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

Slioch

Scottish Championships long hill race. Spent a few days up north where the scenery was outstanding.

Weather for the race wasn't great with rain and cloud at the top. A pleasant flat run for several miles before the tough climb started. The trail was fairly rough and visibility became challenging as heigh was gained. As always these mountains go on and on and the top is always further than expected but eventually made it in fairly good shape but with visibility just a few metres.

Unfortunately the way back wasn't obvious and I headed off the wrong way. Corrected myself after around 3 minutes and backtracked and found the return route but struggled to stay on the little path that there was. With lots of very steep hill it started to get a bit worrying and focus changed from racing to how to get off the hill safely. Took my compass bearing and used this to head down and eventually hit a small lake - I was quite a bit away from where I expected to be but this was familiar ground I had seen on the way up and was back on track again.

The rest of the mountain descent was slow and rough and the lost time put me well down the field. On returning to the flat run in my legs were very tired and it was about half run and half walk along this segment.

Finally got in around 4 hours tired but pleased to have made it in one piece and felling reasonable at the end.

Livingstone Urban Orienteering

Helped out at the Interlopers event in Livingstone and had a run round the course. Fun making the maze-O course.

Ben Lomond Hill Race

Scottish Championship medium race at Ben Lomond. An early start to the day to drive to Balmaha and then get the mini-bus to Rowardennan. Great weather and scenery and lots of the usual pre race nerves.

The race quickly gets stuck into the ascent which is a reasonably gradiented tourist path up the mountain. Pushed reasonably hard but felt my heart saying to stop so eased off for a while to get comfortable again. Reached the summit in reasonably good shape and enjoyed stunning views of the Loch Lomond. Still some snow at the top which had to be carefully negotiated.

The descent was a joy with lots of running on pleasant grass with few rocks and a gradient just shallow enough to allow running at pace. It became a bit harder on the knees at the bottom but finished strong and feeling good with a time of 1 hr 53 mins which isn't bad for getting up and down a Munro.

NI Trip

Visit to Northern Ireland to see Maxwell in hospital with his kidney problems.

Run to Allermuir

A long easy training run from home to the Pentlands and Allermuir summit. 14 miles in around 3 hours.

Portmeirion & Carnarfon Castle

A long weekend away with Tim and Warren in Wales. On Saturday I did they race while they took a trip to Llandudno. 

On Sunday we headed off to nearby Portmeirion. The place was very beautiful and there was the added bonus of a prisoner convention being on at the time with lots of people in fancy dress.

We continued driving on to Carnarfon to see the castle and have lunch before driving on through Llanberis back to the rented house in Dolwydellan.

Lots of beer drunk over three days in Wales.

Ras y Moelwyn - British Medium

Ran today in the British Championship Medium Race in Blaenau Ffestioniog in Snowdonia. The weather was absolutely stunning with totally clean skies and temperatures heading towards 16 degrees. 

The race started in the centre of the village where there was a bit of a party atmosphere with stalls and music playing. The race started at 2 pm with a run up the high street, over the railway and then into the mountains. There was some queuing on the footbridge over the railway.

About a mile on pleasant trails before a steep incline up to a lake and a flat section along the side of it. Then steep upwards along a path up the side of the valley before the real mountain terrain began. Did reasonably well on the ascent but really struggled on the rough downhill bits.

Was tiring badly after 90 minutes and struggled to move at any pace over a rough section after the second reservoir. 

Final time was 2 hrs 16 minutes which was slower than the target range of 2 hr 5 to 10 mins.

Very friendly race and the views were fabulous throughout.

Cycle Biggar, Broughton, Dawyck

A nice gentle cycle of around 20 miles from Dawyck to Biggar via Broughton and back again by different quiet roads. A really pleasant route. Stopped for coffee and scones in Biggar.

Deuchary Hill Canter

I missed the hill race last Sunday as my feet were blistered after the race the previous day. So a week later I decided to travel the route as it is one of the nicest most scenic races on the calendar.

Headed out early on Sunday morning to arrive in Dunkeld around 10 am. My aim was for a gentle canter but my legs had no energy at all and it turned out to be a walk for about 90% of the journey. The weather was fantastic and it was a really pleasant outing.

Birnam Hill Race - SHR Champs - Short

First race in 6 race Scottish Championship Series. Today was a short race from Birnam/Dunkeld up to the summit of Birnam Hill and back. The climb up to the top wasn't too bad - just too steep to run so a fast paced walk most of the way to a long muddy plateau at the top. The route continued down the far side of the hill on mud and grass before contouring back around the south side of the hill. A long descent on stony path at pace resulted in blister appearing and the last mile or so over undulating terrain was tough after putting in such a hard effort on previous sections. A good hard effort and was pretty pleased with my performance.

Race time was 48 mins 24 secs and 164% of the winning time. Placed 180 of 241.

SOL 2 - Pitlochry

Out on the blue course today. As always the SOL events prove to be really challenging. Navigation was generally OK this time round but the terrain was so rough with fallen trees everywhere that progress was very slow. Got round in 1 hr 26 minutes.

Risk Minds

A week in Amsterdam at the Risk Minds Insurance Conference. A long time to be sitting listening to talks ! I was presenting on the Thursday with numbers dwindling by that stage of the event.

Hill walk with Max - Crianlarich

We had planned a long munro bagging expedition for a while and headed out to Crianlarich to see what was possible. The cold weather this winter and early spring meant that most of the hills were still covered in snow and we weren't equipped for full on winter walking.

In the end we were able to walk up to about 700 m and with the summit not too far away had to turn back. We also did a short walk at the head of Loch Lomond (pictured).

SOL 1- Gullane Dunes

A day out helping at the Interlopers run orienteering event at Gullane. A lot of standing about and didn't feel like racing at the end so went for a short run along the coast. Nice area and worth planning a walk there at some point.