Scenic

Following on from the Edinburgh 10k, I entered the Great Scottish Run Half-Marathon in Glasgow on Sept 6th. Training for this has been going well, abetted by some great advice from Twitter. Today is Sunday, and Sunday is long run day. Logistics suggested the Glen Fruin Loop or Garelochead Station - Home. Then, in the week, I spotted a sign saying the Helensburgh Half Marathon was today, and the plans changed. I'd discounted running it because I thought it too close to Glasgow, but 4 weeks is a different story, so I entered with the intention of making it a longer than usual training run - especially as the Garelochead route takes in most of the Half course anyway.

Weather forecast said overcast with occasional showers, but the walk down to the pier was in suspiciously sunny and warm conditions, which "improved" in the hour before start. Warming up on the pier reminds you what a great race this is scenically - views out over the Clyde, to Arran and up the Gare Loch.

The race plan was quite simple - no great exertions (this is supposed to be a training run!) and try and run steady 7:30 miles. If that happens, then the year's goal of a sub 1:40 half was possible. Starting at 9.30, and with only about 350 runners, the (shared) roads are quiet and establishing a pace and routine easy.

After a slightly fast 7:17 first mile, I adjust and just keep on running at almost smack-on 7:30 pace. 4 miles in 29:55, 8 in 60:07 and 11 in 82:38. This is now beyond normal run length, and the short hill at just beyond 11 starts to take its toll on the legs. 12 miles comes up in 90:27, but happily there's plenty left in the energy tank, and I push the legs on over the last 1.1 to cross the line - in blazing sunshine - in 98:30 exactly; which I think makes my last mile my fastest! Race tactics were good too - steady pace and gradually reel in the vest in front of you, awarding extra points where it had the words "Athletic Club" or "Road Runners" somewhere on it. Was only passed twice after mile 4, and I repassed one of them at mile 10 - hah!

Very pleased with the time - a massive PB that eclipses a 26 year-old record, but mainly it was a really good run, well paced over a beautiful course, and which should help Glasgow preparations hugely. The section up and back the Gare Loch is stunning, and the comments I'd heard about the marshalling were spot on - absolutely brilliant and very supportive. Having lived here 13 years before doing this run, I suspect it won't be as long before I repeat...

Incidental...

Hmm, where to begin. Obviously you know what you’re going to get with The Boss. The energy, the commitment, the fun are given. The eclectic setlist – the classics, the requests, the “Jesus, I never though I’d hear him play THAT” - likewise. So what turns a good show (The Boss doesn’t do less than that) into a great one?

Bruce recently said that the audience makes the difference – the only instrument that’s different every night, and when you play the audience like he does, you can see the point. Emirates last year had a good, potentially great, setlist but a slightly subdued audience, so it was “merely” a very good show. Hampden last night had a great setlist and an audience who gave the feedback to let him turn the good to great.

Despite the less than clear signage pointing you at alternative turnstiles for The Pit, which I only noticed after 20 minutes at the allocated spot, I was in place 12 rows back in front of Stevie just after 5.30 and in time for a long, heavy downpour that made the “t-shirt, shorts, new trainers” selection seem unwise. Fortunately the rain abated and the hypothermia risk diminished.

At 8 sharp (as always) Nils wanders out with his accordion and launches into Flower of Scotland. As crowd-pleasing beginnings go, this is a good move, and he is soon joined by the rest of the Mighty E-Street Band and we’re into Badlands.

You simply can’t underestimate how good these guys are – they have to be on their toes for the frequent and random changes; the audibles, the switches, the drawing out of songs. The E-Streeters are the foundation of the show, never missing a beat, taking all that’s thrown at them, rocking thunderously and letting The Boss boss. Next up is an audibled “Out In The Street” and what follows is the usual mix of the old, the new, the obscure and the awesome, perfectly crafted into a 3-hour set.

So many highlights – the obvious high of “Born To Run”, getting to hear “The River” again, “Thunder Road” and the newly jazzed up “Johnny 99” sitting next to “Atlantic City” in a rare Nebraska back-to-back. Singing with the little girl in the pink cowboy hat, clearly terrified, but leading the Waiting On A Sunny Day sing-along brought the house down - you could go to a million concerts and not get a moment like that.

