Loch Ness Marathon – from our roving reporter (Iain Morrice): Update from my 1st ever Marathon: I completed the Baxters Loch Ness Marathon in 3 hours 21 minutes. This was a fantastic event in spectacular scenery. We were taken by coaches from Inverness to the high moor ground above Loch Ness. The start was about 2 miles from the village of Whitebridge on the B862 road. At the start there were brilliant facilities, loads of portaloos, hot tea/coffee, lemonade drinks, water and tit bits. The race started at 10:00am in glorious sunshine although there was still a touch of frost on the moors/heather. The route takes you through Whitebridge then drops down to the banks of the Ness taking in Foyers then Dores and finally onto Inverness. The route was a very arduous one with some very steep hills,one at 19 miles was particularly steep. The scenery was brilliant as you ran along the south side of Loch Ness. There were plenty of water stations which supplied both energy drinks as well as water. The road along the Loch was closed to all traffic except for motorcycle outriders of which there were many. The whole time the sun was shining which helped keep the temperature at a decent level, in some sections under the trees there was a wee bit of frost but nothing to worry about. The finish is in the stadium in Inverness and there were excellent facilities. They supplied Baxters soups, pasta , cakes drinks of all sorts and a pipe band to keep your spirits up. The goodie bag and medal were good, the bag included Tea shirt, cakes, shortbread, water, pasta and various leaflets.

All in all it was great event, well organised and I would say to anybody interested for next year "go for it".

Great Scottish Run -Experience overcomes youth: It was good to see Peter McGavigan can still outrun two of his three "boys" in the half-marathon, although Nick did get the better of dad in the shorter Capital City Challenge. Occasional Harmeny track competitor Paul Blanc managed a very respectable 59th place in just under 79 minutes.

Capital City Challenge – more challenging than usual?

It was good to see such a large turnout for the annual romp around the streets of Edinburgh, which took place in glorious sunshine (where are the clouds when you need them?). The organisers had changed the course from last year and the question most folk were asking when they got their breath back, and managed to check their watch was "was this a slower course than last year", especially with the 3 kilometre yomp up from Meadowbank to the Commonwealth Pool. A bit of research and some statistical jiggery-pokery suggests that it definitely was slower this year... by between 1 – 2 minutes.

Evidence 2: Three of the regulars ran the following weekend at Linlithgow, and without so much "traffic" and on a much flatter course took 2- 4 minutes off their Edinburgh times.

Conclusive proof!

We hope to have one or two new jogleaders to help run the class.

The are very few road races during the winter but for those who are interested I have a supply of entry forms for the Queens Drive 5K on 14 Dec which has a limited entry of 500 places. For those in a fit enough state to get rid of the cobwebs at New Year there is the traditional New Years Day Portobello Promethon (4 miles) held along the seafront at Seafield. For the more adventurous, there is the New Year's Day Triathlon, (400m swim, cycle three times round Arthur's seat then run round Arthur's seat) – anyone interested should speak to Catherine Barr or Andrew Nielson who both did the triathlon last winter.