got plenty of usage.

Dorset, Chesil Beach, Bridport and Lyme Regis

Our next stop was a lovely "hotel" on the coast at Chesil Beach. Colin and Cherry has a nice self-catering apartment while Max and Hannah had a room with B&B. We were right by the coast with great views.

We enjoyed a pleasant walk along the coast to Bridport aka Broadchurch. Very scenic and nice to spot all the places from the TV show.

The next day we went to Lyme Regis and did some, not very successful, fossil hunting and walked around the town.

Salisbury

On the journey between Stevenage and Dorset we broke the journey at Salisbury and has a nice walk round the very nice town.

Stevenage

After Norwich we headed on to Stevenage for a two night stop. A nice dinner out with family on Sunday night and then on Monday Max and Colin headed out to Knebworth House for the day - a pleasant and interesting visit.

Max discovered that he can climb a pole !

University of East Anglia

We headed off the Norwich on friday afternoon after a bit more wandering and lecture attending on Friday morning in Cambridge.

The open day was on Saturday and again lots of talks to attend. The modern campus wasn't particularly attractive but the town looked very nice.

Hannah very much liked the course and this is target number 1 for her uni applications.

Cambridge

An early start the next day to attend an open day at Cambridge for Hannah to study the English course. Arrived in time to get parked near the English faculty and enjoyed attending a number of talks and lectures and general wandering about town. Colin caught up briefly with Ian for lunch.

In the evening we stayed in John's College.

Hannah decided it wasn't the course or university for her.

Peterborough

Onward travel to Peterborough and a nice dinner out at Pizza Express with Michael and Lusi in central Peterborough.

On our second day in Peterborough Colin and Cherry headed to the outdoor pool whilst Max went to the gym and Hannah rested.

Another nice meal in the evening with Michael, Lusi and Michael Angelo.

Whitby

We had a quick visit to the North York Moors visitor centre in the morning before getting on the train to Whitby and then walking along the coastline to Robin Hoods Bay. It turned out to be quite a tough walk with Hannah finding it heavy going. The journey took around 4 hours to get 6 miles.

We then took a bus back to Whitby and then train back into Danby later in the evening.

Nice views and walking.

Alnwick

On Sunday, and day 2 of the holiday, we headed off on the short drive to Alnwick where we visited the Gardens and then the Castle. Both were superb. The Gardens were really lovely with lots of variety and different areas. We had an interesting guided tour of the castle and a short time to look around on our own. Hannah and Cherry showed off their archery prowess.

Afterwards we travelled onwards to the village of Danby on the North York Moors where we would be staying for two nights.

The Hirsel and Cragside

Day 1 of our summer holiday tour. First stop was a short break in the drive at the Hirsel near Coldstream. We had a short 1 hour walk round the lake and then a nice coffee and snack before continuing the journey to Cragside.

Cragside was fabulous with lots and lots to see in the gardens, the various water and power works and in the house.

Afterwards we had a short drive to Rothbury and a one night stop at the Orchard House B&B.

Barony Castle and Mapa Scotland

Short family outing for lunch at Barony Castle and to look at the restoration of the great Polish Map of Scotland. The lunch was a bit soso.

Durisdeer Hill Race

Scottish Championship Medium hill race at Durisdeer. A surprisingly tough race with some pretty rough terrain in the middle section. Struggled at the end but a nice day out.

Pykestone Hill

Walk with Max up to Pykestone Hill via the Scrape from Stobo. A bit boring was the general verdict although nice to get out in the good weather.

Late Birthday Cake for Max