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Eleanor's Endeavour

Tag Archives: snow

Findhorn Bay Coastal Run In A Blizzard

17 Saturday Jan 2015

Posted by elladuv in Running

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Tags

beach, blizzard, coastal, commuting, environment, Findhorn Bay, footprints, Forres, running, sand, snow, training

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This afternoon was the coldest we’d experienced.  We noted that snow had become something so frequently seen that we barely noticed that it was snowing yet again.  Up North when the schedule says snow it darn well snows.  The morning was bright and beautiful as we visited Dallas Distillery and then as we checked out Kinloss Abbey the snows suddenly descended in a blink of an eye.

At that moment we questioned whether to carry on with our plan to visit Findhorn Bay.  However, the storm cloud cleared and the blizzard moved on so we decided that we’d chance it as it was our last full day here.  We were going whatever the weather.  Seeing a couple of runners braving the elements for the first time in days furthered my resolve to run.

I have a strange love with coastal running.  Running on sand is hard.  The resistance of the soft ground slows down the pace even on compact sand.  Technique and care must be taken on pebbled beach towards the rising dunes that separate in layers from the Findhorn so as not to risk turning an ankle.  Snow on the sand makes matters worse.  There is an extra layer to the resistance and ice to battle with on the pebbles.  Snow on sand turns your running game level onto hard core mode.

 

Two and a half miles into the run hIMG_20150116_140235eading east I hit a cloud that was dark yellow against the silvery sky that turned out to be a snow storm.  Probably the one we’d experienced earlier.  It was worse out on the coast without any cover from the wind.  The blizzard caused vision to worsen.  Snow hurts quite a bit when it’s hitting you straight in the face at eighty miles per hour.

By the time I found Steve and we navigated our way back to the car I’d done four miles in conditions most people wouldn’t even leave the house in.  I was caked in snow and had to dust myself off before getting into the warmth of the car.  I felt full of excitement, the adrenalin of the run, of going into a storm of snow and coming out again with your own two feet.

 

IMG_20150116_140155Just you and the elements all around you 100%back to raw nature.  Running along the snow covered sand the first thought that came through the serenity was about our footprints  As runners are our footprints any better than the ones we left before we started running?

I feel inclined to say a runner’s footprint is far more positive.  Being a new found commute runner I use the bus a lot less saving money and time. Running makes us more in touch with nature and aware of our environment.  We leave our footprints physically in the mud of the trails or the ghosts of them on the road.  It upsets me to see that some runners choose to deposit their used energy gel and drinks bottles on sides of the road.  But on the whole a runner’s footprint does more good than bad.

Our footprints travel the world in search of adventure.  The thrill of the race.  They raise money for the charity.  They motivate others to run and be healthy.  We think more about what we eat and how it fuels our body.  They leave a memory of us and an impression with people that see us as we experience the world.  Running has taken me places I’d never even thought about discovering.

The thing is that to our ancestors running wasn’t something that they squished into their day.  It was how they survivIMG_20150116_141653ed.  How they hunted and how they travelled without the comfort of another option.  Odd, then, how things evolved into having to make time for something which was once as natural as breathing.

 

This thought is initially what inspired me to take up New Year’s Resolution #1 which is to run or cycle commute wherever possible.

xxx

Eleanor

Descent To Fort Augustus

15 Thursday Jan 2015

Posted by elladuv in Running

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Tags

Fort Augustus, inspirational, Inverness, Kilian Jornet, Loch Ness, Loch Ness Marathon, Loch Ness Monster, mountains, Patrick Rothfuss, running, snow, training

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Yesterday afternoon meant a drive to Loch Ness just past the city of Inverness.  It was a long drive through a fresh batch of fallen snows.  Two inches of it coupled with black ice made it slow going.

The Loch Ness Exhibition informed us that this freshwater lake, the largest in the land, was 23 miles long.  It took us through a handful of interesting rooms designed to tell us individual segments of the exploration into the sightings of the famous Loch Ness monster.  Unfortunately the idea that only 20% of the Loch’s natural food chain would be left over for our Nessie disproves the idea that a large monster could sustain itself there.

Being a runner I had researched the Loch Ness Marathon route so that I could run sections of it.  However, having left late, then driven to and around the Loch with a visit to the Exhibition Centre I only had half an hour of diminishing silvery daylight turning dusk blue on this cold mid-January afternoon.

So I had Steve drop me off 5k away from Fort Augustus, where the marathon route starts, and he drove off to get food and wait for me at the village.  I turned on some Prodigy and ran 5k of pure descent to the village on the South Side Loch Ness.  I had nothing but the descent, my thoughts and the beats.  I clocked 28:28 minutes for the run by the time I met Steve at the Visitors Centre.  At this point the last of the weak sunlight had set and the lights had turned on in the village setting odd balls of yellow light against the dusk blue snow on the surrounding mountains.

I let my thoughts wonder as freely as possible. My mind began to think about what I wanted to do with this blog. Initially I began a document called The Journey To Mount IMG_20150114_161448Olympus to note down my progress as a runner whilst I was on the journey to the main goal – Mount Olympus Marathon.  The Journey To Mount Olympus seemed too long.  Also not very profound as people do it each year so why would one individual’s journey to being ready to run this marathon make me any different to all the other good inspirational training blogs out there?

It is said that everyone has a story so perhaps being a good inspirational training blog is a goal to strive for.  Eleanor’s Endeavour is the idea of the story.  Having something other to tell my readers than just how my workout went and reviewing races (race reviews in the pages fixed above) that I do along the way.

I think in a way then his isn’t necessarily about that main goal.  I think that it’s about the how.  The accumulation of experience that equates to that overall eventual victory that I’m still hoping for one day.  Next month it’ll be two years on from the day that the video of Kilian Jornet running up Mount Olympus inspired me to run.  I’ve achieved so much already.  I want this to be an appreciation of the adventure of running.  The joy it gives you.  As Kilian coined it, ‘the search for happiness’ through running.IMG_20150114_163514

With this in mind I pledge to endeavour to adventure as much as possible.  Finding the adventure in the run even on training days that might seem ordinary.  Actually having a think about things.  Trying to effectively utilise the calm happy setting that my mind goes into when I run.  Patrick Rothfuss’ character Kvothe calls it the Spinning Leaf when he is practicing an art called Ketan which seems to be a mix of yoga and martial arts.  His description stuck with me even after reading.  That mind set we all go into when we run, that hidden place, filled with almost childlike calm and happy thoughts.

That’s the forecast at least.  A vague one.  The future will tell where my feet will fall next.  At least I’ve gotten out the front door.

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Xxx

Eleanor

 

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