And then, the requests. Who else takes request boards from the crown and picks songs at random to play – nobody. And not safe regular picks from the rotating setlist either. Cover Me doesn’t get much play, but Pink Cadillac gets none – last heard in 2003 according to my setlist archive trawl – “we don’t play this for ANYONE”. This is the closest the band get to looking worried, so Bruce starts himself “so we don’t fuck it up straight away” until they remember it and join in - and it rocks. The show highlight was the first request though – off a sign big enough to hide the drum riser behind, and the one "I never thought I’d get to hear". Incident On 57^th Street was simply breathtaking.

Perhaps he’ll never pass this way again – if he does it’ll need to be a shorter wait than these 28 years – but if that’s the last time I see him live, it’ll be one to treasure. Best gig ever? Probably. Stevie seemed to enjoy it too “Outrageous”, he tweeted…

Full Setlist

Flower of Scotland

Badlands

Out In The Street

My Lucky Day

She's The One

Outlaw Pete

Working On The Highway

Working On A Dream

Seeds

Johnny 99

Atlantic City

Incident on 57th Street

Pink Cadillac

Cover Me

Waiting On A Sunny Day

The Promised Land

The River

Kingdom Of Days

Radio Nowhere

Lonesome Day

The Rising

Born To Run

Hard Times

Thunder Road

American Land

Bobby Jean

Dancing In The Dark

Twist & Shout Medley

Truth

One of the problems of the rapid rise to success is having to headline in support of your first album. You’re going to have to play all of the material, whether or not it’s all going to work live. Can be difficult.

White Lies showed up at the Barrowland last night on the back of much critical acclaim and a splendid #1 selling debut. Good though the record is and much as their sound seems made for the festival and arena, the boys need to be able to translate and interpret it live. The Barrowland is a decent size to sell out and always a good atmosphere. All the ingredients are there, but I was still interested in how they and the material would make the transition.

A couple of support acts is also standard for the limited main setlist, and Wintersleep from Nova Scotia kicked things off in decent indie-rock style, even having the nerve to finish with a pretty good 10 minute epic. School of Seven Bells, however, disappointed. Once the novelty of the twin sisters singing in harmony wore off (approx 11.6 seconds), it was just sub-new age warbling over guitars and drum machine. Next…

Minimal set, straightforward lighting and all black attire marked White Lies entry. Good. Can concentrate on the music and delivery. They didn’t disappoint. Whilst the album can sometimes seem overproduced, live brings a new interpretation. Stronger and harder, certainly, but you can hear also the gaps (if you follow), which is as important.

A strong start with A Place to Hide and an excellent …Fairground and the crowd are into it. Delivery is strong, and they look like they’re enjoying it. Not a huge amount of chat and posturing, but then they don’t seem that sort of band. The “live-worthy” limitations of having only one album of material are evident, and I suspect 4 or 5 songs won’t make the cut for the second and third album setlists. They are still strong songs in their own right, though, and if they never make it live again at least we heard them.

Guess what - the best songs on the record are the best live. To Lose My Life and Unfinished Business rock hard, and Fifty on our Forehead was excellent. Hardened, extended and rocking, it was the highlight of the main set. Hat tip for the previously unheard Taxidermy too.

The other conundrum is where you play your best song. Open with it or stick it at the end of the encores? White Lies opted to save Death for the end and it’s the right decision. Many much much bigger bands would sacrifice significant anatomy to have a song this strong in their armoury, and it’s a soaring, brilliant end to the night. I recommend leaving it there for good.

A really strong set that highlighted their strengths and showed that with another couple of equally powerful albums worth of material behind them, the migration to much bigger things is almost assured.

Setlist (corrected)

A Place To Hide

Farewell To The Fairground

To Lose My Life

Taxidermy 

From The Stars 

Unfinished Business 

EST 

Fifty on Our Forehead 

Price of Love 

Nothing To Give   

The Rip (Portishead cover) 

Death

Capital

Been a long time since I did one of the mass-participation runs; Great North Run 2005, at which I proved that if you’re stupid enough to try a half marathon with precisely zero training, you’re going to get precisely what you deserve and will take precisely “a long time” getting it. The atmosphere in the multi-thousand events is great though, and with that in mind I decided to put my newly rediscovered love of running to the test in the Great Edinburgh Run.

