Cateran Trail – 28 miles

In an effort to undo the excesses of Hogmany and also to try out my legs on a longer distance I negotiated with Fi a full day away running and decide to cover a route that I had done in early April last year. The plan was to run along the Cateran Trail from Bridge of Cally to the Lunch Hut a few miles short of the Spittal of Glenshee then back to BoC a distance of around 28 miles.

The weather was similar to how it has been the previous week, cold, still and crisp blue skies, perfect for running. I started much later than I had anticipated at 1130 hours but cracked on anyway confident that I had my new headtorch (Xmas pressie) in my sack. I also took along Cody to see if I could actually tire him out, which thus far has been impossible ..

After around an hour I met another runner heading in the opposite direction. We stopped to exchange pleasantries when she clocked my WHW top (not hard given the colour !). She informed me that she is running the WHW this year and introduced herself as Karen Donoghue who had run from BoC to Kirkmichael and was on her way back. After a blether I cracked on through frozen bogs and planned to turn back at Enochdu but the day was so good, I felt pretty good and the dog seemed fine that I decided to carry on to the Lunch Hut.

I used to take a lot of Duke of Edinburgh’s groups up here and stop at the hut so it was a walk down memory lane reading the graffiti on the wall. One in particular caught my eye, it’s faded but still there - Jenny Duff’s greeting to the groups figurehead Dave Stibbles. And spookily enough there was also a baseball cap with was embroidered with my old school unofficial motto !

On the way back the old knee began to give me bother on the hills but it was fine on the flats and the dog seemed to be going well too, even finding the energy to chase some roe deer after 25 miles.

I must confess my legs were very heavy over the last few miles and I was glad when I picked up the car in the torch beam. It had been a hard day and including stops had taken 5hrs 40 mins, much further that I have run for a while, but I was encouraged that I had managed it. This time last year I couldn’t even do run 10k without stopping.

And yes since he got home the dog has done nothing but sleep – he’s been tired out at last !