My first experience of running with the Carnethy Ladies

I’ve been a member of Carnethy for a year, but it’s taken me all this time to pluck up the courage to go out running with other club members. I know I’m a slow runner (over five and a half hours for the Glasgow marathon last year!) and I have read so much about the speed of Carnethy people (especially the women) that I needed some encouragement before I could venture along for a club run. I had lots of excuses, of course: got to take the children to their French lessons, husband at evening classes, and so on. And then a few Mondays came and went and I didn’t have an excuse left. It was just at this point that Ian Frost (father of a good friend of my younger daughter and someone who knew I was procrastinating about going to club runs) phoned Moira, who phoned me and invited me to come along to one of the Ladies runs. No excuses now: I had to go.

The Monday after the Carnethy 5, I found myself out running with a group of women I’d never met before and Bill (whom I knew from school days). I usually go running in daylight and so running around and over bits of Arthur’s Seat in the pitch black was certainly a novelty for me. One of the advantages of running in the dark, though, was that no one could run really fast, thank goodness! I had a strong feeling however, that the rest of the group were running slowly to accommodate me, which I thought was very kind of them (I could only just keep up). When I’ve been out running with friends from work at lunch time, we usually chat as we go. Chatting in the dark for me was also a novelty. I’m very deaf but with good hearing aids and light I sometimes forget this. But I can’t lip read in the dark! Anne Nimmo was amazingly patient with me and we managed a sort of two way conversation round about Arthur’s Seat. It was easier to put names to faces when we returned to Lyn Wilson’s flat for hot tea and tasty baguettes. Bill’s birthday was the next day so we all sang the song for him and enjoyed eating his birthday cake. What a nice crowd.

Last Monday I met the group again for another run, this time led by Hilary. We were out for about 80 minutes and returned to wonderful lentil soup, bread and cheese and delicious apple crumble (apples from Andy’s father’s garden). When I returned home my husband asked me where we’d been running. I replied, "Not sure, near Portobello, I think, but anyway it was good fun!" I think I’m hooked now.