Clyde Stride recce

So todays plan was to recce the 2nd half of the Clyde Stride which I'm running in July. This day had been carefully booked in, we had friends to stay with in the west, and it worked with my wife's work. Shame that it happened to be a complete shocker weather wise. I first got nervous when the rain was pouring down on the M8. My windscreen wipers rarely see speed setting 3, but it was needed far too much on the drive over.

So the plan was this. Drop the family at our friends, drive to New Lanark, leave the car, walk to Lanark train station, get train to Motherwell, run back to car. Simple. First part was fine, walked to the station eating a sandwich (ham salad and coleslaw) got train (£4.10 single!!!, to end up in Motherwell). Got to Motherwell, and after some disorientation found my way down to Strathclyde Park and was properly off on the route.

Annoyingly I realised I was carrying far too much water literally minutes after I passed the last bin I could have dumped the stuff in. I didn't see another bin until New Lanark, although I quickly drank the water cos it was pissing me off, I had to carry the bottle all the way with me. Only the Gods of karma kept me from flinging the stupid bottle into the Clyde but I didn't feel I needed more punishment.

Experienced Clyde Stride types are forever banging on about the coo field (Scottish for cow field). It lived up to its fearsome reputation. There were a few stand offs with militant cows, in the end I took to the extreme edge of the river bank to get past them, figuring that in an emergency I could outswim a cow (which I probably couldn't). They let me past, but I did end up with bird shit all over my jacket  as a result of climbing down the sandbanks and never quite felt clean afterwards.

The first bit passes fairly easily, I was a bit put out by this sign which I felt was crying out for a Clyde Walkway west arrow, but I muddled through.

 

 

Mauldslie bridge arrived quite easily and I was lulled into something of a false sense of security about how easy this all was.

 

 

I soon came to a great opportunity for a limbo spot prize during the race

 

 

and then had my first encounter with some proper mud

 

 

I don't own any trail shoes but if I did this is precisely the sort of terrain that would leave me thinking long and hard about what shoes to wear, ahhh the advantages of limited funds. This whole bit through some ridiculously named woods was most unpleasant. However it was nothing compared to the unremittingly grim bit next to the sheep fields after Crossford. Here the mud was both deep and unavoidable. It was hard today as I just couldn't run and slipped everywhere, but on race day with 30+ miles in my legs this would be properly tough.



 

 

It was great to get past this bit and down towards New Lanark, it was all a bit of  a struggle now but the end was in sight. The paths down through the woods were a little hair-raising, but I got there and found the energy to run past the car and to the falls of Clyde, which in spite of the rain were a little tame.



 

 

Then back to the car, a well earned thermos of coffee and back to our friends, where I learned that my eldest had been sick, my trip to the pub was off, and a drive back home in the pissing rain was in order.

 

Still very pleased with my day, I did the distance without too much trouble, my food seemed to work (high 5 gels, a bounty,  a nine bar, some soreen and some haribo) there isn't too much to be scared off in the terrain, and thanks to some mid run plastering, no nipple issues at all.

 

As I missed my trip to the pub, I followed up my tour of Lanarkshire with my own world tour...