I’m having one of those frustrating weeks: no runs, no bike rides, not even the daily commute. At the weekend I missed out on a 60-mile cycle I had planned and a hike up Ben More Assynt in some of the most perfect weather you could hope for.
The reason? Well, I still don’t know. But after a visit to the doctor and a trip to Raigmore Hospital, I’m waiting on results of what the doc reckons could be a lung infection.
With a week to wait for results, this has already put my 5×50 challenge on hold, training for the Highland Cross has stopped and I’m not sure if I’ll be allowed to compete in the inaugural Etape Loch Ness on May 4th. I’ll be really disappointed if I miss out on this fantastic closed-road sportive event which will see entrants complete a 67-mile circuit of the loch, starting and finishing in Inverness and including more than 900ft of ascent.
I’ll have to wait on the doc’s advice on that one, but until then I just need to take it easy and see how I get on with a few gentle walks or rides round the block to see if my body can cope with a wee bit of exercise.
Posted from Inverness, Scotland, United Kingdom.
John at the finish of the half marathon. Picture courtesy SPP, by Alison Gilbert
I have been steadily improving my times at the Inverness Half over the last few years so I was pleased to continue that trend at the weekend with a 1:41.55 – even though I was hoping to break 1:40 for the first time in a long time! I felt pretty wrecked at the finish having managed to run sub-8 minute miles for all but two of the 13.2 miles. That was some achievement for me and shows that my training is starting to pay off.
That’s good news because on Friday I received confirmation that my team has been accepted for the Highland Cross again this year – so the half marathon is now just a stepping stone on the way to that much bigger challenge. Last year I ended up walking a bit of the last five or six miles of the ‘foot’ section so my aim this year is to keep running to the transition and see where that takes me!
I had family up at the weekend looking after the kids while I ran – and my wife Meg ran the 5k, the first race she’s done since we were married in 2009! I can’t believe it’s been that long as we actually met at a 10k race so running has always been a big part of our lives. She ran a fantastic 25 minutes and just maybe caught the running bug again!
My time saw me finish 419th out of 1703 finishers – see the full results here: http://www.invernesshalfmarathon.co.uk/result/36/2014-half-marathon-results/
Here’s a snippet of video my dad took as I shuffled my way to the finish line:
The cover of my new book, Walking and Cycling in the Highlands, which is due out at the end of March
This is the cover of my new walking and cycling guide to the Highlands. Thanks to my brother Iain for the great design! The book is due out at the end of March and will be available to pre-order via my website very soon, as well as be available in the usual shops from April. Watch this space for further details!
The man in the yellow jacket in this classic running ’selfie’ is Roddy Riddle – a man who has inspired thousands of people with diabetes (and many others besides) with his determination to show how exercise can help the condition. Last year he became the first person with type 1 diabetes to complete the Marathon des Sables, the toughest foot race on earth.
I was doing an on-the-run interview with Roddy for our spring Active Outdoors magazine, largely talking about his next big challenge, the Ice Ultra, in 2015.
We had a really interesting chat, so much so that I came home and wrote a fair chunk of the feature immediately! And it was great to be out in good company on a proper winter’s morning on the Caledonian Canal towpath in Inverness, where we saw loads of other runners out enjoying the fresh, crisp air.
My trusty boots enjoy their final outing - with crampons for good measure!
It’s been a long relationship but it had to end sometime. This weekend I gave my trusty Scarpa Manta’s one last outing on the hills. My new three-season boots won’t take a crampon so I had to revert to my winter boots until I can afford a new pair. Their soles may have gone almost bare and there may be a hole or two in the outer fabric but they still did a job. However, I wouldn’t want to trust them to a full winter’s outing on the Scottish mountains, so it’s time to say goodbye.
The parting made me think about how long I’ve had the boots. It turns out that I’ve had them since 2005 – and thank goodness for digital cameras for recording for posterity the dates of all my walks since the early noughties! I think I must have bought them, along with my Grivel G12s, for a trip to Chamonix to do some glacier walking and get some Alpine experience with my brother and sister-in-law.
In them, I’ve climbed a few hills in that time, mainly in Scotland. We used to travel north to Arrochar when I lived in Glasgow and since moving to Inverness they’ve travelled far and wide to trek on the hills, moors and forests of the Highlands.
Saturday’s walk took us up Sgorr nan Lochan Uaine, a Corbett in betwen Loch Clair, in Glen Torridon, and Achnashellach. The boots proved their worth when we had to don the crampons for the final ascent on the hard snow, almost perfect for walking the last steep section to the summit shelter – which was filled with snow upon our arrival.
At the summit of Sgorr nan Lochan Uaine above Glen Torridon.
It was an unexpectedly perfect day as far as the weather was concerned and we enjoyed fine views over Liathach and Beinn Eighe from this fine vantage point.
A long descent via Coulin Lodge and finally back along the Glen Torridon road after dark meant I was glad to finally take the boots off… for one last time. Thank you Scarpa’s, you’ve been a fine companion on the fells. Now it’s onwards and upwards to find a new pair of boots for a new era of hillwalking
I'm a journalist in Inverness in the Highlands of Scotland who specialises in the great outdoors - including walking, cycling and mountaineering.