Marcothon 12/12

Well I can honestly say if it weren't for Marcothon, there is no way I would have run every day so far this month!

Why?

Because there is no way I would have even thought of putting emergency running gear in my draw at work just in case I got stuck in Edinburgh. That is how much I want to complete this challenge. So on Monday, you guessed it, the snow came. I could have tried and got home but the advice from all corners was against travelling. Alex my running buddy from work kindly let me stay at his in Edinburgh and even then it took 2 hours to get to his and that was 4 miles away!

I was all prepared to go out running and it was actually quite nice by evening as it wasn't too cold. Alex is a member of a gym and fancied going so he said he had a free pass for the month that I could have.  So we headed for the gym and I went straight on the treadmill, knocking out 10k while Alex did a mixture of things. I was so appreciative just to have a bed for the night and getting in a run. At the same time, I don't miss the gym and would much rather be outside in the cold than battling the heat and a forced running technique on the treadmill.

Tuesday I got home ok and the tempreture plummeted. I went out and the first mile and a half was surreal. I think I saw 2 cars, busy junctions empty, cars that were out were going very slowly as the main roads hadn't been properly cleared at this stage. The pavements were compacted snow because of everyone having to walk home the previous night because all public transport to the southside was stopped. When I got on to the Ayr road, I was keeping pace with buses. From here to the end it was all main roads and there were tonnes of cars parked all the way along these roads, i counted 20 along a 100 meter stretch. As people wouldn't dare drive up any side street they lived on as they were just too dangerous. Me? I was bouncing along quite happlily in my new Hoka trail shoes. I still can't believe I own a pair. I thought the only dealer in Scotland was the other side of Edinburgh. But I went to Blues Ski shop in Tisos beside Caley uni and by chance they sell them there too! These shoes probably look like I'm making some sort of fashion statement. But anyone that knows me, would know I m not really into fashion at all! The reason I bought these shoes is because they are meant to last a lot longer than usual running shoes, you can use them on roads and better cushioning. I first found out about them from Karl Meltzer's blog and he raved about them along with many other stories I have read about them. I tried them on the treadmill and was sold instantly.

Wednesday, it got even colder. I wore 2 base layers, a fleece and a jacket! It was a lot icier and I was glad to where my Kathoolas as it was litrally sheet ice in places but they gave me so much grip as they just puncture the ice.

Thursday went up to the club to find there was just 9 of us tonight. The 3 speedies went on a trip round the club handicap route while the rest of us did 5 times 0.7 mile reps of Newlands Park. They were all well impressed with my Kathoolas, while they were slipping about even in Inov8s  while I was flying gettting down to 7.20 pace for a few of the reps and 8.00 min mile pace for my slowest.

Friday was a novelty for a different reason. The first time in about 2 weeks I wore shorts outside! The temperature was great. I just did 3 miles easy at night as I wanted to save myself for the weekend. I just got away with my crampons tonight as there was still enough ice.

I was thinking of doing parkrun on Saturday morning but it was rightly cancelled because of the ice. So instead I did my usual 6.7 mile loop but turned off up a lot of the side roads to get more mileage in. I didn't want to go too far south as it is higher up and probably still quite icy. I didn't take my crampons because most of it had gone and you could make a concrete path through most of it. So I ended up doing 12 miles with quite a few hills thrown in which was good as I am missing the hills at the moment.

Then today it was back to being cold again so it was one base layer, fleece and jacket. I did a change of tack and headed towards town first then joined up with my usual route. The ground was frosted over but even on road shoes tonight and didn't slip once.

Next week, as long as it is on, will be my race for December which will be the club's christmas handicap. Last year I came last by along way and from the half way point I had been overtaken by everyone, so will be interesting to see what my handicap is this year and how I get on.

To celebrate my emergency running gear coming to the rescue and the fitting line "Don't make me go home" here is a video from the Pigeon Detectives: