On Friday 3rd of March at 1430 John and I picked up our latest acquisition, our brand new wee motorhome - it had to be wee so that it could a) go the places we want to go and b) fit on our driveway. The Eldiss Autoquest 115 fitted the bill perfectly and apart from the fact that the upholstery is totally impractical for manky runners - a beautiful light grey and blue - it has been the best purchase ever! We have already over 2500 miles on it, but it has helped me to clock up the miles in my training calendar this year and really reduced the logistical stresses. This weekend for example, my run was to be Milngavie to Balmaha, we've had a week of fabulous weather with hot temperatures and non stop sunshine, and I was wanting to get the run started early so that I could be finished by lunchtime and hopefully benefit from cooler temperatures in the earlier part of the day, so we drove through to Milngavie on Friday night and stayed over. This meant I had time to have a leisurely breakfast and my usual ablutions and still be on the trails by 0650. The hope it would be cooler was a tad forlorn though as it was in the 20s already!! It was a roasting hot run, by the time I got to Conic Hill the sky had clouded over a little which was a welcome respite from the sunshine beating down but it didn't really get much cooler... The thermometer on the dash was showing 26C
I enjoyed my run, I achieved what I'd been tasked to do, I know where I can hopefully shave off a few more minutes, but I started on a very empty tank as the past too weeks have been physically and mentally hard and I was very very tired. There were tears at the finish, I was so delighted to have got there in time!
After a quick shower - another luxury of having the van! We headed off up the road to Aviemore to spend the night with Clark and Amanda and celebrate Amanda's birthday, there was champagne, nice food and a few laughs then another run today - so all in all a good weekend! Good running, good people, good fun, good food, good champagne! There is a lot of shit going on in my life at the moment, which for now will remain close to only a very few, but suffice to say a good weekend was exactly what I needed and yes I know we could have done the same miles in the car but the van has just added another dimension to it all! There's a lot to be said for the hashtag #vanlife 💕👧🚐
