Days 6-8

Days 6-8 of the watershed goes through the central belt. This creates a problem if we were to stick exactly to the route as there are farms, houses and Cumbernauld in the way! The route we took instead 'follows' the watershed but sticks to nearby roads. This meant we were able to cover bigger miles and the going was a lot easier.

Having been on such remote terrain it was strange to be so close to civilisation all the time. The biggest positive about this is there were very few midges due to the pollution! 

The best bit about heading through the central belt was the opportunity to see friends and family. Emily and Emma as well as Stuart's wife Linda came to join our support crew of Amanda and Brian and this was a real boost. We even stayed in our respective homes for a few nights which was great recuperation and an opportunity to do some washing. 

I enjoyed running through 2 OS maps, It made me felt we were making great progress. At this stage we headed north where as a lot of the first 5 days we were heading west. Luckily this didn't feel too indirect at the time as we focused on such small sections at a time but when you look at the whole picture, we hadn't moved towards Duncansby Head much!

However, it wasn't all easy. We had various sections which were very recognisable as the watershed; on day 6 we crossed the southern part of the Pentlands. Somehow, being central and a popular walking area I expected this to be straightforward but it's evidently not a popular area. There were very few paths and particularly unpleasant tussocky heather and bracken to trip us up.

As we passed through Kilsyth we had a big entourage cheering us through so we stopped for coffee and cake with my mum, nephew, Amanda, Brian, Linda and Maisie from Funding Neuro.

We experienced our worst weather at this point, not only was the rain belting down but it was very windy and both Stuart and I were cold and demoralised by the time we were collected.

Having run for a week together Stuart and I were realising that we weren't very compatible as running partners and a few nights at home allowed Stuart to make the decision to do his own thing. 

I will continue running the watershed and I aim to stick to our original plan as much as I can.