I hadn’t appreciated the profile of the course (why don’t Great Run put them on their website?) until reading a press release about the new world record-holder’s participation and mention of a “very tough course with a couple of steep climbs”. Cue hasty recalculation of target time, which had been around 46 mins, but a good “last run” made 45 seem feasible. 46 was now reinstated (and any hope of “beating my age” by going sub 44 abandoned)

Sunday broke bright, breezy and early, and the drive across the M8 - broken by a stop at Harthill to release a frankly infeasible amount of pre-race hydration - got us to Edinburgh in time to meet cheerleader Lockhart and stroll up to the starting area on George IV Bridge. Ignoring the support crew’s Bacon-roll taunts, I managed to end up at the front of the Orange pen, directly behind the elite athletes; worrying, as it meant there would be hoards of extremely keen folk itching to make a fast start just behind me – so I would have to do the same.

After a slight hitch as the Marshalls didn’t realise they’d have to get themselves and their rope out of the way to avoid getting squished, we’re off. Steeply down to Prince’s Street Gardens at what can be described as a very healthy lick. Then over Waverley Bridge, up to the Royal Mile, down to the Parliament (which I passed without noticing it!) and past Holyrood Palace to the 2k mark. Check watch. 7:45. Aaaargh; too fast, too fast.

Excess speed isn’t a problem now, as the next 2k is uphill on a steepening gradient around Arthur’s Seat (described a “serious and challenging” climb by the C5 commentator. No shit…). Settling into a steadier pace, with those hilly EK & Helensburgh runs helping; over the top and through 4k in 17:10. Better (well, the time is; I’m knackered).

A nondescript but pleasingly flat couple of k, turning onto Cowgate, passing the support team and under the finish line at 6k in 26 dead. Mentally work out that passing “under” the finish line - possible thanks to Edinburgh’s unique streets - means that the rest must be net-uphill, and the next couple of k up to The Meadows are just that. Not overly steep, but enough to notice when you’re blowing quite hard. Through 8k in 35:10, so a good margin for sub-45.

After a flat 9^thk, a small rise entering the 10^th is worryingly morale sapping, and I’m starting to feel it now. One last effort and a generously downhill last k gets me over the line in 44:12. 

Genuinely pleased with that on a course that must be a couple of minutes slower than a flat one, and nice though it would have been to shave the extra 13 seconds off, I’m claiming that at 44¼ the age has been beaten anyway. 

Official stats are 463^rd finisher out of 7817, 440^th man, and 48^th man in the 40 to 44 category.

Next, the Glasgow Half Marathon on September 6^th.

Mighty...

Some time ago, I allowed myself to get drawn in to taking part in The Mighty Deerstalker 2009. Challenge by Facebook; that type of thing. The event is described as a "muddy romp" over either 5K (ish) and 10k (and a bit). In reality, it's a moderately serious adventure run involving water (lots), rough terrain (lots), ascents (lots), descents (lunatic), mud (occasional) and darkness (falling). By use of the not entirely scientific "piece of string along the OS route map" technique, the "and a bit" of the 10k was another 2.5k. Someone else reckoned it was 5, but that's part of the mystique.

Anyway, something in the region of 500 turned up to Traquair House in Innerleithen in the Scottish Borders to have a go at the 5k, with 1000 (including me) lining up in the 10k. The idea is to indulge a little fancy dress and tweediness, but in honour of the #lecitron design concept for this year's Sucata Split (donate here...) I was resplendent in head-to-waist luminous yellow.

Having watched the 5k folks return in states of various dishevelment (winning time just under the hour), the 5.30 kick-off for the main event approached, as did @aigwilson in #lecitron, his wife Maria and (with literally seconds to spare) "Fluffy" Lockhart to add to the band of supporters that, at this point, numbered 1. Mrs Thomas and 2. Matthew.

