After a nice relaxing morning visiting the School Fair and Farmers market I had a spare few hours as Ruby was going to a party and Matt was riding with the Fat Bikers down at North Berwick. I thought about attempting a long run but it was such a beautiful day and the hills looked stunning so I jumped in the van and off I went to Hopes.
I haven't run in the hills for ages, and I think last time it was snowy. Today it was bone dry even though there are still a few snow patches dotted about. I ran through the spooky wood towards the reservoir. It's not really that spooky but there is a little abandoned 'house' that Ruby always says is where Voldemort lives! I was feeling quite good as I ran up the track, but as soon as the going got steep I was tired. It's not surprising really given that I went to my bed at 1.30 am last night after drinking half a bottle of Prosecco and the same of red! I blame Green Day who were live at Irving Plaza in NY on Scuzz tv.
I recovered again on my favourite bit of single track that runs parallel to the reservoir on the North side. It's such a nice little trail and takes you through some really nice gnarly trees. The next bit is always a struggle as there's only a very thin sheep path which winds part of the way up a cleugh then you have to battle your way through the heather to get to the main path high above. I did see a very cute lizard just by my feet and as it scuttled away I started to freak out that there might also be Adders about as it was so sunny. I've just looked up what would happen if I did get bitten by an Adder and it's not deadly, but could make you pretty sick. The advice is to call 999, which would be interesting if you're in the Lammermuis with no signal! On the NHS website it also tells you not to attempt to remove any of your clothing (eg trousers) but I can't imagine why you would do that anyway unless the snake had slithered up your trouser leg!
I finally got up to the main path, without being bitten by a snake, and broke into a run again. I thought about a detour to the top of Lammerlaw but decided against it as there were quite a few walkers about. I countinued on the main path until a left hand turn takes you down to John's Cleugh and then finally back around towards Hopes. The path was really stoney at this point and a few times sharp stones seemed to penetrate the thin sole of my Inov8s and it was really painful. Dreamy visions of Hokas appeared in my head a few times, but I cast them aside and carried on. I do enjoy the last part of this loop which takes you back towards the reservoir. It's nicely undulating and you have to hop over a few streams which always adds to the sense of adventure.
A nice downhill section and a flat run back to the van saw me at 6.45 miles. Not a lot, but the terrain is very demanding and probably I put in more effort than if I'd done a long flat run.
My legs are heavy tonight and I have a whole day of mountain biking tomorrow so that will be interesting. I'm off to bed soon to let my legs recover. No Green Day for me tonight!
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