April 1st - Yetholm Hill Race route

Ten years ago today I packed up my Astravan with all my worldly chattels and left my barn in Gloucestershire for good, destined for Cranshaws in the Lammermuir Hills, half an hour south-east of Edinburgh. I was an impecunious batchelor with little prospect f finding any work and nothing to take me to Cranshaws other than the thought of running for hours every day in beautiful hills, and the proximity of my best buddies Mark and Julie in Edinburgh. Ten years on, Mark and Jules are both married (though not to each other), I have a wife, more children than I can keep track of, more bloody animals than I care to think about, a steady business and a self-build project in the offing. Some ten years! I wanted to do something significant to mark the anniversary, even if it was just a run around the old trails in the Lammermuirs. Anna was working in the morning and Ellie had to be collected from Edinburgh in the afternoon, so the best I could come up with given the limited time available was to nip out to the Yetholm Hill Race route – which occupies a special place in my heart being the only race in Scotland I’ve won twice – and blast around it as best I could. Time really was against me, so I followed the route faithfully as far as the nasty descent of The Curr, then cut right and joined the low-level Pennine Way alternative and pushed back to the car via Halterburn Head. Lovely run in perfect cool and sunny conditions, although I’ll need to get round it a fair bit quicker in June to retain my crown! Out for an hour and ten plus photo-stops.
Oscar provided the real landmark for me by riding his bike without stabilisers for the first time – a genuine right of passage. Toby, always a bit more timid, needs a couple more days’ practice.

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