John Kynaston’s 1st Training Run

My training has not been going well having suffered with a chest infection that I couldn’t shake for 5 weeks, then when it cleared up I was back running for a week when I hit black ice on my bike and landed heavily on my right hip leaving me suffering from trochanteric bursitis, which made walking painful, so that was another month out.

I was pretty unfit but decided to go in at the deep end and signed up to the first of John K’s monthly runs along the Way. The first outing was on the 30 November 2008 followed the route Beinglas Farm down to Inversnaid and back then Beinglas Farm up to Carmyle Cottage and back, a total distance of 22.42miles.

I had arranged via the forum to meet up with Ian Beattie and Phil Tipping in Comrie and share a lift through. It was a good chance to meet up as I had never met them before and we had a good blether on the way over to the start.

It was a crisp clear day and the temperature dropped to -9^oC on, but had risen to -7 at the starting point. Thankfully we were there early because John’s run had proved so popular parking was at a premium. I think around 35 people ultimately appeared –

9.30 am and we were off. It was very icy underfoot which slowed the pace down. I found myself running along with Davie Bell who I had run with in 08’s race. He is clearly much fitter than I at the moment and after a while I had to let him go, and found myself running alone. There was no point in doing that with 34 others around so I hung back until I was joined by Phil and we ran together for a while. The narrow path along Lomondside was treacherous and one chap behind me almost plunged into the loch at the bottom of the really steep set of wooden steps. If he’d gone in the bank was so high and steep I don’t know how we would have retrieved him.

I arrived at Inversnaid felling pretty good, the run had been easily paced. After a refuel we set off again and retraced our steps. This time I found myself running in a group which contained John so we had a good chat as we ran. I arrived back at Beinglas Farm with a couple of chaps who were calling it a day there so I hung back and waited for John to catch up. This is my least favourite stretch on the first half of the Way so it was good to have John’s company to help me pass the miles.

We turned back at the underpass and after a couple of miles I was tiring so I told John just to press on, which he did easily. With around half a mile to go both my hamstrings spasmed into excruciating cramp, which was so frustrating as I could see the cars but couldn’t get any nearer to them. Eventually it cleared and I hobbled in to the car park after 5 hours 5 mins of running.

It wasn’t a fast run, even by ultra pace, but I was pleased that I had completed the distance and been able to keep going for more that 5 hours. An encouraging start to my build up given my current level of fitness.