This line in the ground marks the start of the Water of Leith Walkway, out in Balerno to the southwest of the city. It's the path the river follows from there until it reaches Leith Docks, and there's a duplicate line in the ground on The Shore in Leith. And it's about 12 miles to walk there.
I wanted to start stretching myself a bit more, and get a bit nearer to the distance I'll be doing in September. This walk is almost entirely off road, and there's a visitor centre after about 5 miles, which means a loo break. You have to think of these things at my age.
And it's a really nice walk, much of it tree lined, the occasional open views, past Murrayfield Stadium and Ice Rink, the pleasures of St Bernard's Well and umpteen parks along the way. A few tunnels too, going under roads mostly, and some showing off a colourful interior. You can't argue with the message in this one. So I did.
There was a lot of mud to try and keep out of, and a few crazed cyclists who decided that not using a bell to warn walkers would add some excitement to their lives (bastards....), but with no other traffic it's possible to let you attention wander. Since most of the walk is through central areas of the city there's a decent 4G signal much of the time. So I walked along watching Dominic Thiem trying, and eventually failing, to be the one to unseat Rafa's dominance of Paris clay.
The weather varied, but no rain came, despite some gloomy moments. But Dean Village looked as photogenic as ever.
I walked this route a few times last year, as part of my then preparations, and never really beat the four hour mark by much. So it was good to find I'd done the journey in just a few minutes over the three and a half hours. I later calculated that meant an average speed of just over 3.4mph. Not bad, but must do better. To hit my Kiltwalk target time I need to be doing nearer to 3.7mph. Lots of work to do yet. And I suspect quite a bit of it will mean aiming for Victoria Bridge again.
My Advocacy work last week sounded straightforward enough. A woman had been sent a cheque by a bank back in 2016, but had been too ill to cash it. By the time she was able to try, the 6 month limit has elapsed. She's tried several times to get a replacement, she's had her daughter helping her, and some other advice, and got nowhere. All of us have experienced these situations, getting passed from one person to another, waiting for calls back that never happen, the ostensibly helpful turning into the wilfully uncooperative. Imagine how much worse that experience is if you suffer from acute anxiety, if you have no confidence that you are able to get your message across, if every setback feels like the ed of the line.
I made a couple of calls and learned that bank of Scotland branches can act as agents for Lloyds nowadays, so I arranged for us to go to a BoS branch. But the promised meeting and help evaporated, and we had to leave with a promise that someone would be back in tomorrow and deal with it. Sounds familiar....
No matter. I now have people to talk to, face to face, and if nothing gets done we'll be back. This woman is going to get her cheque.
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