colderlady

I have been loving the cold bright weather of late. Mary not so much. A couple of days ago she mentioned today as a possible for a longer jaunt in the Lammermuirs. Just as well she decided against it as her tummy was giving her jip for the second half of this, the usual coastal business.

stopped off at Aberlady to stash the cup-flasks

We parked in North Berwick and M headed up the road to Aberlady where we had stashed flasks on the drive down. I opted for the beaches and trails again: having failed to meet M last time at Aberlady (I was 10 mins late) I set off at a brisk pace and (apart from the briefest of stops for an occasional photo) raced the clock all the way.

Although the sun was out it was pretty baltic and I was glad of the 2 pairs of gloves, and earband and buff keeping my head warm. There were fewer folk out than you would normally get at the weekend. And those that were, were well dressed for the cold weather.

The first time I rolled back my sleeve to see my watch, it was just past the hour. I had hoped to run the aprox 8~9 miles (left the Garmin at home) in much the same time in takes Mary to cover the 6 or 7 by road. However I was only just past Gullane and still had to cover Aberlady beach and the sandy trails back to the bridge. It was 76minutes when I crossed the bridge and I really can't imagine doing it much quicker, even though much of the exposed beaches (low tide 11am-ish) made excellent flat surfaces on which to race. Mary had been in Aberlady long enough to finish her coffee so headed off. I quickly drank my hot chocolate, coffee mix and left my pastries till the end of the run, catching up with Mary before the beach.

She had let the cold get into her bones and wasn't in the best place today, so instead of heading down the beaches to NB as planned we decided to cut things early at Gullane, after a quick warm up by a smouldering (but toasty) bonfire above the beach: following the roads back to the warmth of the car. I tried to cheer up M by having her imagine the misery ahead if we'd gone across the Lammermuirs, committed to a 21mile circuit and she had felt this bad at halfway. However it took the warmth of the van to improve M's tummy - on a day when she really just wanted to get home and hug a hot water bottle and work on her essay.

Just time for a quick selfie in Gullane public toilets

I think this might be a Hansel and Gretel gingerbread cake in Falkos although there are scale problems