Get lost

As you know I can get lost in a car park and there are too many examples to mention.  I try my best and even having prepared and downloaded the map to my watch, that's no guarantee that I will stay on route.  But I've come to accept it and get less stressed out about it as getting lost can be fun - assuming it's not in a race.
Last weekend I had 2 nights away in our campervan, AKA Scooby, with my daughter Eilidh.  We stayed in the caravan park next to the Glencoe Visitors Centre where we were looked after like Royalty by our good friends Graeme & Karen Scott who will be working at the site for the season.  If you are up in Glencoe, the campsite is fantastic and I'd definitely recommend you stay there.  We got up early on Saturday to climb two Munro's.  These were Eilidh's first ever Munro's and she did brilliantly.  I had climbed them a few weeks earlier so I was sure where we were going as I didn't want to risk it being too technical.  By the time she got to the bottom she could hardly walk and her legs were shaking.
Graeme & Karen came to the rescue with wine and ice cream and the next day she was brand new and ready to tackle The Pap of Glencoe.  I was nervous about this one as the last time I was up here with Beth, we'd lost the path and ended up scrambling over rocks.  Same happened again but I didn't freak out, or let on to Eilidh, as I knew roughly where we were headed.  The last time I was "bricking it" on the descent because I had lost the path on the way up.  But when coming down I could see the path and although technical in bits, we descended safely.  Not always knowing the exact path can be exciting and keeps you on your toes as you need to be constantly on the look out for the path - if there is one.  What a brilliant dad/daughter weekend in Scooby.  It's got her talking about our next trip into the mountains and I can't wait.
My next race is the Edinburgh Marathon and I'll put it out there - I'm looking for under 3hrs 45mins to qualify for London.  But a lot can happen on the day and there are no guarantees.  My preparation has been hampered by a cold which meant I didn't run for over a week so we'll see if that means I'm rested or rusty.
On Friday night after a long week at work I headed out for a short run to test my legs and my heart.  Both passed the test.  On Saturday morning I turned up at Chatelherault to run with my ATHelite club mates.  It was all going well till we stopped to wait for the others to catch up.  My HR had been behaving but after the rest it maxed out at 205 bpm!  That is the effect of Atrial Fibrillation.  I was still able to talk although felt slightly out of breath.  I told Alan & Mark to run on as I was going to cut the run short at 7.6km but they waited at the top of the hills to make sure I was ok - thanks guys.  Obviously this effort took it out of me and my Garmin told me to take three days off! Yeh right I have a race in 2 weeks time.
Today, Beth, Stuart and I headed out to do a recce of part of the Full Tilt Ultra (58km with 2 Munro's) which is 5 days after the Edinburgh Marathon.  I had the GPX (map) on my watch so was confident we wouldn't get lost.  The weather forecast wasn't good and the low cloud coverage meant we couldn't see the summits.  I'd looked at the map and could see we could take a short cut through Blair Atholl Castle where we had been last year.  As we approached we notice a hut selling tickets.  We were asked for £24 to park our van and take the short cut so we headed down the 1km driveway to a carpark across the road and ran up the driveway.  They were waiting for us.  No access if we didn't have a ticket - very disappointing but we headed back down the driveway and made our way to the start of the route.
The low cloud cover didn't help us and we took one wrong turn but quickly worked it out.  The terrain allowed us to run which was ideal for the marathon training Beth and I needed.  We reached a critical point in the route and due to the cloud cover, we took the safe option.  That meant we missed out on one summit but it was never our intention to complete the whole 58km today.
We had a fabulous time and made a decision not to tackle the other summit which again was hidden and trying to get the bigger picture off of my watch was impossible.
We ran 25km today with ascent of 650m.  My HR averaged 117 which was excellent and enjoyed 3.5 hours on our feet.  We spent a lot of the run trying to work out exactly where we were but that was part of the fun.  I'm not so worried about being uncertain where I am as long as I have a rough idea and help from technology (another of my strengths - not!).  On race day it will be different.  Getting lost is not an option so the recce was very valuable.  The only time I want to say "get lost" is to the staff at Blair Atholl Castle that wouldn't let us through their land unless we'd pay £24.
I got home and ordered some pakora and a couple of cold beers followed by a hot bath.  My Garmin isn't happy with me but other than yoga and some gym work, I'll take tomorrow off running.  It's a bit of a stretch going from 5km to 25km with climbing in 24 hours but that will count as my long run before the marathon.  Here's to finding myself exploring more adventurous routes and getting lost!