Blowing the dust off.

Well, it's been a absolute age since I last updated my blog, not because nothing much has been happening in my life but I'm aware that I spend too much time on my PC to be entirely healthy. Also, this is sort of supposed to be a running blog and there wasn't much of that happening at the end of last year.

Since my last post we've acquired a new dog. Our old collie cross mongrel Roger died at the end of last year after a very short illness. It took a while to get over his loss but at the end of December we took the plunge and took on a rescue dog from the SSPCA.
Here he is, he's called "Ringo" and as far as we can tell he's a full blooded border collie, about 9 months old now.

Like all border collies he's quite demanding of attention but he's also very rewarding to own. He loves running and is already pretty good on the lead and has run with me everywhere this year. Did his first 21 miler yesterday and celebrated by trying to scoff 3/4 of a dead rabbit on the way home.

Runningwise, after a pretty cr*p year last year I didn't do myself any favours by falling on the ice and cracking a couple of ribs about 3 weeks ago. I actually heard the "crunch" when I fell and it wasn't the ice. In some ways though, it's been a blessing in disguise as although painful, it actually hasn't stopped me running slowly and given my injury history, running slowly is working just fine for me. It's also meant that I've had more time to run with my wife Muriel who is training for her first half marathon (woohoo!) and my daughter (woohoo again!) who is just getting started. Off her own bat I should add, no pressure from me at all. The weekend before last Muriel, the dogs and I ran from Troon station to home and at 11.5 miles this was the furthest Muriel had ever run. She managed just fine and I'm really looking forward to running the Bath half marathon with her on the 7th of March.

I should be worrying about getting fit for the Highland Fling in April but I can't worry about that as I'm wetting myself worrying about the Hardmoors 55 on the 20 of March! I've got some serious endurance building to do between now and then.



Enough of my running, the other big news is of course the wonderful new Scottish Ultra Marathon Series as masterminded by Murdo MacDonald, the Highland Fling Race organiser. Once he got the idea he's been a human whirlwind creating two brand new scottish ultra races (or rather, asking folk in a way they couldn't refuse, to organise them) and resurrected one old one (The Speyside Way). It's just astonishing what he's achieved in so little time. What's more, today's big news is that he's secured Ayr Town Hall as the venue for the post race ball. This is going to be one brilliant do.

If you're an ultra runner but hadn't considered the series, have a look at the SUMS site. Don't forget to buy your ball tickets (only £5 a head!) as it's sure to be a sell out.