A fix of La Santa...

It’s always nice to crawl into your own wee bed when you come back from your holidays – but I was expecting my own wee bed to be a good wee bit warmer when I crawled into it at four o’clock this morning! Jeeso, this must be the coldest and wettest summer ever here in Scotland! (...I must be getting old; just back from a lovely week away and all I can talk about is the weather!...) 

Just for the record though, the weather wasn’t brilliant in Lanzarote either! It wasn’t anything like as hot and sunny as it normally is when we go. I mean, there’s always a good breeze from the sea and it’s usually a bit overcast in the morning, but usually that all clears up by mid-morning and the sun splits the heavens for the rest of the day. This year, however, there was a lot more cloud and a lot more wind; but it wasn’t anywhere even remotely close enough to put a dampner on our holiday!  

Moving swiftly on from the weather report (...I’m definitely getting old...), we had a really great time but, as usual, it just went by far too quickly. I’ve written about Club La Santa before on my wee blog, and I’m sure this post’ll not be the last one about our favourite holiday destination either. We just love it there. I never used to understand why folk would want to spend their holidays in the same place, year in year out, but within a couple of days in to our first holiday at La Santa – over six years ago – I finally got it. Whether it’s Largs, Limasol or La Santa; if it’s somewhere that makes your whole family feel good, then why not keep going back? It doesn’t mean that we don’t love visiting other places but, when it comes to arranging our ‘main’ holiday, we just always seem drawn back to La Santa.  

It’s a sports resort with, what is they say in the brochures; ‘comfortable’ basic accommodation! It’s definitely not somewhere you go if you’re looking for luxury, but it’s definitely somewhere you go if you want to do loads of sporty stuff. I use the term ‘loads’ loosely of course, depending on whether I’m referring to me or one of the more sporty members of my family! For example, the extent of my sportiness consisted of doing ‘gymnastics’ every morning at 8am (forget Olga Korbut; this is basically a wee stretch routine down by the pool set to relaxing music), followed by a long walk then a few games of tennis and badminton during the day with the occasional low-level class (such as ‘Stretch and Relax’) chucked in for good measure in between some serious sunbathing by the side of the leisure pool. My arm was also twisted into competing as part of a team with Alex in the aquathlon, so I nearly killed myself swimming (my best breast stroke!) 400m of the Olympic pool. I was second last out of the water, but fortunately I’m married to a man who can run! Alex sped past all the folk who’d had much better swimmers in their teams and Team Milne actually managed to take the winning spot. It’s just a bit of fun really, but I miss all the running and other high impact sport that I used to do, so – as much as I moaned my face off about how knackered I was after the swim – it was great to feel that I could still contribute something to Team Milne at La Santa! 

"Whose bloody idea was this...?!"

My crazy husband and sons’ holiday was, in contrast, much more active than mine. It’s not surprising that Alex’s lying here on the couch beside me, dozing, after a week that included a 10k race, a duathlon, a running leg of an aquathlon, a half marathon, a cycling leg of a mini triathlon, a 12 mile off road run, lots of racquet sports, a few swims, a few more runs and a couple of, em, morning walks (keeping his more sedate auld wife company). The thing is though, doing all that stuff isn’t all that crazy when you’re over there, when you're carried away in the La Santa spirit of things, and you're in amongst a whole big bunch of other, like-minded crazy folk!

Running...

...cycling...

...team work...

...carbo loading...!

I love being chief supporter at all the events and, ocht, I just love being part of the whole Club La Santa thing. I must admit though, I do wish it didn’t have such a naff name so that it didn’t sound like some mad clubbing resort for Spanish Father Christmas’s. 

So, that’s our main summer holiday over, and I’m sitting here by the fire (in July!!) feeling happy to be home with another bundle of lovely La Santa memories to hold on to. Our next wee break is in a couple of weeks time; a long weekend in another - much closer to home - favourite place, St Andrews. Like I said, whether it’s St Andrews or La Santa; if it’s somewhere that makes you feel good, it’s definitely worth re-visiting time and again...

