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Saturday morning, 9am, a short jog around the corner to Pollokpark to take part in the Parkrun Glasgow 5k event. Parkrun in a UK wide running event, organised by volenteers and done for free.

As I’m in major training mode just now, another weekly run wouldn’t do any harm so I was keen to get started. It’s a nice 1.5k jog from my door to the Burrell collection, a good warm up before the 9:30 kick off.

Starting in the carpark, the route takes you around the inside of the park, doing two loops. Hearing this I expected to get 2.5k around and see the carpark, so held back wondering why it was taking so long to arrive. After around 4k I realised we took a different route and the end wasn’t far, so just kept the same pace and finished in 22:38.

The only other 5k event I’ve done is the Broadwood 5k back in 2007, which I did in 21:49 – so that’s my time to beat, and beat it I shall…..

This weekend was the first of this years hill climbs. Having planned this a few months back, we knew it was a long climb, quotes of 8-10 and 10-12 hours from all the guides, plus a four hour drive each way, a stay over was required.

Alarm set for a horrible 3:10am, I was up and out the flat for half passed. Passing though Vietnauld to pickup the guys and we were on our way for the back of 4am.

I started to dread the climb on the day before as it was once again pishing down (typical after a lovely start to the week). The weekend forecast was for rain, lots of rain. I packed up my bags with waterproofs, plenty of changes and a ton of food (never shop when you are hungry!).

The drive up was no bother, past Stirling, though Calendar, Fort William and up to Kintail. Arriving to a overcast looking mountain range, rain was threatened but so far nothing showed up.

We started as a group of 11, heading up the very, very steep ascent. You basically climb most of the Munro on the first incline, it took about 90mins but wasn’t too bad. Two of the new guys dropped out after about half an hour, fair play to them, best to head back now before getting stranded halfway.

At the top of the first corbit, a few of us were quite a distance ahead, studying the map we figured the mountain to the right was a Munro – so we scooted off to “bag”, giving the rest a chance to catchup and get a lead on the next peak.

Heading over the ridges, the clouds started to lift and the weather stayed great. Wind was rather ferocious at times, but this was fine as long as it stayed dry! At times the sun broke though, the clouds parted and we were treated to some stunning Scottish scenery.

After completing the three Munro’s and the corbits in just over ten hours, we headed down the long decent to Kintail for a much needed pint, shower and change.

For the overnight stay, most stayed on the Kintail Bunk House, for £12 a person it was cheap and cheerful. Myself the guys stayed along the road at what turned out to the best B&B I’ve stayed in, suprerb house, location, friendly people and stunning breakfast.

Highly recommended.

As my 29th birthday approaches like an out of control ship, I’ve been thinking what sort of list I want to make before the big thirty arrives. Not wanting to sound like an arse, but I’ve achieved quite a lot of things in the last twenty nine years but there’s always room for more.

I’m really enjoying reading Last Years Girl’s I’ve Not Seen Star Wars list – you’ll need to follow that link to understand, even though she’s only a wee 27. It’s inspired me to create my own…

One of the burning questions in my mind is how far I can push my running. I’ve been running for quite a few years now, it started as a lap of Queen’s Park, then an extended lap, then further, and further. I started doing the 10k event’s and my time has been coming down nicely, 42:32 at Cumbernauld is my best so far, but I know there’s room for improvement!

Last September I did my first half marathon and came away feeling really good, I wasn’t dead at the end, I paced well and was happy with the 1:45:32 time I got.

Ever since I’ve wondered what’s next, I’m doing the same half again this year and expect to get that time down by pushing hard though the middle section. But have been wondering if I should do a full marathon and if so, which one. London is the biggest, but it’s not a city I like. New York would be the mother of all but after investigating, it’s very hard to get entry outside of charity or an associated running club.

Looking down under the Great Ocean Road Marathon looks great, but I’d need a lot more time to train and plan it out, beating jetlag in time for the event would be tricky.

Closest to home is the Edinburgh Marathon at the end of May, a few of the folk I run at my club are doing it but it just didn’t take my fancy…. so……… I’ve decided and entered the Loch Ness Marathon up in Inverness this Autumn. Last years 10k up there was great fun, good atmosphere, nice flat course and a nice weekend away.

I’m now working on a training schedule, going to mix up the running with cycling and swimming, try and get myself up to the four hour target over the next 153 days. I shall be blogging my progress for sure!