Kirk Craigs Christmas Cracker

Ian from work had mentioned this race as being good fun. I had found an excellent wee video from the 2016 race which gave me a good idea of what to expect. Keeping an eye on the weather all week, I could see it might be a bit soft underfoot with a lot of rain on the Thursday and Friday. But race day itself was forecast to be dry.

As I reached Hamilton Street in Tillicoultry, I spotted the usual suspects walking the streets, with others still gearing up in their parked cars. Ian had warned me that the race organisers were fastidious about the kit check, so I made sure to stuff the bag with everything required. Off I went to the Centenary Hall and joined the queue to register. I paid my £5 (fantastic price), showed my bag contents, got my number and scribbled my name & details on a large sheet of paper.

Back to the car, I togged up and then jogged slowly through the village to the Mill Road and up the steps to the start line. There was a growing group of other runners gathering in the morning sunshine, some chatting, some stretching the legs. I just enjoyed the pre-race atmosphere, listening out for wee nuggets of advice and information from the race veterans. Ian turned up and we greeted each other, before queuing for the count through of runners (similar to Meall nan Tarmachan, to ensure no-one disappeared on the hill).

Finally we were off and running, a little later than the 11am schedule. The first km or so were tough going along a very rutted and muddy field, hugging a wall and fenceline. There were very few opportunities to overtake on the slippy slop, so I just stuck behind the runner in front. Suddenly we reached a marshal who turned us 90deg up the hill and everyone slowed to a walk. This separated the men from the boys (literally) and some people really slowed, whilst others disappeared into the distance.

I was roasting now, in my two layers, so took the walking opportunity to strip off to one layer and put it in my pack. During the ascent, I was able to gain approx 10places, and certainly didn't lose any. As soon as the terrain fell back to grassy plateau we were running again and I picked off three or four more places. We trotted across the hill to another marshal and joined a more established track to descend steeply towards 'The Boulder' which would mark the turning point.

The track stretched off into the distance, and I could see runners all along it, some even returning already. I could tell I was well down the field. All too soon, the leader, Josh Boyle came past. A young lad, looking fresh as a daisy, smiling as I wished him well. A big gap to the next place, and then a tide. Angela Mudge zoomed on through, hands on knees looking menacing.

Turn at the boulder, and back up the track now, walking and jogging when possible. I managed to pass some more of the places that had bettered me on the descent, and kept the pace up all the way to the top of the hill. I wasn't looking forward to the final steep descent, but fortunately was a long way ahead my nearest chasers, so only lost two places on this stage. The two that passed me were professional descenders - disengage brains.

I was dismayed to meet the winner re-ascending the hill at this point. He had obviously finished ages ago and was on his warm down, retracing his steps to make us all feel slow! (36mins 50 secs) At the hill bottom, we turned right and headed back through the slop. My thighs were burning and I struggled to reach a decent pace. I tagged onto the heels of a female (Sarah Sheridan) who had passed me, and just managed to overtake on the final few metres.

00:53:17  51/104



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXxRziyfpeY

Foxtrail Series Race#3 (Balgone Estate)

The third race of the 2018 Winter series, but only my second as I couldn't fit the 2nd into my incredibly busy social calendar - not. Having raced in the first one last month, I knew what type of organisation to expect. The second race had been a night run at Foxlake, on an evening that didn't suit so I'd not bothered entering that.

In the reminder email sent a few days before this race, it warned of a muddy quagmire and looking at the route map, I could see it went through a lot of farmland. But as the weekend approached, so did freezing temperatures and the mud warnings turned to rut warnings.

The forecast was correct with a light south easterly breeze chilling the bones at around 3C in the farmyard at Balgone where we had to register. The parking area in a field was well marshalled, but I do wonder what they'd have done if it was muddy. After registering, I returned to the car to tog up, folding and pinning my number to my leg. I didn't want to wear it on my top, since I expected to be unzipping at some stage which wouldn't work behind a pinned number.

