As a 49 year old mother of two, with a job that is mostly sitting down at a desk staring at a computer screen, I am under no illusions about how fast, or not, I run. That does not mean that I don’t take it seriously, and during a recent dot-watching experience I realised that there was no reason that I should not be the one to set an FKT for this local to me trail, although I do suspect it will be a bit of a soft target!
Sunday dawned a beautiful day - clear skies, little if any breeze. It was chilly, but not bad considering it was mid-January. I setoff running anti-clockwise from the car, happily taking photos as I jogged along. This was a training run for my upcoming marathon (my first) so I am all about getting miles on legs and am not too worried about time.
After around 5km I came to the only puddle on the whole trail, and another runner doing the loop clockwise. We knew each other from parkrun, so worked out the best way to pass the puddle (too early in the run for wet feet) and headed off again. I stopped to admire the view at the first hide, but my bird identification skills are not good enough to know what I was looking at or for. Along the trail are information boards telling you what you might see. The nature reserve encompasses the habitats of wetland, woodland and loch and you run through open countryside, trees and alongside reeds that were taller than I. I met many runners running clockwise around the loch, and then greeted my puddle friend at about the halfway mark. There were lots of walkers both with and without dogs and cyclists - everyone was out enjoying the bright January morning.
I was using the run to try out nutrition options for the marathon, which went well, but that needs more work. After about 15km I confess I started to get a bit tired, and was very glad for that reason only to read the end of the run. Other than tired legs, I had a great morning in glorious Scottish scenery and weather. It's not the hardest run - not much vert - but it is quite satisfying to make your way fully around the loch and absorb the history of the place as well as spotting wildlife.