I haven't been myself of late....

Scottish Vets Road Relays Strathclyde Park

Forgive my crudeness, but I've had a bastard of a week. High mileage and the ever-increasing stress in my personal life probably contributed to the total meltdown I suffered on Thursday. This in turn almost led to a massive pile-up which was, thankfully, narrowly averted. *WARNING* too much time on your own thinking can seriously affect your health....

So when the desperate plea for a stand-in runner came through for the Scottish Vets Road Relays I responded with a resounding YES!!! Why? Well a variety of reasons really. Firstly, I could use the excuse of running on Sunday to not run on Saturday. I'm pretty whacked truth be told although the suitcases under my eyes are handy for carrying the shopping home. Secondly, while creating more and more elaborate reasons to avoid people, maybe company is what I need? Thirdly, it's been a while since I did a proper speed session and I could probably use one.

...... I haven't slept for several days
Actually weeks. I just can't switch off. My heid's buzzing 24 hours a day just now. I wake up at inconvenient times and that's me. Last night was no different. Struggling out of bed at 8am I knew today would be hard work. I wasn't wrong. Listening to Guy Garvey singing "in despair or incoherent nothing inbetween" was perhaps not the best pre-race music but when I arrived and saw an array of smiling familiar faces my mood soon changed.

We congregated in the cafe, distributed race numbers and before long 11am arrived. Luckily I was on leg 2. After a brief warmup I spied Gail in the distance and then I was off. As usual I set off too quickly, my first mile being around 7.20 followed by an 8! I found it hard going but after spending weeks running on snow, sand, trails and mud I found the road to my liking, passing over to Maryann running leg 3 having run the 3.8miles in 28:43. Aye, that'll do.