PERCY.

At half past nine this morning - exactly - just as I put my shoes on to go out for what will hopefully be my last long run before the mara' .. the heavens opened. It started positively piddling down.
The temptation to say "feck it". Bung on the kettle for another coffee and just watch the Great North Run on the telly was massive.
However.... I'm made of [slightly] stronger stuff. So with a bit of a moan to myself I went back upstairs, grabbed a rain jacket, and headed off regardless.
Started off by doing a sort of circuit of the windfarms before heading through the forest to Crichness then out on to the Duns Gifford road and back via Harehead.
Slow, hilly, muddy and wet. Oh.. and windy in parts.
That's about as much as I can say for it to be honest.
Not a great run. Not a bad one by any means.... but not great. I wanted to do 21 but by the time I got back to the cottage my GPS was only at 20.5. The temptation to just stop was over powering, but I bimbled on for another .25 - did a u-turn - and got home just as it tipped over to the 21.

One small highlight in the run though was my new running "buddy"...... Percy Pig!!
Been a vegetarian for 27 years now and the one thing I do miss is jelly sweeties, so I was over the moon when M&S brought out a vegetarian version of their Percy Pigs (Veggie Percy has a green ear.... Oh and he doesn't contain gelatin either).
So. I decided today, as a bit of an experiment, to take a couple with me on my run and see if they help.
I've always gone for energy gels when I'm doing a marathon, but to be honest I'm not all that convinced about their effectiveness.
These sweets will (a) give me a wee bit of a sugar rush, and (b) they do contain a fair bit of carbohydrate.... so who knows?? Might even manage a marathon without spewing ... that would be nice.
Got on fine with them today, so I'll take a couple with me in two weeks for the mara. One at about 18 miles and one at 24...