Great weekend just past – The annual OMC Christmas get-together in Crianlarich.   Lots of exercise,  banter,  amazing grub and a wee drinkie or 2.

Before heading off to Crianlarich I had Christmas shopping to do and parcels to deliver – all done by bike of course – reckoned I did about 25 miles or a wee bit more.

Relaxed start on Saturday morning,  before myself and Colin E caught the train to Bridge of Orchy and then ran along the West Highland Way back to Crianlarich.   A mix of sunshine and showers but mostly in our favour and we didn’t get too wet.   Nice easy running initially – but oh my word the last,  and hilly,  section was tough – I was blaming my recent cough and cold – but Colin had much more of a cough than me and he still fared much better and had to keep coming back like a sheepdog to round me up and make sure I was ok.   Good run though and back in plenty of time for the Christmas festivities later that evening.

Tear in seam of thermal cycling leggings x exact area that inside of right thigh makes conatact with bike seat x 46 miles of cycling from Crianlarich back home to Stirling on the Sunday = lots of cursing and swearing when I get in the shower and find that I have removed a 2 pence sized area of skin from the inside of my thigh – major ouch moment – apart from that an excellent bike ride home though – now need to do a repair job on my leggings.

No pictures I’m afraid – I was moving too fast??!!

I’ve got a place in the Maine Marathon – yippee!

I have cycled to a couple of marathons before,  so in theory it is doable!

The first time I cycled a grand total of 10 miles,  before relaxing my legs while I was given a lift the rest of the way to the start of the Strathearn Marathon – a run I would highly recommend – quite roads,  lovely scenery,  friendly marshals and lots of cakes at the finish line – cake is always good.

Flying at the Strathearn Marathon June 2013

The second time was when I cycled from home to Stornoway on Harris to run the Callanish Stones marathon – approximately 250 miles of cycling.   Another great run – as above but instead of cakes I got a whole Stornoway black pudding and lots of other goodies at the finish line and a fantastic ceilidh at night.   This race has only taken place twice and about 5 years apart – hopefully it will run again in another few years time.   ps – the cycling is dam good as well.

So whats a wee 4000-5000 mile bike ride prior to 26.2 run? Only time will tell.

Since I last posted Donald Trump has been voted President of the USA!   In what started as a surely he’s just kidding – to a no he is quite serious but hasn’t got to a hope in hell of winning – to OMG he might have a chance here –  and finally,  shite,  he is the next president of the USA!   Do I want to visit a country where the new president is openly sexist,  racist,  verbally abusive,  etc,  etc,  and there is even less hope of changing their gun laws??   Apparently,  according to some,   American politics has to get worse before it can get it better and therefore Trump isn’t such a bad thing – well we have another 4 years before we find out!!   And as to me – in the grand scheme of things – I’m just one wee half Scottish / English cyclist on a wee bike ride and whoever is president probably won’t have a great deal of affect on my trip – unless Trump,  himself,   reads this and bans me from entering the USA!

Anyway hopefully no more politics in my blog and on to some exciting stuff – finally got some route planning done and I have 2 nights of accommodation booked in New York!   I will largely be camping and using hostels and don’t intend booking accommodation much in advance – I don’t want to be tied down too much to dates and times,  etc – so time will tell to see if I’m pedalling like a dervish to make my New York deadline.

So my joining the dots so far are taking me up part of the West Coast of Oregon and then from New York to my end point in Maine – and as my friend pointed out very little in between!   But still plenty of time – I think I’ve said that a few times and now down to 7 months until I go!

Back at home we had a spell of lovely cold and crisp weather – too much of this was spent indoors at work but managed to get 2 good walks up Dumyat.

And on a random note- while checking that I was using the word “dervish” in the right context discovered that it is a Muslim word –

Dervish – noun – “A member of a Muslim (specifically Sufi) religious order who has taken vows of poverty and austerity.   Dervishes first appeared in the 12th century;  they were noted for their wild or ecstatic rituals and were known as dancing,  whirling,  or howling dervishes according to the practice of their order.

Where on earth did October go to?   I seemed to go from one annoying cold to another so not done as much exercise as I would have liked,  but as I type this,  realise that I’ve still done a fair amount.

Another Round the Forth circuit – this time stopping to look at the old pier at Culross which is being repaired and a wee stop to look at the new Forth Crossing which is gradually getting more joined together.   For the first time I arrived at the Forth Road Bridge to find the West side of the bridge was closed to pedestrians and cyclists,  meaning that I had to carry the bike down too many steps,  cross under the bridge and then carry bike back up even more steps so that I could join the East side of the bridge – this was an unexpected nuisance – however there were 2 benefits to this – (1)from just below the bridge you get a better vantage point of the Forth Railway Bridge and (2)There is a public toilet at the end of  the East side of the bridge (bonus).

