Run Barry Run!

Once upon a time about 6 months ago there was a Baton called Barry. It had been Barry's dream since he were but a twiglet to run round the coastline of Great Britain with fellow runners just for the sheer hell of it. And so, with this dream in mind, he approached a crack team of organisers who began to er...organise a lot of runners and volunteers to help make Barry's dream come true. Coasters GB was formed and 56 days ago, Barry left Blackpool bound for Gretna and then followed the coastline all the way up and round past Wick arriving in Aberdeenshire yesterday.

Today, transported by my support team, I met a very sodden Stuart (human) and Barry (Stick) at a church in the middle of nowhere and was presented with  Barry (and flag) to take on his next part of this epic journey. It was blowing a ferocious gale and raining like you'd never seen rain before and for the first few miles it was purely a head down and get on with it/pray for mercy run. I had to take the long and winding minor roads to Stonehaven for safety reasons - the A90 dual carriageway is not a place you'd want to run really....

Soggy handover from Stuart

And then, like Barry had spoken to 'im upstairs, the clouds began to part and tying my jacket round my waist, completed the last 5km in glorious sunshine! Running along the beach at Stonehaven was pure joy! I rounded the corner to the Old Pier and spotted someone in running gear waving at me...surely this must be Gary, the next runner?....and indeed it was - along with Nick and Jnr and Garys family...and some other people who just happened to be there :) We chatted, posed to official handover photos and then waved Gary off as he began his 10 mile leg to Inverbervie (apparently 5 miles down the road he ran into a thunder storm..).

Sunny handover to Gary...

I'm still grinning. I'm hugely happy to have been able to help Barry try and achieve his dream, and I got a brilliant run in to boot! Official stats  - 7.21 miles in 1:05:21, 329m of ascent.

Good luck for the rest of your journey Barry, I'm rootin' for ya little guy!