My annual beer and running jaunt with my Fife running buddies, this time from Elie to Kirkcaldy. Alan's report says it all =
In spite of the fresh dump of snow overnight we all made it to Leven bus station for the ride to Elie. There was little snow in evidence along the coast but no shortage of lethally iced pavements and roads. Gus and Jim were waiting at the Ship Inn and our first (not unexpected) task was telling Gordon that we would be waiting for the 11am opening. With an open fire blazing away it was good to escape the snell south westerly and we enjoyed every last drop of our first £3.80 guinness.
With the tide out and blue skies the run along Elie beach gave us a great start to the day. Gus's bare legs attracted the first of plenty of attention (incomprehension!) they were to receive during the day. On the way along we picked up Brian who had jogged along from largo to join us. From the end of Earlsferry we took to the chain walk which gave us an exciting break from running and Brian showed us the old Kelty custom of juggling with boulders (explains a lot!). Beyond Shell bay the long run along the wide open sands to Largo was definitely one of the highlights of the day
In the Railway Inn Jim continued with his quest to snap all the barmaids and we were pleased that the price of a pint had gone down to £3.10. The run along the big curving sandy beach to Leven was brilliant but our hopes of finishing in daylight got a major dunt when the tailenders found it hard to escape the delights of a swing park??? Eventually we all congregated in the cheap and cheerful Molly Malones pub in Leven where Guinness slid more happily down our throats at £2.80 a pint.
From Leven we teetered along the icy pavements of Methil and Buckhaven to the welcoming Railway Tavern and were excited to find that Guinness had slipped to £2.50 but there was no sign of Laurie and Fraser. In their enthusiasm we discovered they had got half way to East Wemyss before we could 'reel them in'. We also had a few garbled calls from Pat who was on a bus somewhere near and was successfully 'talked in' by our 'Keeper of the Mallett'.
By now the sun was slipping away but we managed the short jog past the ruin of Macduff castle and down to East Wemyss in fading daylight and find the decent Wemyss Central hotel. (prices on their way up again!) Darkness had fallen by the time we emerged and we had to cover what should have been one of our most scenic stretches by torchlight. It was a case of 'hinging in' for most of us now as we ran past the now publess village of West Wemyss and then up the steps over the rocky headland and along into Dysart where the Man I' the Rock beckoned. With a final pint sunk we slipped down the icy slopes to the picturesque wee harbour of Dysart. A final run through Ravenscraig park resulted in us separating into several groups which all reached Laurie's Cartridges world in time for a clean up and change of clothes. A fine day was rounded off very pleasantly with a meal in the Annapurna.
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