It’s a strange thing, waking up and throwing yourself into exercise, transforming your current state of sleepiness to a highly attentive state within minutes.  The change in body and mind is the reason why I think most runners run.  I had planned to run to work, following my usual route which is more direct than any other method I can choose as all roads or cycle paths avoid the Corstorphine Hill.  My only reservation was that it was only 8kms.  Now in the grand scheme of things 8kms is a lot from what I’ve been doing recently, recovering from injury and taking it easy.  But I really need to start to try to get up to distance.  My bright idea then was to follow a longer route, less direct but take it easy and enjoy the run.

I’m amazed that I can live within Edinburgh and seem to be out in the countryside, able to run offroad or one paths that are not following roads.  The commute I took today was 15kms and of that only 4.2kms were run next to a road, only 1.4 on a busy thoroughfare. Naturally I took photos…

It’s not a bad place to be Edinburgh, in fact I’m quite lucky to have these running options.  Starting the day like this sets you up for a good day, where nothing can cloud your head. The weather when I arrived suddenly reminded me that I shouldn’t take the sun for granted as it poured heavily for half an hour just after I arrived at work.  Lucky!

5 Minutes from my house, I’m out of the estate, across a busy road and down a quiet lane bounded by fields, the old Cammo Tower in the distance.  

The River Almond

An obstacle course

The weir on the Almond

Reminding me that I’m not far from civilisation

Cramond Island

Looking back along Cramond Foreshore

Wildflowers

Cycle Path following an old railway line

The tunnel underneath roads and buildings

Finally into buildings and civilisation