The day after the Harris half marathon

Well DD1 came back up to Uist recently to run the third and final half marathon of her Heb3 series. The half was yesterday and when I say the weather was horrendous it truly was awful! All the runners get bused to the start at Borve, Isle of Harris, this year there were four buses, DD1 was on the first one to leave Tarbert and the runners got dropped off and had to hang around before the other buses arrived. She said she was soaked to the skin before the gun even fired to start the race. Rain was torrential and the wind was gusting so badly it was blowing her around.

Meanwhile I hung around in Tarbert, visited the lovely cafe at the Harris Gin distillery and had a warm scone with jam and cream. After a couple of hours I wandered down to the finish line, should have bought a brolly with me. By the time DD1 arrived I too was drenched to the skin. She did the run in 2 hours 40minutes not bad considering the weather conditions and the fact that she was taking it really easily as she is now 14 weeks pregnant. 

She probably would have dipped out of this one under ordinary circumstances but at the beginning of the year she'd committed to doing 5 half marathons to raise money for Hope House, the children's hospice where her brother used to go for respite care. This was the fifth one - the others were: Ironbridge Half Marathon (on our birthday in March), Liverpool Rock and Roll Half Marathon, Benbecula Half Marathon, Skye  Half Marathon and finally the Harris Half Marathon.

We stayed for the prizegiving ceremony as she wanted to collect her Heb3 t-shirt (for running 3 out of the 5 Hebridean halves). It was getting on a bit when we headed north - we had booked a camping pod at Callanish, near the Callanish Stones and the lady from there was meeting us with the keys. What we didn't realise was just how far away the pods are from where you park the car! Poor DD1 was wet, tired, tearful (pregnancy hormones) and thoroughly fed up. I carted most of the gear down to the pod in the still bucketing rain and strong wind - our pillows and blankets getting a soaking on the way.

The pods are lovely though and include a heater (went on straight away), a mini fridge, kettle and mugs, comfy camp beds (we had to take our own bedding). Sara got changed I wrung out her soggy clothes and hung them up then we headed off to Jane and Peter's for our dinner. They were getting worried about us.

When we walked in Jane took one look at DD1 and said "would you like a hot bath?" So, DD1 headed off for a soak to warm up and Jane and I put the finishing touches to dinner (curry).

Headed back to the pods and in bed by 10pm!

I took this photo this morning when we were both feeling much fresher and much more cheerful!

Off to catch the lunchtime ferry from Stornoway to Ullapool as i'm on a printmaking course Monday to Friday this coming week, at Bridge House Art with artist and printmaker Kittie Jones