Jogging 2

 Morton Reservoir, one of my early morning jogging destinations

 

As I jogged more my general jogging fitness improved without me realising until I was jogging up Arthur’s Seat again with Gordon. We left from my Sister in law, Janette’s flat in Lutton Place, which meant the distance was going to be greater, we jogged along the lower part of the park which brought us to the steep road and off we headed, I remember for the first time actually passing someone on the hill and as I progressed I realised Gordon wasn’t with me, I looked around and there he was struggling a bit, he had got a “stitch” so we stopped briefly whilst he recovered, I think he got the “stitch” as he had to adjust his pace to suit mine.  He then waved me on as the “stitch” was taking longer to clear, saying he would catch me up.  I started off knowing that Gordon could catch me up without any effort.  Every so often I would look over my shoulder but couldn’t see Gordon, eventually I got to the downhill section (not going for the uphill path), reaching the bottom I could have headed for home, however it would be without Gordon.  At the part of the park that levels out, there is another grassy area which I decided to jog around whilst waiting on Gordon,  I jogged around and as I headed back around the small part of the park I was jogging alongside the hill until I came around full circle to where I had started on the grassy area, still no sign of Gordon and by now I was getting concerned so I started jogging up the “decline” and eventually retraced my steps never seeing Gordon.  Much to my surprise I had in effect managed to jog around Arthur’s seat twice which was for me a major event. I now headed for “home” hoping I was going to find Gordon there as he had effectively disappeared.  I asked as soon as I arrived back, and could get my breath, if Gordon was back. Much to my horror he wasn’t so I immediately made to head back when Gordon came through the door, training shoes around his neck looking very hot.  He then recounted much to our amusement what had happened, I had left him recovering from his “stitch” from which he recovered and then followed me. He had arrived at the bottom of the decline when I was circling the small grassy section of the park, I had followed the road down on the outside perimeter of the park before heading across the grass to the inside perimeter next to the hill.  He had tried to whistle and shout but I never heard him, so he started to follow me expecting me to stop or head for home.  Of course, on the way back round as I retraced the “jog” I never thought to look over my shoulder as I expected to find Gordon in “front” of me and of course he didn’t have the energy to shout, whistle or catch up with me. His shoes eventually started to rub so he took them of and hung them around his neck finishing the jog shoeless.

 

When we moved to East Calder I started jogging again, this time along the fairly new bypass which at best was boring, I always went out early in the morning when there is a great peace in the air, I should add that then I was a fair-weather jogger, starting in spring and lasting until usually the end of summer whilst the mornings were still light. Eventually and thanks to my neighbour Ronnie who took me a great route up to the Morton Reservoir, leaving my house, heading along the farm Road, crossing the bypass, then heading up a hill.  It was my favourite jog, it was a small, very quiet road, so peaceful. Seeing the occasional deer and other wildlife, it was truly a pleasure. I found by changing my philosophy from hating jogging to it being a pleasure made a big difference.  When I arrived at the reservoir, I would sit for about 10 minutes and just enjoy the serenity that existed there at that time of the morning.  Sometimes there would be a light mist over the water, ducks would be swimming on the surface and the occasional trout would jump out of the water.  The only sign of civilisation were the sheep in the fields and the Shepherd who occasionally passed me in his truck.  I had a few adventures involving injured sheep and dogs, however the funniest happened as I was jogging up one morning, it must have been about 6.30 am.  In front of me on the small road was a sheep and two lambs, obviously not where they should have been.  They started to run in front of me, so I stopped and tried to get past them, but they would have none of it. This continued like a ritual going up the hill, I would stop, then they would stop, I would try to circle them, and off they would go again.  I eventually reached the gate leading to the reservoir which I climbed over (as normal), the sheep and lambs had passed the gate.  I had my usual 10 minutes, got to the gate only to find the sheep and two lambs had moved down past the gate and were again in front of me for my return trip.  The ritual started again until we started to head down the hill.  I can still see it as clearly today as I could then. As I turned the bend at the top of the hill I could see my “companions” in front of me and to the left was a field (which I had passed on the way up) literally filled with sheep.  As we headed down the hill one of the sheep in the field looked round and saw the sheep and two lambs trotting down the hill in front of me.  It responded by heading downhill in the field, this movement was eventually picked up by every other sheep in the field. I was horrified, I could see a flock of sheep all trotting across this field towards the bottom gate, my “sheep” were also concerning me because unless I could get passed them, they would eventually end up on the busy bypass road.  As these thoughts and concerns were in my mind, I could see the flock of sheep now running, if not stampeding along the field towards the gate and then my nightmare got worse, the gate was open and out they poured in front of me, I couldn’t move. A noise came from the road in front of the sheep causing them to turn and charge me causing me to leap a ditch to get out of their way.  Once they had all passed, I resumed my jog shaking my head thinking about the intelligence of sheep.