At 9am I jogged back to farmyard start area, only to be told in no uncertain words to unfold my number and pin it to my top, otherwise risking disqualification. The guy's attitude wasn't great, but neither was mine. I couldn't really understand his reasoning - "A lot of sponsors have paid to have their names on these numbers so they need to be visible". To who?? I wondered. We were in the middle of nowhere, it wasn't as if there'd be crowds of spectators to be advertised to, and any competitors would already be well aware of the sponsors names through other sources. Even through the event photography - who is going to be looking at that?? I briefly protested, but reluctantly repinned my number as requested.

I set my watch to seek satellites so had to trot about in the farmyard to keep warm, whilst the rest of the smart-phone field sheltered inside the barn. Then we were off. I had positioned myself about 20 back from the front, and could see Roger Peppiette in his luminous yellow top nearer the front.

We horsed along a farm track for a km or so establishing our positions in the pack before changing terrain onto a lochside path. Keeping my eyes on Roger, I slowly gained places on him until I was about three behind. He was going well.

Along the lochside track, the chap to my right wanted to chat

Round the loch, and then along the foot of the Balgone Craigs, a series of small cliffs hidden in the trees. I glanced a few times up at them, all a bit lichenous and north facing for any rock climbing. Then we had a shock of some climbing into woods weaving along a field edge and I was overtaken by a couple of others.

Out of the woods, and across open farmland with hard frozen grass. I upped the pace and got into a good rhythm on this flattish section, but noticed Roger was now in the distance. The 2nd placed female and I played cat and mouse here passing each other at least three times on various sections, but the final big climb to the top of the Balgone Craigs I lost her, and even more on the steep descent.

After the steep descent from Balgone Craigs, I was on my own. Photo by Sandy Wallace

There was a really nasty section of cross-slope running on potholed muddy grass which was much harder than it should have been. Then a good track section back to the finish at the farmyard.

Hardly any other runners were through at this point so I quickly grabbed a drink of freezing Active Root ginger water, got the camera from the car to take some finishers pics and then left.

00:46:35 15/191

Glentress Early Winter Trail Half-Marathon

Saturday 17th November and the running calendar was looking a bit sparse. Either Largo Law Hill race or a return to Glentress. Unfortunately Largo Law entries were closed; I got the impression this was one of those popular iconic races that would be full within hours of entry opening. So back to Glentress it was.

I had previously run the Glentress Half in February 2017 when melting snow had turned the course into a quagmire making it a memorable day. Looking at the route for November 2018, I could see it was different from that race, spending more time to the east of the forest, on more open trails.

The February Half route

The November 2018 route, more time spent in the east

I paid my £25 and headed off down the A703/A72 early on the 17th of November. It was cool, but not too cool. Dry with a light breeze. Unlike 2017, the overflow car park in the farmer's field was open and I parked up in the grid. After trotting up to the Peel to register and get my number, I headed back to the car to change, and eat my flapjack. 

Rather than queue for a portaloo, I found an old oak to pee behind on the edge of the field before heading up to the start. I wore my thermal with my 2017 T-shirt on top, "Here's a veteran!!" 

Up at the start the pre-race briefing was already in progress, but all I could hear was a muffled microphone voice. Everyone had shuffled through the start hoop towards the microphone, but since I was late getting there, when the briefing was over and everyone turned 180, I discovered I was standing near the start. No complaints from me!

Off we went, up the familiar rising vehicle track, everyone settling into a comfortable pace. I passed Jez, Nigel's cousin after a kilometre or so greeting him with "Alright Jez?", he replied "Hi....have a good one!" as I ploughed on. "And you! You'll overtake me I'm sure!" I said. 

