summer double pt 1

Way back in 2014 Graham Henry came up with a plan: to respect and honour the people who gave their lives in World War One exactly a hundred years ago. We should do something to mark the centenary and it shouldn't be easy. 

How about a 30 mile run, once a month for the 4 years of the war. He called it a Tynecastle Bronze (nodding to a plaque by the Hearts football ground marking the centenary) and about a dozen or more folk have got involved at some point. There was also a subsidiary clause about a Winter and Summer double, because a 30miler once a month just isn't hard enough. So at some point over the 4 years we should think about doing two 30 milers back to back. Once in Winter and once in the Summer. 

I did the Winter Double when I spent a weekend jacket testing for Gore, running the 72miles of the Great Glen over 2 days in November 2016. Blog here. I had sort of forgotten about a Summer Double until Richard D, the only other soldier to complete every month of the 4 years so far, did a Summer Double following on from his run at the Speyside Way a couple of weekends ago.

Since there was precious little Summer remaining, and Mary was away at a lion-taming and foraging weekend retreat, I thought it best to get on with the self-harming. The weather forecast was pretty good for Friday and Saturday so I gritted my teeth, chose 2 routes that were relatively painless, and charged the camera batteries.

I arrived nice and prompt at the station and despite my best efforts still got stiffed for the ticket. It should have been £8.30 for a single to Kirkcaldy. So when I was charged £9.70 I just paid before I realised I had been given a return. I shouldn't have said Off Peak Single. Nobody says off peak unless it is return so it was my mistake. In part. There was an offer to refund and resell the right ticket but I was in a hurry to get a coffee and catch the train. And I thought maybe fate was offering a £1.40 rescue remedy if my sore foot flared up dramatically and I had to bail. My karma has been way up there since I started putting my used chewing gum into a waist (homophone) pocket of my back pack. I know that's not how karma works but ever since I stopped disposing of my gum in an unethical manner, the winds of fate have been to my back. I should buy a lottery ticket.

For Friday I opted for the Fife Coastal Path. Catch a train to Kirkcaldy and run home over the Forth Bridge. Mostly flat, about 34miles and since I had done this route before I knew the tricky bits and when to cross the coastal train line so you don't get stuck on the wrong side. 

I had already "used" the impressive war memorial outside the station in Kirkcaldy last time I did this route, so was obliged to find another. I noticed Bennochy Cemetery, near the station, had Commonwealth War Graves but this does not always mean they are easy to locate. I had found something else online but in the actual graveyard I came across this interesting family plot. It seems to mark the last resting place of the Wishart / McIntosh clan. Bottom right there was this sober little stone to mark the death of Private McIntosh at the tragic age of 21. 

It was good to get the obligatory war memorial box ticked at the start of the day. Now all I had to do was run 30-odd miles back to Edinburgh. I could see it a handful of miles away across the Forth and it looked very nearby. It is always fascinating to see a well known thing from a different angle and perspective. I refrained from taking too many photos and tried to focus on getting the job done. The tide was hard in against the shore so my route would differ from last time when I ran quite a few of the beaches. Also the forecast sunshine was failing to materialise.

Last time at Kinghorn I continued with the Black Rock 5 route down on the beach. This time I was forced up the steps (a local pointed me in the right direction) and along the road at the top.

The sun peeped out now and then making the lovely coastal paths along to Aberdour even prettier. A few whites fluttered about but I had the feeling today was not going to be a great day for butterflies.

Just as I was coming to the grass at Silver Sands the sun came out again and I noticed this buddleia next to the beach, full of butterflies, the light coloured sand making an ideal backcloth for the pics. I enjoyed a 10 min break from the running to get these photos.

not great focus but loving the spiral proboscis

Aberdour has lots of great childhood memories - we would be taken there by grandparents to swim in the sea on lilos in the summer. I wrote about this last time I did this run. This time to help the time fly by I had taken my mp3 player. I had downloaded an audiobook from youTube (made possible with a 4k video downloader.) I couldn't find a great selection of audiobooks, but on the upside they are free. I had opted for Jurassic Park because the film was good fun. Unfortunately the book is pretty awful. Well it is a great idea, but the writing is a long way from literature. I have never read any Michael Crichton before, and while he is (was) an interesting person, his writing is what I would describe as Airport Bookshop quality. He seems to have been dominating the compelling-but-poorly-written bookshelves long before they were fashionable. 

And yet he trained as a Doctor and was behind the whole ER series on the telly with that lovely George Clooney saving children every week by bending the rules, I think virtually one for every one of the 331 episodes aired 1994 to 2009. Anthony Edwards's (Dr Greene) entire acting career rose, shone and set, on that programme and he is probably in a retiral home for television doctors as we speak, all taking each others' blood pressures and pulses, shouting nurse get me a bedpan!

Meanwhile I have 13 hrs of dinonsense to get through. It starts REALLY slowly and takes about an hour before the first velociraptor makes an appearance. By the way did you know that a velociraptor was about the size of a turkey? (Not "6' tall and powerfully muscled.") Also since the film was made they have sprouted feathers. The film and book were probably thinking of Deinonychus a larger relative of the Velociraptor. In 2007 a fossil of a velociraptor was found with quill knobs. So velociraptors, reptilian in look up till then, now wear feathers and look a bit more dodo like. I shit you not. Wikipedia page here. I trust the dino-films will be remastered and brought up to date.