I went with friends,  Colin and Sara, to watch the cycling at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome.   First ever time at a velodrome and I loved it.   There were a mix of some of the recent Olympic cyclists and some up and coming junior cyclists and all were amazing and lots of different of races going on so never got boring.   Surprised though by the old fashioned and (I think) sexist presentation of the flowers to each of the winners by the very pretty dolly bird in heals – surprised that she was allowed on to the track – just the very edge but never the less on the track in her stiletto heals – but why was there no good looking male presenting the flowers to the female winners,  which I would prefer – but suppose it does open up all sorts of questions of who should make the presentations depending on each cyclists sexual preference – maybe it is easier to have one lassie (heals or not) doing all the presentations??   Anyway the racing was great fun to watch and will definitely be going back to the velodrome.

The following  weekend I was in Ballachullish with the Ochils Mountaineering Club(OMC). Two Munros on the Saturday and a Corbett on the Sunday.   Good company and chat on and off the hills.

Then I took Ben,  my nephew,  to Holland for a weekend.   No hills but plenty of walking and of course you can’t go to Holland without a hiring a bike.   We hired our trusty steeds from the hostel we were staying at – combination of style and weight of bike we were both a bit wobbly to begin with but soon got to grips with things and a had great wee bike ride.

We had a super day at Apenheul (the monkey / primate park) – all pictures taken by Ben except the one of himself monkeying about.

In Amsterdam we explored some of the canals,  visited the Anne Frank Museum,  climbed the (approx) 180 stairs up the Westerkerk Bell Tower and got super views of the city,  and we had amazing waffles and cake.

Absolutely shattered but a great weekend,  although I’m not sure how well I handled the “what’s a cannabis condom Auntie Lucy?” conversation.

I’ve now signed up for the Loch Ness Etape next April – it’s been on the tick list for a while and probably doesn’t make sense to do it the month before the Stirling Marathon but had a what the heck moment and signed up – it’s only 66 miles and I don’t think the hills should be too bad but I need to figure out how to keep my hands warm so I can keep training over the winter.

The last weekend in October was the OMC dinner dance and I was full of the snotters again.   I did think about staying cosy in my sleeping bag on the Saturday but dragged my body out of bed to try and keep up with Nige on the bike.   Starting from the Ben Lawers  Carpark we had sweeping downhill ride to Loch Tay – the easiest part of the day.   From there we headed West and very pleasant cycling alongside the River Lochay and then the hard work started – up,  up and more up – my snot filled lungs were protesting and I had to admit defeat and pushed the bike over 2 sections of the road as we headed North West to the high point before another lovely down hill to Pubil.   From here lovely gently undulating cycling to Bridge of Balgie and a very short detour to the Glenlyon Post Office come tiny shop come Tea Room – definitely worth stopping for – cake heaven.   One final pull back up to the start point – my kind of uphill – tough and constant but achievable without having to dismount and push.   Will definitely be back to do this route again (and have more cake).

Nearly sleeping during the dinner but managed to get a second wind for the dancing later that night – Strip the Willows,  Gay Gordons,  Dashing White Sergeant and more.   A relaxing start to the morning and the cold seemed a wee bit better and it was off on the bike again along with Nige and Ade this time – I hadn’t got a hope in hell of keeping up but Ade was kind and Nige kept stopping to take photos so I didn’t do too bad at trying to keep up as we did the Loch Tay Loop (clockwise) from Killin.   Great route in beautiful autumnal weather and will need to go back and explore it some more including Kenmore which is really pretty and the Crannog Centre which looks interesting.

I booked my return flight from America last night – Boston to Glasgow – leaving Boston on Thursday 5th October 2017 and arriving in Glasgow the following day.   I had hoped not to leave Boston until the Sunday but this would have meant a £1100 plane ticket instead of a £453 – I went for the cheap ticket!

I had already decided to reduce my trip by a week and now I’ve knocked off another couple of days – seriously reducing the number of cycling days but still very much doable (well if folks can do it in less than 9 days I should be able to do it in 10 and a bit weeks??) – I just need to take what is still very much a random selection of  dots on the map and format a route – but plenty of time yet to do that??

Both my route and,  more so,  my time planning would be much easier if I wasn’t planning on doing the Maine Marathon – sense is telling me to abort the marathon idea but where’s the fun in that – it’s all about the challenge!

**Fastest Crossing of America by Bicycle (Male) – stolen from Guinness World Records**   

The fastest crossing of the USA by an individual, as set during the Race Across America (RAAM), was achieved by Christoph Strasser (Austria) in 7 days 15 hours 56 minutes cycling from Oceanside, California, to Annapolis, Maryland, from 10 to 18 June 2014. In 2013 Christoph Strasser became the first person to cross the USA coast to coast in under 8 days when he finished in 7 days 22 hours 11 minutes. He had previously won the race in 2011, posting a time of 8 days 8 hours 6 minutes. The race route varies each year and Strasser’s average speed of 16.42 mph is also a record in terms of average speed, far better than his 2013 speed of 15.6 mph.