Tuesday, February 07, 2012
Living simple ...
A Desert Life from Austin Siadak on Vimeo.
In a world where our current economic model is clearly not working ...maybe Alf has a point.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Another 10 years ...
A decade, 10 years - it is a fairly big unit of time.
Optimistically, you maybe get seven or eight of them in a lifetime. You seem to spend the best part of four of these units working in the hope of getting to enjoy the last two. In between times, you fill the gaps with real life but the fact remains, you don’t get many decades in the hand you are dealt.
On a recent cycling trip to Spain, an immigration official was not impressed with my passport or the photograph contained in it to be exact. I was tempted to comment that I was not all that impressed with a country who took until 1975 to get rid of a right wing facist leader (even then the move towards democracy was only due to Franco dying) but thought it would only lead to an unwelcome cavity search. Suppose looking at the photograph when compared to my current reflection …he had a point - I no longer look anything like my passport picture.
Anyway, my passport is up for renewal and a new photograph was needed. Today I sat in the wee photo booth in Glasgow Central Station staring at the reflection and reflecting on the last ten years since I had gone through the same process.
A flick through the various passport stamps tells of some of the adventures but it was my thoughts that were haunting me somewhat. The details of the past are irrelevant now (not everything works out like you had hoped and planned …but some dreams do) but the thing that has stayed in my head today is the question …”what will the next ten years hold”. One for further pondering ….maybe with a dram.
Monday, January 09, 2012
A five trig Sunday
With the high summits still getting a kicking from "upland gales" and low cloud giving a less than 10% chance of clear tops ...I am getting fat. Not just in body but in mind (which is probably more damaging anyway). Decided that a wee local retro route would help cure the ills.
The Old Kilpatrick to Milngavie "Haute Route" was a fairly regular training run during the lead up to my 2008 Marathon des Sables and has the advantage of being :- point to point, local, good mix of mind bending / energy sapping tussocks balance with good runnable tracks and trails, great views (usually), fair bit of personal history in the areas you travel through ...and various trig points to visit as well !
To add a little extra interest, I cycled from the flat into Glasgow where I left my bike before jumping the train out to the starting point. Had a slow jog up the road before starting the climb up the Slacks and the first trig. It was obvious that most of the first half of the day would be spent in the cloud - made very obvious when after leaving the Slacks, I was suprised to drop out the cloud and see the river Clyde instead of Loch Humphrey. Navigation corrected, I made my way out to Doughnut hill which took an age due to a number of fallen trees (I assume brought down by Hurricane Bawbag or the follow up Mawbag storm), the smell of fresh pine made up for the detours. After Duncolm it was more tussocks until reaching the loch behind the Whangie where good progress and easy running returned.
Over the summit and along the race route to the Queens view car park. In previous runs, I usually head straight over the road to pick up the West Highland Way but this time I had a trot down the road to rejoin the route at Carbeth. For sport, I also went over the wee trig that sits above Craigallian Loch before the last few miles down to Milngavie.
No doubt about it, I need more miles before the fat feeling goes :-(
The Old Kilpatrick to Milngavie "Haute Route" was a fairly regular training run during the lead up to my 2008 Marathon des Sables and has the advantage of being :- point to point, local, good mix of mind bending / energy sapping tussocks balance with good runnable tracks and trails, great views (usually), fair bit of personal history in the areas you travel through ...and various trig points to visit as well !
To add a little extra interest, I cycled from the flat into Glasgow where I left my bike before jumping the train out to the starting point. Had a slow jog up the road before starting the climb up the Slacks and the first trig. It was obvious that most of the first half of the day would be spent in the cloud - made very obvious when after leaving the Slacks, I was suprised to drop out the cloud and see the river Clyde instead of Loch Humphrey. Navigation corrected, I made my way out to Doughnut hill which took an age due to a number of fallen trees (I assume brought down by Hurricane Bawbag or the follow up Mawbag storm), the smell of fresh pine made up for the detours. After Duncolm it was more tussocks until reaching the loch behind the Whangie where good progress and easy running returned.
Over the summit and along the race route to the Queens view car park. In previous runs, I usually head straight over the road to pick up the West Highland Way but this time I had a trot down the road to rejoin the route at Carbeth. For sport, I also went over the wee trig that sits above Craigallian Loch before the last few miles down to Milngavie.
No doubt about it, I need more miles before the fat feeling goes :-(
Thursday, December 15, 2011
For Paris ...read London !
Well folks,
The results are in and sadly I didn't make the final cut for the Runners World / Asics team for the Paris Marathon.
Getting as far as I did was a blast and loved every minute of it. Many thanks to everyone for the support and votes - all very humbling indeed.
Getting as far as I did was a blast and loved every minute of it. Many thanks to everyone for the support and votes - all very humbling indeed.
Onto plan B ...due to getting a qualifying time last year, I have a place in London Marthon - target is to go sub 3 hour EEEKKKK !
Thanks again ...
Cheers
Graham
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