The race began in front of Traquair House and after an initial hurdle of straw bales, settles into a first k on roads before the first pond is reached. From this point, it's uphill on forest tracks and the local mountain biking routes - with occasional diversions up into the trees and back out again to keep you from getting too comfortable. With obstacles and potential waits to come, this is the chance to run, pass a few folk and find a comfortable position / pace.  Climbing up through the trees we hit a set of diagonal beams around trees followed by a brief crawl through a tunnel; then a marshall pointing out that "Well done you've reached the high point", pregnant pause, "of this bit". We're at about 420m, with the start at 150, so we've climbed about 900 feet. All of which we're about to lose. Quickly.

Downhill, initially on dodgy forest floor and then on good mountain bike tracks. Picking up some speed and places, but with some nutters belting past. Back into the woods (pausing only to throw some moves at the mini-rave) and down a very steep slope with occasional planks across the route to go over / under, before a near-vertical final plunge to the road - with a net at the bottom to stop you. Onto the road, past the supporters who've helpfully travelled out in #lecitron, and chap next to me says "That's the easy bit finished". Gulp.

Looping round the banks of the Tweed and splashing through Leithen Water we make our way into Innerteithen itself and then drop into Leithen Water for the River Saunter. 200m through freezing cold water, which is just enough to transition from "uncomfortable" to "painful", before a walk / jog up to the Fort to allow the muscles a bit of time to warm up. 

Now onto the technically most difficult section - traverse across grassy slopes before a rising ascent on loose, broken scree. A snake of competitors, face-to-ass, winds up this section in single file, apart from a few eejits bent on overtaking and sending rocks onto those below. Energy conserved, we finally top-out and shuffle across the tree bridges, having ascended back up to 370m, followed by a lunatic plunge down the "Freefall" a straight fast grassy slope, now under headtorch as dusk has well and truly fallen and the lights of the town below make a stunning vista. 

Looping back into the woods for more steep, loose descent, with one section so steep it's done in reverse with rope, we're back to Leithen water and along tracks of varying muddiness until we burst unexpectedly into the village. A long, smooth section on road is welcome by this point, especially as it's totally dark, and someone helpfully shouts "only 10 minutes to go". A brief glance at the watch is all the inspiration needed to push on a bit. The final obstacle is the Sump, a muddy waist-deep tunnel under the road, and we're now on the final run to the end. The spirits leap when the House is spotted and even a final dastardly stream can't get rid of the "done it" feeling. 

Into the finishing section and they've put an uphill tunnel followed by a crawl under nets in the last 200m, just to make sure you really get the idea, but that's the line crossed. The watch shows a respectable time of 1:56:32 for 266th out of 833 finishers. That was never the objective though - turn up, have a laugh and get through it.

Complaints: marshalling was a little short in numbers and I suspect, for those completing the course later, the route-finding would have been pretty tricky - even crossing the bridge into the town spectators were having to point out the route.

Having said that, a great and exhilarating day out. Seeing the stream of head-torches descending the Freefall when we were driving away at 8.15 was cool, but equally made me realise what a struggle it would be for those still on the hill at this point. Thanks to Andrew, Maria and David for coming along to support. Same time next year everyone?

Killer

The risk of anticipation is high. When you've waited to see a band so long, your fear is that they'll disappoint - or at least not match your expectations. There have long been mutterings about The Killers - not up to it live; Brandon's voice too weak; he's too twitchy and manneristic to cut it - so the fear was higher, especially in relation to the height of the anticipation. 

Well, what was to worry about. An unusually configured all-standing Hall 4 had sold out in 20 minutes and was absolutely rammed. A good vantage point was secured, dead centre and about 15 rows back, the support band Louis XIV tolerated (trying too hard boys) and the 9pm on-stage time arrived.

About 8 seconds into "Human", all fears were dispelled. This is a tight, effective, live unit (as we used to say when I were a lad) and Brandon executes the "eating out of my hand" routine perfectly. Stage set and lighting was unparalelled, palm trees everywhere and enough wattage to send Al Gore and Jim Hansen into apoplexy.

The crowd, as is often the Glasgow way, are up for it with a capital U. Even the slightly bewildered 13 year old to my right, whose last gig experience was the Manics when he was 8 (which, incidentally he stood for; but there was an official "over 14's only" policy yesterday - why?) seemed to get into the swing of things; following, it must be said, his old dad's lead.

