Black Rock 5

The day starts with a bike ride to Broughton to collect my car. There’s wind and sun, the road is quiet. A fine beginning.

This afternoon is Martin’s funeral. Sal is doing one of the eulogies - flying up from Somerset. I pick her up at the airport.

At Balerno, the kirk is full. The service is by turns moving and amusing and ends with slides to the soundtrack of Starman and Space Oddity. Lucy and family leave, but the rest of us remain sitting as the slides and music begin to loop.

We process to Norton Hall for sustenance and conversation. I have three industry luminaries in the back (Chris M, Dave S, & Karl S) - which required a hasty reorganisation of the detritus I carry around with me.

After conversations, hugs, tea, and snacks, I depart for Kinghorn, through rush hour traffic. I park at Townhead, since Station Road is all fenced off for tonight’s Black Rock 5, which Claire is running.

Over 1000 runners set off, onto the sand and around the Black Rock, knee deep in sea water at times. RFID counted them out and counted them all back in again. Claire did the race under 45 minutes, which is pretty good.

Back to Kirkurd, a bottle of bubbly, late night pizza.