I have only a few reasons to keep on running, and a truckload of them to quit. All I can do is keep those few reasons nicely polished. (Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running)
My good friend Gary is visiting today and we plan to go for a run, followed by brunch. Gary is organising a 10k for his work colleagues next week and he is behind in his training. A couple of weeks ago, Gary and I set off from my house on my usual 7.5km route. We ran clockwise round the Moss and around the football pitches to Boghead Wood. From there, we followed Christine’s Way to the canal and jogged through the centre of Kirkintilloch to Luggie Park. Passing the leisure centre, we ran down to Whitegates Park and then back along the residential streets to complete the loop. The route has over 100 meters elevation gain, which is equivalent to an extra kilometre of effort. I have been forcing myself to do it every week this year, along with a shorter run such as the 5k parkrun at Drumpellier Park, which I attended for the first time last week. I have also been out with the recently formed Lenzie Running Club, which circles the Moss on occasional Sunday mornings. New year, new me.
Lenzie Moss is perfect for gentle running. It has zero elevation and nice wide paths free of obstacles. We therefore decide to stick to the Moss today. It has been very cold overnight (Gary sent me a screenshot showing that it was -4°C when he woke up). But it doesn’t feel too bad as we set off, and the pavement is free of ice, which was our main concern. Gary starts his Map my Run app as we leave my house and turn left onto Bea’s Path.
For two laps, we maintain a steady pace. There are several people out running this morning, and we see some of them more than once as they pass us in the opposite direction. There is a certain quality to the greetings exchanged between joggers: an encouraging nod and a half-smile of solidarity.
Neither Gary nor I are natural runners. I don’t think either of us even enjoy it, to be honest. Unlike the marathon-running novelist Haruki Murakami (of whom we are both fans), we don’t run as a habit or a daily ritual. Every outing requires an effort of will. But thankfully, we have enough reasons to keep on running. I suppose that chief most among them is the need to stay healthy as we reach our mid-forties. I may be maintaining a weekly run at the moment, but experience tells me that this pattern is easily broken. If a busy work week or a bad cold or a holiday gets in the way and causes me to miss a week, then the motivation evaporates and I give up on my streak. The trick is to keep doing it, then.
As we run, Gary’s app alerts us to each kilometre that we reach. We agree that we will run continuously until we reach the sixth. This happens just short of the bottom of the boardwalk on the south woods path. At this point, we about-turn and switch to a walk. It feels good to have pushed ourselves and while our pace has not been particularly impressive (even by our standards), we both feel a sense of achievement. Gary checks our distance and time on his phone and restarts the app.
As we switch direction and gait, I sense our attention shift to the landscape around us rather than the pathway ahead. We pass many dog walkers and several families with warmly wrapped children running off to explore the woodland. Magpies hop behind the grasses, which glimmer in the frost.
I tell Gary about the local running club that I have enjoyed being part of. For the last two runs, I have taken Ruairidh with me. The first time, he ran twice round the Moss at a surprising pace, beating most of the adults back to Billington’s for hot chocolate. Last Sunday, he set off even faster, staying in the lead for half of the first lap. At the top of the boardwalk, he looked back to me, red faced and exhausted and not willing to run any further. I think this hard-won lesson about pacing will serve him well for tomorrow’s run.
Gary’s eye is drawn to the silver birch, glinting in the bright winter sun. He notices that some have been felled or damaged in storms and it reminds him of a time in Sri Lanka, when he visited a forest that had apparently been flattened by elephants. My own point of reference is closer to home, and I tell Gary about my visits to a beaver reintroduction project at Bamff Estate in Perthshire, where the water has spread into the woodland, bringing down tens of trees. One summer night, I stayed in a lodge beside the main dam and walked along the river just before midnight, accompanied by beavers swimming alongside me.
We pick up the pace again and jog along the north woods path, only walking again as we leave the wood and look out across the bog. A couple of days ago, the Campsies were covered in snow. Today, there are only remnants on the tops. Gary grew up in the nearby town of Kilsyth, at the foot of these hills, so he knows the geography here. He points out the snow-capped peak of Meikle Bin and tells me that his elderly aunt always used to say that she would climb it one day but never did and is now too frail. I suggest that we should do it on her behalf some time.
Gary and I have climbed far higher than Meikle Bin, although we realise with alarm that we haven’t been hiking together for years. Even longer ago, we started to bag Munros, and managed several, including Beinn na Lap, where Steve recently completed his 282nd mountain adventure. Our best made plans never went very far, diverted as we were – and frequently still are – by travel, pubs and restaurants. Being outside together and looking out to the hills on such a fine winter’s day puts us both back in the mood for hiking and we agree to make time for it this year.
We run for the final section back to my house. This walk-run alternation makes this particular circle the quickest of the 40 that I have done so far (at 24 minutes 17 seconds) and the only one that isn’t entirely walked. But despite the speed with which we have moved along, we have enjoyed some quality time together this morning. Running with a friend is about making time for each other, catching up and hatching plans. It is also about achieving something together and rewarding that achievement, which is another very good reason to keep on running. We head off for our reward now with a visit to Billington’s for a well-earned beer and a breakfast roll.
