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Today is my birthday, and I've had a lovely day.

Up early to get a run in before the sun came out. I failed to beat the sun though and it was boiling! I was a sweat monster by the time I came home and it was only a short run!!

Then I had breakfast and opened my lovely presents. As usual, people have been too kind!

We packed a picnic and took the canoes down to the jetty. As you can see, Mum and Ian were in the big Canadian Canoe, and you can just see my bright yellow kayak in the bottom right of the shot. (Technically it's my sister's kayak; mine is blue, but this is the better one!)

We canoed around the loch and then stopped at the far side to the house. Mum and I went for a dip in the Loch to cool off and it absolutely did the trick - it was freezing! We then had delightful homemade goats cheese and tomato tarts, ham baguettes, Buck's Fizz and birthday cake before canoeing back. I love kayaking, we did it a lot as kids and actually got quite good at it. I remember being in a whitewater slalom competition at one point. It was really good to stretch the ole arm muscles again - I even sprinted a bit to see if I still had it!

The only part that I didn't enjoy was getting in and out of the boat - yup you guessed it, we were again swarmed by Clegs. I easily have 20 bites now. I don't know why there are so many of them about at the moment!

I'm now just chilling with Wes and we're watching a film later. A rather nice birthday indeed!

Today's run: 3.5 miles
July running mileage: 25.5 miles
2013 running mileage: 573.5 miles