raging waters of Leith

16th June - bloomsday which I ranted on and on about yesterday

Today I spent 2.5 hours running, showering as I went, along the water of Leith pathway

I spend the morning listening to Ulysses on R4 (clipped but still good) before heading out for the long run. Been rubbish at motivating myself and as a result have rarely gone over 10 miles in the year since my last half marathon (the barrathon which is in two weeks). So having had 50 weekends of procrastinations, excuses and hangovers I rise on the day of the long run to find it is absolutely bucketing down. I'm never very good at timing myself or measuring distance (a number / expectation allergy and a solid streak of anti-authoritarian contrariness) so chose to run to Balerno and back via the canal pathway and then up the water of Leith path. This is an extraordinary wooded walkway that follows 35km of the river, from bubbling brook in the pentlands to open mouthed harbour at the shore.

I left in misty moisture, slapped through tapping drops falling from the trees and crunched up muddy pathways like riverbeds, and kept going and going and going for about 13 miles ok.. but the route was actually 16 miles, so after about 14 I was kapoot. It was a long wet walk home but it was spectacular. The brown water was swollen from days and days of rain gushing off the hills, and the woods deep green and teeming with birds delighted to get their feathers ruffled in the rain. Only a small amount delirious.

After a shower I bussed out to Sheen's and got a slap up meal (chicken pie made by her fair hands after her night shift - how nice is that!!) before heading to a bloomsday party (eyepatches, moustaches, Oirish folks) and the big bye bye bash for all the Americans heading off (Anna, Gary, Jamie). Legs held out for most of it..