Tuesday 17 February 2009

Change of Plan.... and Scenery

On Sunday night, as I put away my laptop after writing a final paragraph about doing a long run on Monday, my wife suggested that, as she was having to attend a course in Glasgow and bearing in mind her hatred of city driving and me making plans,I might like to take her in and return for her, cutting four hours out of MY day. But there's always plan B! So after coming home to change, I drove to Mugdock with the intention of running some of the WHW and getting a bit of trail in within the park as a bonus. So far so good. I parked at the visitor centre, planning on a coffee at the finish of my session and set off downhill to find the Way path at the bottom. After a few Robertson loops (lost!) I got to the Way to find that these wee blue and white signs that I saw flashing past me as I descended were actually way markers for a divertion caused by tree fellers, and that to get back to the Way I would have to ascend the path I had just descended! "Like $@*&" I thought and went for plan C, a lap of the Milngavie reservoirs. Flat, boring and windy, but with an ascent to the start of my lap that made up for it...... a bit. Plan D then kicked in with some more Robertson loops that took me from the bottom right side of the park noticeboard map, to the top left without really having a clue where I was, necessitating a request from a dog walker for directions back to the visitor centre, a destination about a mile east of where I thought it should be. Never mind, great trails, paths and shoe sucking MUD negotiated totalling just under 10 miles by Garmin, that could have been a mere 5 or 6 had I known where I was going. Got back to the car to find that my good lady was going to be expecting me at 4.30 in Glasgow and wanted to go to Braehead on the way home! And me in my best shopping attire, tracksuit bottoms and muddy trainers. So I missed out on my coffee but managed home and showered and back to the big bad city in plenty of time.En route, a sighting of Debs and Cairn risking life and limb crossing the junction that I was turning into at the Renton by-pass(doesn't she know about my driving). Debs doesn't seem to be doing "putting her feet up". A quick visit to the "Waterstones" shopping centre in Renfrew, (why do they have these other shops when they could fit more books into the space?)and home for tea.

1 comment:

Debs M-C said...

You just missed me having a "conversation" with an oriental man who didn't speak English. He was trying to ask me directions to somewhere with hand actions and sounds. Hilarious. After 10 minutes of charades I was none the wiser and left him smoking his roll ups. Only in Renton... :-)