The thing about The Killers is that they make the maximum possible impact from the minimum possible fuss. Brandon hogs the attention so much that the powerhouse of Vannucci, Stoermer and Keuning can just get on with churning out high quality, high tempo pop/rock - albeit abetted by a lurking keyboardist / second guitarist to provide depth.

The setlist has been pretty consistent for the tour, but from the Aberdeen gig on, I Can't Wait seems to have been dropped for On Top - good move. We also got Neon Tiger rather than Shadowplay, complete with it's glaringly obvious crowd manupulating line "c'mon girls and boys, everybody make some noise". Well, it would be rude not to...

One or two minor gripes about placement aside - Losing Touch seems kind of lost in the encores - it's a top top set. Not much that you'd go away thinking "I wish they hadn't played that" and little missed that you yearned for. Pleasant surprise was how well Joy Ride worked live.

Second half of the main set was just unbelievable. From Spaceman (which was, in the words of Shakespeare, fecking awesome) onwards, everything was as close to perfect as you could imagine. The "half slow, half rocky" Sam's Town was good, but oddly the key moment seemed to be the complete loss of stage power for 30 seconds in Read My Mind. Whilst we amused ourselves keeping the song going, I suspect the perfectionist streak in the band was royally pissed off, becasue when they restarted, the remained of RMM was hammered out, followed by an absolutely belting Mr Brightside and an awesome All These Things...  which has obviously become the signature-dish live, and I've You-tubed enough versions to know that this was one of the best. There was now real aggression in the playing, and the crowd responded in appropriate manner - it was nuts.

After this end to the main set, the encores seemed to drift - like the old cliche about half-time coming at the wrong time. However, a splendid When You Were Young got the tempo back up to max to finish things off in style.

Awesome gig, awesome set, awesome band.

Full Setlist:

Human

This Is Your Life  

Somebody Told Me 

For Reasons Unknown 

The World We Live In 

Joy Ride 

Neon Tiger 

Bling (Confession of a King) 

On Top 

Spaceman 

Smile Like You Mean It 

A Dustland Fairytale 

Sam's Town 

Read My Mind 

Mr. Brightside 

All These Things That I've Done

Bones 

Losing Touch 

Jenny Was a Friend of Mine  

When You Were Young

Law of Unintended Consequences strikes again

Informed readers will be all to aware of the problems of biofuels - less fuel efficiency, food price increases, hunger and poverty as food land is converted to more profitable biofuel growth not least among them. Now we have another - it doesn't even work... 

My old friend the Law of Unintended Consequences

My views on matters relating to what I may have been heard referring to as "Climate Change bollocks" are fairly clear, but I'm always on the lookout for the new and innovative ways the behaviour-enforcement gestapo look to twist the screw - or at least try to get their manifesto in place before the coming cooling phase makes us all realise it was just natural fluctuation.

For all that, I am keen on the environment (small e), and believe in stuff like minimising the use of natural resources, energy efficiency, technology, recycling and the like. So this sounded like an interesting story - the amount of power (in watts) generated during exercise is displayed on most of the machines at the gym, so can some of those watts be translated into a means of providing some of the power requirements. Seems like the technology getting to the point where it can deliver, and in a few years it may be commercially viable - although like the "where do we get wind power from if it's not windy" conundrum, "how do we power the gym on the days where everyone's being a slob" might be an issue.

But then they had to spoil it by going on about being a "carbon-neutral gym". Now, as a fan of the law of unintended consequences, I think they might have a problem. Much as some people would like us to forget it, CO2 is produced naturally by respiration. And after an hour at the gym, my respiration levels are what could kindly be described as "significantly raised". So I went off and did some checking on the levels of CO2 emissions for different activity levels, and found this:

Sleep - 25 grams per hour

Inactive - 40 g/h

Normal work - 200 g/h (middle of range)

Intensive exercise - 700 g/h (middle of range)

Which suggests that we gym-goers are producing something like seventeen times as much CO2 whilst exercising than we would if we just sat on our arses watching the telly. Or, in my case, nearly 30 times more than having an extra hour in bed before going to work. 

So, in the case of our worthy friends, by actually going to the gym in the first place, they're generating a significantly extended carbon footprint to worry about. Wonder how that fits into the carbon-neutral calculation...