Anyway in short the book has a couple of good ideas but is weighed down by lazy writing and thin characters (except the girl Lex who is a total complaining pain in the arse, continually making their plight worse through her actions, and I was hoping she'd be an early snack for the T.Rexes.) And ridiculous plot devices. ie This is one of the most expensive zoos in the history of the world, with the most dangerous creatures on the planet and yet the electric fences can be switched off without so much as windows saying 'are you sure you want to switch the fences off and be eaten by a dinosaur?' Oh and there's only one guy in charge of all the computing and security, (quite often that happens in top end companies building Amusement Parks - just one guy in control of all of that,) and, wait for it, he is a baddy! I haven't got through all 13 hrs yet but I'm betting the head of Recruitment is going to get a real tongue lashing.

Michael Crichton has an ongoing theme to his work; beware technology, it will bite you in the behind. He has been writing poor books that make exciting films for some time now - Westworld (yes that was him - theme park creatures turn against paying guests, sound familiar?) The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park and Lost World, and Airframe (an aero-techno-thriller where a plane turns bad and kills people to death.) And Twister - that one was, incredibly, the second highest grossing film of 1996. It didn't really have a plot and just did special effects based around tornados and storm chasers. Perhaps it was finally time for us to be wary of the power of modern technology in unskilled hands. Oh and Mr Crichton was married 5 times. Not in Twister, in real life. And 6' 9" tall which is taller than even a velociraptor.

There was an archaeologist on Good Reads critting the (Jurassic Park) archaeology methods and saying it was all very poorly described and the processes were all wrong and mishandled. Yeah but what does she know, MC wrote a book about it and it sold millions. Also there was an article saying Manchester Uni looked into the whole dino-dna-in-amber-schtick, and basically, it's never going to fly. 

The scientists found they were unable to detect any ancient DNA in the samples they examined, which were between 60 to 10,600 years old.

It suggests that in older amber samples that are millions of years old, the chances of being able to extract intact
DNA is even slimmer.

Dr David Penney, an amber expert at the University of Manchester, said: "Intuitively, one might imagine that the complete and rapid engulfment in resin, resulting in almost instantaneous demise, might promote the preservation of DNA in a resin entombed insect, but this appears not to be the case. So, unfortunately, the Jurassic Park scenario must remain in the realms of fiction."

They are probably just saying that to get the jump on the dino-park business.

This (above) is one of the prettiest looking houses along the coast and there are steps carved into the rocky coastline adding to the romantic feel. Last time the tide was further out and I followed the beach round the headland and along the golf course to the cliffs. Mistake! The FCP goes inland and along the other side of the golf course and then past the refining plant to Dalgety Bay. I enjoyed not falling into the same trap twice, although it was more adventurous last time.

I could now see the bridges getting closer. There was a huge prison ship which looked too large to get under from certain angles but not from others. I wonder if they considered risking it or maybe had someone stand on the rail bridge in a fluro jacket and radio "no f*cking way, over"

Dalgety Bay is a curious mix of nice and nasty. These two houses below caught my attention. The only concession to design or architecture is a portico fit for a football player. In one: his and hers Range Rovers in black and grey, in the other, his and hers BMWs in black and dark blue. 

16 female goosanders sat some distance off the shore

there was a large buddleia and a couple of butterflies here but the pics were dull

unlike these berries

The run through Inverkeithing was much better than last time as well. It was like I had a sixth sense of which way to go. Not that I could remember exactly, but I felt the same draw to go left and stick to the coast but remembered that last time it perhaps ended badly and having to retrace steps etc. Just imagine if you had those powers in real life. Instead of bumping into so-and-so in a bar and buying her a drink you could just keep walking and save seven years.

It was only quite a bit after the fact that I noticed the name on the little boats next to the long long queue of people, had the same name as the Prison Ship. Using my skills of deduction I have worked out that the prisoners, tired with the 1300 shops on their floating nightmare, have been shipped onshore to see if there is anything in the way of jewelry and tartan soft toy shops in South Queensferry. Either that or someone has switched off the wifi in South Queensferry and organised a tour of a prison ship for the locals until they can watch tv again later. 

still the best bridge

I was looking at the Rail Bridge with Mary last time we cycled past. I still can't get over how incredible it is. It just seems too fabulous to be real. The perspective of large base narrow top adds to that feel and the colour is masterful. Its got straight lines and curved lines, thick tubes and narrow crossbeams but they all work together to produce a visual symphony of iron and industry. The three main stanchions are not identical but sing from the same page and stride across the river like a skimmed stone, if you'll forgive the mixed metaphor. It has to be the most graceful 53,000 tons of steel ever used in one place. Designed by John Fowler and Benjamin Baker. Outstanding work gents!

compare and contrast with this dozen decked super turd

It was after 4pm by the time I went past the Small Coppers' estuary. I had the briefest of searches but didn't hang around. I wanted to get home and prepared for a second day of similar. There were no Small Coppers about, though if the sun had been out I would have looked longer.

Normally I'd go back down the Almond after Cramond Brig and along the front. But I knew I was well over the 30 for the day and felt damage limitation was the main thing. I ran back the cyclepath, through Barnton, onto the cyclepath at the back of the supermarket then along to Telford, parallel to Ferry Road and back through St Marks. 

first run in Hoka Clifton 5s, very comfy

34.7miles plus one to the station

Ok so halfway done. I was feeling reasonable but not terribly excited about the prospect of another 30miler tomorrow. My right foot had an ache on the outside, the lateral side. Possibly from stomping too hard on Weds eve trying to keep Mr Limmer in sight. It hadn't got much worse and so I gave it a massage and packed paracetamols for the next day...