The Re-Sniffing

Running is all very well, but sometimes you need to take your time if you want to fully appreciate the sights and smells a place has to offer. For this reason we revisited part of the River Ayr trail for a thorough re-sniffing at walking pace.

Almost as soon as we arrived Beanie & Biggles indulged their latest habit of walking along the tops of walls.

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Beanie got a bit of shock when she realised that she was actually quite high up and there was a sheer drop into the river on the other side. Her finely tuned reactions caused her immediately to brace herself against a possible fall:

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Bloody hell that’s a long way down!

As always, Biggles was completely oblivious to such dangers. Only recently we were walking around the big pond at Irvine Beach Park when he fell in. How he managed it is a mystery but one second there was a dry Bigglet walking confidently along the side, and a second later there was a wet Bigglet bobbing up and down in the water, waiting for me to haul him back onto dry land. There’s no way his Biggleship is equipped to survive in the wilds without his support team! This time however no rescue was required. We made it off the wall, past the first signs of new growth (without peeing or trampling on any flowers), and on to the first section of the walk without any incidents.

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The way I see it, a good walk should include the three ‘S’s:

1. Scrambling

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2. Sniffing

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Some sniffs must be pursued eagerly..

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..while others deserve to be sampled calmly and at length

3. Scampering

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I’m happy to report that this walk delivered in all respects, and though it was still a bit wet and muddy in places, the two furry tummies stayed relatively dry.

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We’ve reached the turning point, and the white bits are still mostly white…

Trail Hounds

Fortunately for us, everyone in our family enjoys running fast rather than far. Unfortunately for us, only the four legged family members can do it! So, in anticipation of some fabulous running and hiking holidays in the mountains Paul and I have been working very hard on our running speed. We’re both making good progress, and Paul in particular is now able to maintain a speed that the puplets approve of….almost.

On a week-in-week-out basis I don’t think any of us would enjoy running more than about 10k in a single run. That said, it is nice to know that you can pull 20 k or more out of the bag for a great trail on holiday. We were therefore pleased when several weeks ago we all comfortably completed a 21.5k run along the Smugglers Trail to Troon. It was quite by accident – we got lost (well, a combination of tempted by ice-cream and lost). But the really encouraging thing was that:

  • I (the weakest link) ran at between my 5k and 10k race pace for most of the way
  • We’d completed a fairly strenuous hill walk the day before
  • We had a club 5k time trial the day after at which Paul and I set new personal bests.
  • The pups stayed calm and didn’t pull too much (something that we’ve been working hard on for months now).

In theory, training for speed should give you distance as a spin off. But until you’ve tried it you’re never quite sure if it really works. Encouraged by this knowledge that we could safely dip into the occasional longer distance run without the drudgery of weekly long, slow plods (we train primarily for 5k distance, cross country and hill running), we decided to find some fabulous new local trails that would accommodate the occasional longer adventure.

We’d planned a reconnaissance run at one such trail this morning – or to be more accurate, a series of interlinking trails along the river Ayr:

It was perfect! You can run for miles and there are a variety of different routes to keep it interesting. The terrain is just perfect for our little Beagles – winding, narrow paths through the woods, along the river bank, through open farmland. It’s going to be wonderful watching the scenery change with the seasons.

It has to be said, it was a little muddy:

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A muddy Biggle tum

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And a grubby Beanie tum

But thanks to Beanie and Biggles’ sophisticated self-cleaning system they were both sparkly clean by the time we got home.

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Beagles in Print

A while ago Beanie and Biggles’ exploits caught the attention of a journalist writing for the RBS and Nat West magazine, Sense. She was particularly interested in their canicross adventures. She wrote a short article about Paul, Beanie and Biggles and the publishers sent along photographer Murdo Macleod to take photographs.

I was over the moon when this photo appeared with the article as a double paged spread in the current edition of Sense. As Paul is the photographer in our family it’s very rare to get a nice picture of him with Beanie and Biggles.


photo copyright Murdo Mcleod

Murdo also took some other lovely photos which he kindly sent to us.


photo copyright Murdo Mcleod


photo copyright Murdo Mcleod