Ross coming home

If the strike by customs officers hasn’t caused too much disruption, Ross will hopefully be stepping on a plane in Lanzarote to head for home. A friend asked me last night if he'll have done much in the way of running while he was on holiday. I explained that Club La Santa’s a specialised resort that’s geared around sport so, yes, Ross will have been doing a bit of running while he was there.

That’s actually a slight understatement. Ross’s activities during the first week of his fortnight’s holiday (Coach, look away now!) consisted of:

Day one:  Wee 5 mile off-road run in the morning. Tennis. Badminton. 9 mile run up in the hills in the evening. 

Day two: 7.5 mile morning run. Squash. Competed in 5km road race in the evening.

Day three: Morning 10 mile training run round the track. Track session (4 x 300m, 8 x 150m, 4 x 200m) before dinner.

Day four: Competed in Duathlon in the morning (2.5km run, 14.8km on the bike, 2.5km run) then competed in Aquathlon in the afternoon (200m swim then 3km run).

Day five: Competed in half marathon race before breakfast. Track session (12 x 200m) in the afternoon.

Day six: Competed in Mini-triathlon in the morning (400m swim, 15.2km bike, 4.4km run), 7.5 mile off-road run in the evening.

He’ll also have squeezed in some sunbathing, swimming, clubbing, lots of eating and plenty of carbo-loading (Coach, look away now) with beer - and week two will have been filled with much of the same.

I’m delighted that Ross has had a great time on holiday with his pals – but I’ve missed him being around and I can’t wait to have him back home. And, I'm especially looking forward to hearing all about that little bit of running he managed to do while he was away...

Being at the Callander Crags

Standing out in the rain and getting eaten alive by midges was a small price to pay last night for the pleasure of being at the Callander Crags Hill Race. It’s a small, local event that’s organised by the Johnstones - a lovely family we became friends with during our first trip to Club La Santa in Lanzarote - and we always try to support it.

Now, I know the name ‘Club La Santa’ sounds kind of naff, but its name belies the brilliance of the place! We love it and have been back many times since our first holiday there in 2006. It’s more of a training camp than a holiday resort, and caters for folk who are keen on sports of all disciplines and all levels. There are timed, competitive events - such as a triathlon, duathlon, aquathlon and road races – and there are things like tennis, badminton, squash, kayak racing, biking, all kinds of fitness classes, a big gym, an Olympic size pool and a full size running track. It was originally built as the training camp for the Danish Olympic team before it was converted to accommodate sporty holiday-makers, so the apartments are pretty basic. But, we love the whole ethos of the place, and we’ve met some really interesting and great people during our holidays there – such as the Johnstones (knew I’d get back to the hill race eventually! And, yes, we went all the way to Lanzarotte to become friends with a family from Callander...).

The Crags race, like most hill races, is a simple affair with no airs and graces or complicated rules and regulations. The runners register in the back of the family’s wee camper van, set off with a bunch of other mad hill runners, run as fast as they can up to the top of the Crags and back down again (about 3 miles in total), enjoy the usual post-race banter at the bottom, head to the local sports centre for a cuppa, prize-giving and more banter before heading for home.

So, as I said, getting eaten alive by midges while standing in the rain was a small price to pay for a good catch-up with our friends. Cheering for Ross then Alex as they made it safely to the finish, enjoying the post-race chit-chat and watching Ross collect his second-place prize were all added bonuses that made being there a definite good choice for a wet Wednesday evening.

Though, I must admit, coming home to a cosy house and coorying up in front of the telly with everyone to watch ‘The Apprentice’ while supping a few beers (to help take my mind off the itchy midge bites..!) was a perfect way to end such a lovely night. Being outside and active is great, but sometimes you just can't beat a bit of slouch!