Happily Ever After
Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running
Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.
Early Starts And Optimism
by Russell Turner - 16:26 on 15 May 2025
Who’d have thought it? It turns out that pre-breakfast runs can be a satisfactory start to the day. Decent weather probably helps.
This ground-breaking athleticism took place in Killin, Stirlingshire, where on Monday several surviving members of the Kawasaki GT Club gathered for the second year in what seems to have become an annual reunion. Age and infirmity meant that not many were on two wheels, myself included, but we had a good time catching up, and over three days of spectacularly scenic touring we ranged from Oban and Inverary to Rannoch Station and Pitlochry. All this activity meant that the best time for penultimate taper week runs on Tuesday and today was around 7am and with an empty stomach.
An over-heated bedroom and windless blue skies combined to make the early starts no problem and allowed me to explore some of the tracks around the village, a couple of them on old railway viaducts across the Tay. Surrounded by more gorgeous scenery, and with an earful of iPod rock (I’m coming round to music on the run), I performed faster than necessary for taper runs despite the unexpected Highland warmth.
Gerald the Biker Bear, enjoying his time away from The Rural Retreat
Whether I’ll continue this now I’m home, and when the hot spell is over, remains to be seen, although I like to think that I won’t discard early morning runs completely. This won’t happen on Saturday, when a 60min long run is scheduled, because I’m taking advantage of the Tomatin 10k the same day, just outside Inverness, which starts at 11am. It’s classed as a charity fundraising fun run, with barely more than 80 participants, so I shouldn’t be tempted to damage my marathon prospects with excessive speed.
The fine weather, of course, had been forecast to fade from next Thursday, with showers sprinkling Edinburgh and environs on Sunday. The latest forecast has cancelled the rain but kept sunshine and gentle breezes. With more than a week until marathon day, I won’t worry about racewear just yet. If it’s not windy, I’ll be happy with whatever else we get.
Despite my dire virtual effort less than three weeks ago, I’m inexplicably optimistic about Edinburgh and day-dreaming about a sub-5hr finish. Let’s hope it doesn’t all end in tears.
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