Recently I have been taking trips to various local places for my longer runs, by bus and train. Enabled by a new backpack I have which is suitable for running, I suppose. Probably this has not improved the training effect of my runs—quite the opposite, as I stop for photos and so on. But it certainly makes life more interesting.

In particular, recently I've been taking various runs around the local coastline. Around water tends to be quite a rewarding place to run, I find, whether around the coast, along a riverside or even a canal. Actually, that is probably my order of preference. Firstly, there's a very natural feeling to these trips; running can feel a little pointless, just picking routes to get the miles in, but a river or coastline gives a little structure to an outing and a feeling that you're going somewhere. A straight-line rather than circular route helps here too.

Secondly, the physical geography is interesting and varied. Sandy beaches, cliffs, mudflats, wide gentle rivers, little meandering burns... Next, and rather a mixed blessing, there's the human factor. Civilisation developed along rivers and coastlines, and running along one you pass through the resulting settlements, the city, towns, villages and grand estates. Of course then there was the industrial revolution, and one tends to see remnants of earlier such developments along riversides, and more recent heavier industry along the coast. Docks, oil depots and power stations aren't very pretty, but when running you don't stay in an industrial area for very long, and the beauty of the natural coastline is enhanced by contrast. And last point, passing through towns on the coast and riverside, you get to use the little scenic paths developed for local use! Often some nice little scenic walks have been developed.

These days these short local trails have often been strung together to give a long distance route, together with a bunch of less interesting (e.g. roadside) bits and perhaps even some custom-developed paths. I wrote about the recent trip along the Fife Coastal Path, lately I have been running along the other side of the Forth, part of which forms the John Muir Way, although this is still in an earlyish stage of development.

Last Sunday I ran from the local end of the Forth Rail Bridge, by Dalmeny, around the coast to Cramond, which includes an amusing diversion of about two miles to go to the nearest bridge around the outlet of the River Almond (the Cramond Brig). The section before getting to the Almond is very pleasant, as is the path from Cramond Brig up the Eastern side. It is then a nice run along to Granton, at which point you are into the city. That day I ran along to Leith, and then followed the Water of Leith back to Haymarket to pick up my bike to ride home. No camera last weekend, so the pictures are all from the section described below.

This weekend I continued from Leith again, and ran to North Berwick. Okay, not all at once, it's about 40km, but over two days. About 14km on Saturday, I ran from Leith through Portobello to Musselburgh (nice from Portobello but too much time on a seaward-sloping promenade) before picking up the John Muir Way to Prestonpans, where I got a train home. On Sunday, I picked up where I left off at Prestonpans, running around the power station at Cockenzie, past Seton Sands and then by some nice sandy footpaths to Aberlady. I noticed as I set off from Prestonpans that the Pentlands had seen some snow on Saturday night in the advertised wintry event ("here for one weekend only!"). Some appears to have been dropped in town last night, as I can see a dusting on the Post Office roof opposite. Despite this, it was a great day to go along the coast, with some sun and a strong North wind off the water. There was quite high spray at points, with timing essential around the power station to avoid a soaking, but I managed to get thoroughly wet feet after about a mile from a later very-coastal path around to a harbour. Oops.

From Aberlady there are then some lovely paths through the Aberlady nature reserve, a site of sand and mud flats providing a habitat for some rare plants and birds. From here there is a good long stretch of coastline stretching to the town of North Berwick, destination for the day, my map reckons after 26km of running. With so much off road on beaches and sandy paths, I'm not surprised it felt like a bit more, the aim was 28km and it did feel like that.