Springtime in Edinburgh

Last Monday evening we returned to Arthur’s seat for some hill work ahead of the next Super Sunday and were greeted with perfect conditions. The sun was shining, there was next to no wind, it was beautiful up there on the Crags and we had a good run round a lot of the paths that will feature in the Speed of Light choreography. However, it was at a cost – my ankle problem flared up again and I ended up hobbling to the car.

On Monday evening I made the decision to rest up for the rest of the week to give me a fighting chance of making an appearance at the Super Sunday scheduled for the end of the week. Runners the world over will know how hard it is to stop training for a week. Grumpy doesn’t begin to describe how you feel.  You keep telling yourself – that feels better – perhaps I could just go out for a wee run. Thankfully Mo was on hand to nip that thought in the bud.  It was a long week without running, especially when Mo was getting out running every day of the week and enjoying it to boot.  Still we both remembered last year when the positions were reversed.

On Saturday we headed once again to Strathclyde parkrun, and I took the decision to test out the ankle, firstly with a freedom run round the 5k course. The ankle seemed to hold up quite well. However, standing about waiting for the main parkrun to start it was starting to niggle. Right up until the start I was debating with myself – will I, won’t I. Yes, I ran the 5k. All the way round I was aware of the ankle and felt I was holding back and was pleasantly surprised when I clocked 21:54. The ankle seemed OK and I went off to cool down, waiting to see if there was a reaction. It was fine, that was until I went for a hot Chocolate – I ended up limping to the car.

Super Sunday arrived and I convinced myself that my ankle felt better without the support I had been using so I decided to head off to the speed of light without it. We had studied the choreography a few times ahead of setting of for Arthur’s seat but still felt nervous.  Angus and Litza addressed the run leaders, settling nerves – not exactly, suddenly it felt daunting again. I am sure I wasn’t the only one asking themselves – Can we do this? Of course we could, we had managed on the other occasions we had been on the hill. Besides as run leaders we have to inspire confidence in our team.

The fun started with being suited up in the light suits, as soon as you put on the light suit excitement takes over and you are ready for the task ahead.  Before we knew it the runners were arriving and being assigned to their Run Leaders, time for action. Our group of runners were ‘up-for-it’ right from the off. I was paired with Kristi and Mo with Leo, it was then time to brief the runners – explaining the signals, emphasising the importance of distance between runners.

 Before we knew it we were getting the command to get to our start position – SHOWTIME!

Thanks, Jenny Von Svan for the photo

We led the runners on to the hill, and answered their questions about the night’s proceedings, although we asked for questions during the briefing it seemed that the hill prompted the runners to ask more questions. Once in the start positions, looking across the hill you could see that another magical night lay ahead of us. The visual impact was amazing and it wasn’t even dark yet.  We ran through our choreography legs, trying very hard to concentrate on the job in hand but it was impossible not to try and get a sneak preview of the ‘Big Picture’ – it is going to be an incredible spectacle.  All too soon it was time to head back to the change-over area to hand over our light suits to the incoming session of runners, another example of choreography. As we headed back the heavens opened and suddenly the cold wind was accompanied by sleet and heavy rain. Fortunately my group got off the hill before the torrential rain took hold, poor Mo was up at hub 1 running round in circles waiting for her next command.  The runners on session 2 were unfortunate as they were out in the brunt of it. Despite the wind and rain, the runners’ spirits weren’t dampened.  

Debriefing our team at the end was rewarding, each and every one of our runners were exhilarated by the whole experience.  As for the ankle well it held up for the night but I will be resting it again this week – don’t want to miss Speed of light in August.