Walking the dog on the WHW

After a great deal of soul searching I decided to give today's 29 mile run a miss on the grounds of my dodgy cough. It's not like me to be sensible, as anyone who knows me will confirm, but I just felt it wasn't the time to be taking any chances with a virus. Although not feeling 100%, I did feel a lot better than earlier on in the week so headed up to Sallochy car park (about 3 miles south of Rowardennan), with my younger dog Lucy, for a long WHW walk.

I arrived about 12.30, parked the car and started walking north along the WHW in the direction of Rowardennan. Almost right away I met Alan and Mike, who had been out doing the run but had not gone all the way to Inversnaid. I had a quick chat with them then carried on. My cough sounded terrible going up and down the steep hills, but I seemed ok on the flat - it was probably just as well I didn't attempt the run, with the benefit of hindsight. Lucy just swam across the rivers, which looked much more fun than using the broken bridges, and about half a mile outside Rowardennan I met another runner, Roger, who was on his way back. I kept walking until Ptarmigan Lodge, then turned round and came back the same way, going a bit further on past the car and then coming back. I met the 4 other runners just as I got back to the car. By this stage they had covered about 25 miles and, with the exception of David who is not human, they were beginning to look a bit tired.

All in all I walked for 9 miles in just over 2 and a half hours. It's not quite the same as running, but I enjoyed it a lot and was glad I had done it. Lucy had a fantastic time and has been more or less fast asleep since she came home.