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.
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