Ray's 60th Birthday Glee Run

Most of the gang during post run tea and cake

It was the legend's birthday....the infamous Ray McCurdy was turning 60 on 21st December, and Stan had quite rightly started the ball rolling on a Glee Club run with Ray in attendance to celebrate (and then there was a pub visit, but I wasn't able to make that).

So, a cold, wet, windy morning saw 21+ intrepid runners rock up to the Braeval carpark just outside Aberfoyle, in anticipation of a run which was billed to be anything between 15 and 20 miles, depending on who you were talking to.  After the usual amount of faffing about, introducing ourselves to people we previously only knew on Facebook (or people who knew me because of my lovely black/turquoise running tights), being aghast that Noanie and Lorna were still in shorts, and debating that 'most' people really only wanted to do 15 miles,  and that 'of course' Donald and Alan knew the route, we were off!

The speedy ones shot off up the hill at their usual chipper pace, while I quickly fell into a more sedate pace, somewhere near the back! After the first big climb, we regrouped and bumped into Stan and Ray, who had taken the sneaky wee 'short cut'...this gave me the opportunity to fall into pace with Ray and the start of what turned into a good long chat!  Whilst I knew he was 'the legend', I have to say until this run, I really wasn't quite aware of his achievements - 119 ultras completed, 17 marathons short of 200 and many other things I'm sure I should remember.  And he has a wee story about all of them, with dates, places, people.....jeez, I'm lucky if I can remember where I ran last week, never mind the last 30+ years of my life!!

Somewhere not many miles into the run, the split happened....the speedy ones (remember, they knew where they were going) disappeared, and there were about 6 of us at the tail end, until Jason headed off up the wrong track, didn't hear us shout....Lorna, Johnny Fling and Stan went to find him, and Ray and I kept a wee shuffle going...until the next junction where I couldn't remember where to go.  Then the heavens opened, Ray and I stood about for 5 mins, and then Stan appeared.....Jason was lost, Lorna and Johnny were hunting him down...and we 3 would carry on, unlikely to catch the big group...but at least Stan knew where we were going!

And so it would continue like that for most of the run.  The pattern emerged (because Stan knew..), that we should mostly run 10 meters behind Ray (not because he's a legend, but because that was the best way to keep him moving), so we had a good blether, climbed over several massive fallen trees, had a wee sing song (well, Ray and Stan did) on the way up Dukes Pass ("Oooo-weee Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" and "When I was younger so much younger than today" etc...you get the picture...Ray has quite an extensive back catalogue) and never saw the others again.  Naturally, we assumed they were way ahead of us, and would be there when we got back to the car park....even if they'd taken the 20 mile route....

Well, you know what they say about assuming.....

As we shuffled back down the final slope, dreaming of tea and cake which we thought would be there waiting for us....not a soul to be seen..... Hmmmm, are they hiding in the bushes/in the cars as a surprise (at this point Ray still wasn't aware of cakes or pub visits)....but no....

On checking phones, it became apparent that the remaining 19(ish) people had been lost...not just once....and ended up being a good 20 minutes or so behind us, and doing 21+ miles..... Oooops! (and a sigh of relief I wasn't with them...that might've killed me!)

Much hilarity and cake munching, and another great Glee run.  Cementing in my mind that running is a great leveler, and great fun.  It was also pretty humbling, when you think about how materialistic many of us are (me, I definitely hold my hands up at this), with our fancy kit, new shoes every few months, GPS watches, etc etc...and there's Ray, running along quite the thing with odd trainers on each foot, not a care for fancy kit, just gets on and does the job - and what a job he's done, with a race history like his, no wonder he's "the legend"

Ray, I salute you!