Running in Scotland!

The first weekend in September I took a quick girls trip to Edinburgh, Scotland to participate in a race.  At the beginning of Spring a lady in our ward sent out a message to see who was interested.  I dragged my feet a bit, but thought it sounded like a good excuse for a trip and decided to start training.  Originally I was training to run the half-marathon, but then I found out I was pregnant (with twins) and the dizziness and lack of food/energy during my first trimester killed that effort.  I was disappointed because I'd made a lot of progress, getting up to 9 miles, but I guess some sacrifices are worth making!  So in the end I split the distance with another lady.  

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

We left early Friday morning, flew out of Prague, and landed in Scotland in time to explore for the afternoon.  We only spent a few days there, but we fit in a lot of sightseeing!!  And didn't sleep much.

Edinburgh was a neat city.  It was different than most others I'd seen, because all of the buildings were gray stone.  Everything looked several hundred years old.  

First we found a delicious little french cafe for lunch (I automatically like any place that brings unlimited bread and cold water), then we walked up to Calton Hill to get a view of the city.  We saw what was intended to be a replica of the Parthenon... but instead it was abandoned and never finished.

But more importantly we saw the city, with the castle off in the background.

We made our way down the Royal Mile, along Princes Street.  This is the main part of the old city.  I think this is St Giles church.  There were plenty of tourist shops to see along the way.  We grabbed some food at a grocery store

We found the cemetery where JK Rowling drew some inspiration.  Here's Tom Riddle's headstone...

Unfortunately, the weather wasn't great, and we spent a lot of time walking around under umbrellas.  We met up with all of the other ladies, who were flying in at different times.  (I arrived with three others, but total there were 13 of us.)  We warmed up (and dried off) with hot chocolate, then set out on a 'ghost tour' in the dark.  The tour guide told us a lot of gruesome things about the city over the last several hundred years, then took us down in the Edinburgh Vaults.  At that point, I was tired, having been up since 4 am, but it was nice to be in a dry place; and the vaults were interesting.  They were built under a bridge at the end of the 18th century to hold taverns, tradesmen, and storage areas.  However, it was so damp that everyone eventually  moved out and the space was inhabited by the poor.  At one point the city filled in the vaults to eliminate the problem of patrolling them.  Now they use them for a few different things, including taking tourists down at night and explaining how they're inhabited by ghosts.  

Since I was exhausted (I normally go to bed before 9) I had high hopes of sleeping in on Saturday.  No baby crying to wake me up.  No reason to get up early.  And then wouldn't you know... my internal alarm clock had me up before 7:00 (Scotland is an hour ahead of Germany.)  Such a disappointment!

We rented this apartment which slept all of us and had a kitchen/family room area.

I stretched, and started getting ready for our race, which fortunately didn't start till 11.  We sat around, ate breakfast, and headed out the door.  The race was in an area just outside Edinburgh.  It was beautiful to run along the coast and look out over the water--much more enjoyable than the same old runs I've been doing around Vilseck over the last 5 months!

The beginning of the race was pretty ridiculous.  I somehow got lumped with some of the faster runners to go to the start line, so for the first hour of the race (or more?!) I got passed by everyone.  I felt like the slowest runner in the world.  I'll admit I'm slow, but not the slowest person in the race even though you would have thought it.  I wish I'd been put with the slowest 10% so I could maintain some dignity.  But forget about it.  So I just watched everyone pass me, as I judged their clothing and running styles.  Gotta do something for entertainment..

Like I mentioned at the beginning, I only ended up running 6.7 miles or something like that.  Not an impressive distance, but something I was still challenged by since I was pregnant and hadn't run in several weeks.  My goal was actually to just run the first four mile, then walk/run the rest.  I eventually settled into the slow crowd, and ran my full 4 miles, then took short walking breaks throughout the rest.  The finish line for the "duo-challenge" was anti-climatic.  All of a sudden there was a small finish line off to the side where they handed us a medal and then made us walk half a mile up a hill to a bus.  Because after a race the first thing I want to do is walk up a big hill...

Eventually, the bus took us to the 'real' finish line where the 13.1 miles ended.  We waited as everyone in the group finished their races.  (Four of us did the half of a half, everyone else did the full 13).  I was so impressed with their times!  I looked up my time... and I don't remember it.  It was pretty slow, probably between 12 and 13 minutes per mile.  I was just glad that I wasn't the last one to finish.

After the race, a few of us went out to North Berwick by train while everyone else headed back to the apartment.  Saturday afternoon was the only time left we had to sight-see before coming home Sunday morning so we hobbled around to see a bit more.  (Other ladies were staying longer.)

It's a really cute town on the water about 30 minutes outside the capital.  It sort of felt like being in a small New England town.  Cute coast line, little houses and shops, restaurants, etc.  We all agreed that it would be a fun place to stay in Scotland for a family trip to just relax and enjoy the environment.  The area is famous for the puffins that migrate here, but puffin season only lasts from May to July or August, so we missed them.  

On the way back to the train station we grabbed some fish and chips at a small shop because we were famished.  (Mostly me... sometimes I enjoy having pregnancy as an excuse to eat all the time.)

After cleaning up at the apartment, we headed out to dinner at a nice french restaurant.  It was such an enjoyable night, for several reasons.  First, the restaurant was great; the food was delicious, the staff was so attentive (free, cold water!), and we ate so much because we ran a race earlier.  Second, it was fun to eat together with the whole group and celebrate being done with our race.  No more long hours of running and training.  And third, there was no where else to be but enjoying the moment.  When I do things with friends normally I don't feel guilty, but I know that when the get-together is over I'll go home to my family and enjoy spending time with them.  I usually don't feel like I can linger and talk forever without consequence.  But when there's no one waiting for you, or expecting your return at any specific hour, I think you can enjoy the moment more.  So we ordered appetizers, and dessert... and lingered.  It was wonderful.  

My little travel group was up and on an airplane before the sun even appeared.  Back home to Germany (via Prague) to be greeted by our happy families.

Secretly I was hoping Hyrum would have an overwhelming weekend with Tiago, so he'd get a glimpse into my daily life.  But in reality, I think those two had a lot of fun together.  Hyrum loves to play with his baby.  But mission accomplished: he said it was a lot of work and he doesn't know how I get anything done during the day.  :)