Footprints in the Snow (Glennifer Braes Run)

It's a shame the snow, for the moment, has left us, as I had a fantastic couple of hours running up on the Braes last week. It was on 'Day 16' of this years Marcothon, after we had an overnight dump of snow, which had mere mortals huddled together in the comfort of their homes. But not I! So rather than doing a boring road run I took to the hills for a 7 mile 'stop-start' run. I say 'stop-start' because it took me nearly 2 and a half hours to complete my run due to numerous pauses to stop and gawp at the winter wonderland that had been created. I had pre-empted the scenery by bringing along not 1, but 2 fully charged camera phones on my run (1 for colour photos and another for just taking black and white pictures). I was hoping for a few decent pictures and hopefully you will agree the ones below turned out not too bad! (Go to my facebook page for the whole collection from the day). So I ran at a slow and steady pace, with lots of stops for pictures. It was pretty deep in some places and some sections of the path, which I run regularly, had to be walked as I knew the snow hid lots of large rocks and didn't fancy going over on my ankle or falling on my face. I ran to Killoch Hill via Glen Park, Brownside Braes, passing Fereneze Golf Course on the outward leg. Near the path junction beside Glenburn Reservoir I met Paul Giblin who had been out running up Killoch hill and was on his way down. This was our first proper meeting. We exchanged hellos and talked briefly about our entries to the West Highland Way Race next year. The return leg took me down off of Killoch down to the 'shoreline' of Glenburn Reservoir, following it's fenceline, past the fishing club huts and back into Glen Park for a slippery downhill run past the two smaller lochans and back into Paisley. The views from Killoch over to Ben Lomond and the 'Arrocher Alps' were fantastic. It was indeed a good day to be alive and running in the hills. Hopefully the snow will return again soon. I hope you enjoy the photos here as much as I did taking them.

Have a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year Everyone!!