11/6 - Bridge of Orchy Run

Well, all went well and my heel was ok for the past few days. We had a night at Bridge of Orchy planned a while ago and I was gutted I might not be able to run because of my heel. I had actually planned to take my bike but the chain had seized up as I hadn't used it in so long! We didn't have time to fix it yesterday morning, so I took that as a decision I should be running anyway ;D We went up straight from work last night and went a wee walk and had a lovely meal. This morning we had a HUGE breakfast (can't believe I'm so hungry these days...) and after spending about 45mins fixing Derek's bike (how I love blowing up inner tubes and having them deflate themselves whilst trying to find the source of the deflation), after which, we headed off. I have mapped the run below.



We ran/cycled along the WHW to the lodge before entering onto rannoch moor-esque expanse. We then turned left and ran along the path towards Loch Etive (I think). It was a lovely path along the grass, really quite busy though. We ran along to the waterfall, stopped for a sandwich, got eaten by midges then headed back. I was actually feeling pretty good so we decided to head up the wee road by Victoria bridge. It took some turns here and there and we weren't really sure where it was headed so we turned back and came back along WHW to B.o.O. 16.05 miles in total.

It rained a little and was sunny a little but overall quite a dry, mild day. We did stop a few times to decide which way to go, have a snack or walk up a hill here and there...this wasn't a training run after all! However on the whole I ran well, and even ran most of the way up the big hill out of Inveroran at the end of the run! Was well pleased about that (: Derek had a wee bit of trouble pushing his bike up some tough hills...makes me wonder how I'll find cycling the way in 2 days next month given I've not actually cycled since January!

On the whole, we were out from about 11.30am to 4pm. Not a very fast pace, but a really enjoyable run and very pleased I felt good afterwards. Because of the softness of the ground, my heel is ok now too. We think we may make this a regular thing now, too! Maybe do Inversnaid to Tyndrum next time!