It's Only Running...

Legendary foodstuff: Pre race fuel for serious athletes. I wasn't going to write this report. There's really not that much to say about my race. I could sum things up by telling you the route is beautiful, incredibly runnable, the people are absolute diamonds, and the organisation sport on. However, my run was very uneventful and, given that my race reports are primarily an opportunity to take cheap shots at myself, I'm going to struggle for material. But then I remembered the Chicken Tikka Hogi from Chilli Grillz in Dunoon that I had for my tea on Friday night, which quite frankly deserves a blog post all of its own, and my £2.50 dram of Talisker (OK, I had two at that price, I wasn't gonna win anyway) and I thought I should put something down on record, for the sake of my own memories, if nowt else. There might not be much actual running discussed. Never mind the write up, I wasn't even going do the race. As I've repeatedly told anyone prepared to liste

                                          Photo credit High Terrain Events. 'I can't be arsed' had become something of a refrain by the time I toed the start line at Glentress Marathon on the last Sunday in February. And it wasn't just me. For all the bullshit that people (read: rank and file runners, for the most part) spout ahead of races - under-trained, too much beer last night, carrying  a few niggles, yada, yada, yada -  I got the feeling that there was a genuine enthusiasm vacuum among everyone I spoke to. I blame the rain. I have no idea of the statistics, and it's probably not the wettest February SINCE RECORDS BEGAN, but the prolonged spell of bad weather has certainly taken its toll. I don't give a shit about running in the rain, in fact, I quite like it, but unremitting dreichness at a time of year when we're supposed to be seeing the back of winter's worst excesses can be genuinely depressing, even for the most resilient among us. I