Fife Coast Trail Run

The day before we left St. Andrews, I learned that our hotel sat next to a trail that followed the cliffs all the way into town. I hadn't run in Scotland yet, and decided I had to give it a try. I had already walked 18 holes and Hub was going back for another 18. A free afternoon and time for my first real trail run!

I headed down the hill from the hotel to find a wall with a ladder over it. The trail started high on the cliff and was wide and grassy. For some reason I was expecting more of a bike path paved type of thing. Oh my, was I wrong. It soon became narrow and steep and there were some beautiful bridges and a nice section that was completely covered. I think you can see it in these pics.

I ended up going up and down several of the cliffs all the way to shoreline and back. At some points the trail was over heavy boulders, rocks, sand, and you just had to pick up the trail on the other side. I had no idea trail running was like this. I ran whatever I could. Sometimes the steps were too precarious and I had to pick my way carefully, but always went back to running. Some nice people snapped a pic of me about 2 miles in. There were some spots where you could see the trail going up the next cliff - oh my. At one point I had to climb over a little fence with a sign about the Fife Coast Trail.

I started taking some pics of the town in the distance. It looked like a really long way, especially by way of cliffs, but I did eventually make it down into St. Andrews harbor. I went through a really cool stone gate (below) and up through an old cemetary and cathedral ruins and proceeded to run through the entire town down to the Old Course. I knew there was a shuttle there back to the hotel. When I got there, I realized I had only gone 4 miles!! I still felt pretty good and wanted to go along the coast I had missed by running through town. I'm glad I did because I got to see the ruins of St. Andrews Castle, the University (where Prince William recently went) and the pier where the University students parade every Sunday in their red gowns.

I decided if I was going to make that treacherous, mostly uphill climb back I better have a sugar pop and some water. I sat at the harbor and enjoyed the gorgeous view and the fact that I had discovered a great trail. Finally I headed back and did more walking on the way back than I care to admit. The last picture is on the way back, looking back at the town. It shows the pier - I actually went about 3/4 a mile beyond that down to the course.

I decided I am really really bad at trail running, my Nemesis and his sidekick probably would have been rolling their eyes at me, but I had no idea how demanding it is. I did roll an ankle but it wasn't severe and got some nice scratches from thistles. All in all, I had a great sense of accomplishment and was so glad I found the trail. I'd say it was a pretty good first trail run!

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Since getting back, I have done some very short, difficult runs. I'm not sure if it's the time off or the heat + humidity or perhaps the stricter diet but it's been tough. Many miles in the 13's - yikes. I still have difficulty with having enough energy to run with out overdoing the fueling. I am down about 8 or 9 pounds in Viv's Challenge and hope to keep up the new mentality of no matter how much you work out, 80% of the work is in the kitchen. Still I have to have enough energy to work out. Blah. I hope to be back to p90x on Monday.