2009 Loch Ness Marathon.

We woke up to a clear blue sky this morning which was a welcome change from the rather blustery weather we have been experiencing lately. Very pleased about that as the 2009 Loch Ness Marathon starts at 10 a.m. this morning.

Walked up the grass track passing Aspenwood Cottage to the top road to wait for the runners entering the Baxters Loch Ness Marathon this year. The race starts at Whitebridge and they run the 26 miles - initially along the south side of Loch Ness, up the punishing undulating uplands beyond Dores and eventually finish in Inverness by the River Ness. One of our guests,Paul, was entering the Marathon for the first time so we watched and waited with Michelle and their beautiful dog Nikita. It was very chilly but great fun and we had some good laughs with the competitors as we tried to keep their spirits up. We found out later that there were 3521 entrants just for the Marathon and the first past the post was Simon Tonui from Birchfield Harriers based in Birmingham who completed the race in 2.20+13 secs. Our guest also completed the race...so well done you !

Guest does a runner !

Been a busy week so far. The conservatory has been completely emptied and is being decorated and new wood flooring laid. New furniture arriving tomorrow hopefully. We miss being able to use this room and the cats are most annoyed at being made to camp out in the hallway. The weather has been very showery and overcast lately with a very low cloud base and quite chilly at night.We hope the weather improves for this coming Sunday when one of our guests arriving at the cottage on Saturday is entering for the Baxters Loch Ness Marathon . We shall go up to the road to take a video and cheer him on as well as encourage all the other entrants. We always tell them they haven't got far to go and have lots of laughs with them.