See what I did there? Karin smiles or Karin's miles. I like to think I do a lot of the first one a while clocking up the second, my running partners may think differently... Filed under: Uncategorized
It was a really nice day on Friday so Bill and I decided to meet up at Crewe Toll to run out to South Queensferry and over the Forth road bridge. A lot of the route runs alongside the A90 but it’s a lot more pleasant than that sounds. We headed down to Silverknowes Esplanade and then along the River Almond to Cramond Brig.
I like to run near water, almost all of my runs feature a river, canal, reservoir or the sea-front somwhere along the way. But it’s quite easy to arrange that in Scotland. Often the water is near enough to make contact, generally with your feet or your head (depending on whether it’s still raining or recently stopped).
The 4 miles to Dalmeny do follow the main road but it’s rarely close to the traffic. There were sheep with new lambs in a field next to the path and we saw a couple of very new, bedraggled and unsteady lambs that must have been born only a few minutes before we passed.
At Dalmeny there’s a path along an old railway line that goes almost all the way to the bridge. It’s a bit post-industrial for the first few hundred yards but then it goes under the railway bridge, through woodland to exit via a short tunnel into Tesco’s car park.
Forth Bridge from North Queensferry
I’m always surprised by the gradient on the bridge. It seems to take a long time to reach the first tower and just as long again to the lowest point of the cable but after that it’s downhill to North Queensferry. The bridge is a nice surface to run on because it feels as if it’s springy, but if you stop at all you realise that’s because every heavy lorry causes the deck to bounce quite disconcertingly.
We joined the Fife Coastal Path in North Queensferry. The first part, round Carlingnose Point, is full of whins with a heady spring smell but then there’s a grim plod between the quarry workings and the breakers’ yard followed by a sharp uphill into Inverkeithing.
We had originally considered running on to Dalgety Bay or even Aberdour but it made more sense to call a halt at Inverkeithing where there were shops to refuel and more frequent trains back into Edinburgh. (That and the fact that it meant we stopped while we were still enjoying the run).
I’ve cycled and walked along the next sections of the coastal path but I would like to run them in future. It takes a bit more planning to do point to point runs but the towns on this south-east section of the path are conveniently spaced out and well-served by buses; but that’s for another day.
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