A very good friend indeed

Today despite the threat of rising winds and torrential rain Liz and I ran (mostly) round Loch Glashan (inbetween Minard and Loch Gare). This was not exactly the way that Liz wished to spend the morning of her day off especially after a fairly tough session at jogscotland last night but she, good pal that she is bowed to pressure and off we set. My idea was that we needed more miles under our belts at it were, or even better under our trainers. I remained faithful to this ideal until we were slogging up a long rise.I was convinced that we were at least 8 miles in when Liz announced a little doubtfully that she thought we might be half way. This was an accurate assessment of our position as it turned out. The threatened bad weather had settled down into a fairly warm drizzle only worsening for the last mile or so. The Loch is quite sheltered by geography and trees. That meant that layers were rapidly peeled off in the very early stages of the run and tied around waists where they stayed. It was a great track to run on with only one muddy bit due to forest vehicles. The track was unexpectedly busy with forestry workers/deer stalkers who all, without exception looked quite astonished to see us there. The way to keep going is to have plenty to chat about, never too much of a problem for either of us. Ten miles done we were piling tired, wet dogs into the car and telling ourselves that we will feel very pleased with ourselves, once the tiredness and pain has receded. We had left Ginny at home, too far for puppy legs. Even Molly the inexhaustible Jack Russell who normally becomes a canine cannon ball ricocheting off the seats and windows when she gets to ride in my car with Lucy was willing to lie quietly and gratefully in the back.