First Long, Slow Run

As many of you will know, I have taken leave of whatever small set of senses I had, and signed up to run in the Edinburgh Marathon. On the day before my forty sixth birthday, I shall - for the first time in my life - attempt to run twenty-size point two miles. That's the plan, anyway.

As part of that, I am undertaking a sixteen week training plan, and today saw the final day of week one of that plan. It was a nine mile run, where I ran along the Union Canal. And I have to say that after it, I am quite pleasantly surprised that I feel pretty much okay.

This impediment to shipping showed up east of the tunnel, just to the south of Falkirk, on the Union Canal. We've had a lot of severe weather lately, and clearly it has all been too much for this tree.

Some might say that I was running, and I shouldn't have stopped to take a photograph. But to me, running is something I do for enjoyment, and if part of that enjoyment is stopping to enjoy the surroundings, that's reasonable.

That picture was taken with my phone, a Samsung Galaxy S2. It has been tweaked a little in Photoshop to get the best from it, but overall I am very impressed - surely a phone can't take <i>real</i> photographs?!