On the climb, stripped off the T-shirt not long before

                          

I found myself recognising a lot of the route from 2017, but in reverse and spent time wondering why they had changed it. At 600m we entered the cloud but it was short lived as it was the summit of the climbs. I then spent a good kilometre or so all on my own, or it felt like that, running along the boundary of the forest. It was tricky terrain, very rocky an wet so my pace was reduced. Then a steep, zig-zagging descent to an open vehicle track that was much more level heading back toward the Buzzard's Nest. I took the opportunity for a gel here, and managed to claw back some of the runners that had passed me on the descent. It was clear that was my weakness, descending. 

On the flat, wider trail 4km to go

At the Buzzard's Nest car park, one of the runners I had passed came storming through as if he had a bee in his bonnet. I tried hard to keep up with him, but he was gone through the trees and left me alone again for the familiar descent to the finish. 

I knew what to expect here, having run this section twice before (2016 and 17) and settled into the tree weaving. On the final steepening, I heard shouts and panting behind, two racers came crashing past. Soon enough I was back at the Peel and 'sprinted' up the final rise to the finish hoop. 

Happy to beat Kevin Gemson for the first time, and Jez Edwards for the second time. 

51/441 1hr 51m 03s

Foxtrail Race Series 2018 #1

When I ran the Edinburgh to North Berwick race in May 2017, Roger P had told me about the Winter running series that took place near Dunbar. He had raved about it being a great way to get through the winter. This year, I looked into it and found a usable website for entering. For all six races, it would cost £100 but looking at the dates I knew I couldn't commit to them all. So I selected three that were suitable and entered them individually.

In the run up to the race, the Foxtrail website stubbornly refused to update the 'Route - TBC' page to the extent that I contacted the admins on the Wednesday to ask them for more route detail. It was duly emailed out to participants that day. Examining the map, it looked like a flat route, mixing field boundaries with established tracks. There was one section of a loop around a park in Dunbar, which I wondered about - how would they handle cross-traffic runners here?

On the Saturday the forecast was mild but very windy with the remnants of Hurricane Oscar passing west of the British Isles blowing strong Swesterlies in. Shorts and T-shirt was selected, no more. I drove to Foxlake, and parked up on the grass. After registering to collect my number, I bumped into Nigel M who was on his own way to register. He was carrying a bottle of champagne.

After he'd registered, we sat in my car to chat and get ready. It turned out, he was good friends with the owner of Foxlake, and as it was his birthday today, he thought he'd bring a gift. A 9am, we headed towards the start line for a wee warm up organised by one of the Foxlake staff. All good fun.

Nigel introduced me to his cousin Jez who was also running. We gathered at the start line under an inflatable banner and at 09:15 we were off. Immediately I realised it was going to be a tough old race in the wind as we battled around the shore of the lake in the long grass. I got into my stride and powered past some slower runners and quickly was in more space. The route twisted and turned through some woodland for the first km, quite technical. Ahead I spotted Roger P and noticed I was gaining on him. After 2km I was level with him, and then passed him with ease around 3km. This was looking good.

The course was now more open, following tracks and field boundaries heading east towards Dunbar. The wind was off our starboard quarter which made things slightly easier until we headed due south across a field. The wind was battering to the extent I might've been faster walking. Over a bridge and then left into a park.

After the bridge, Sandy Wallace had positioned himself for action shots

I saw Nigel's cousin ahead and to my surprise was slowly gaining on him too. I passed him and said hello. After a wee circuit of the park, it was back to the bridge and for the next few hundred metres, the worst part of the course. It was basically running into the oncoming back runners, and all the Cani-cross competitors. When this was through a ploughed field boundary, in a gale, it was tough going to not run into someone or a dog. I'm sure the route planner could have adjusted that. 

Anyway, it was out to the estuary now and some coastal running after a wee jaunt through a plantation. It was around now I started to fade, probably 9km in, and when a long-legged Cani-cross pair overtook me, it knocked me back. Looking over my shoulder I could see Nigel gaining, perhaps 100m back. 

The route crossed another bridge, where the owner of Foxlake (can't remember his name), was marshalling. I wished him Happy Birthday to his delight and carried on, then hearing more laughter seconds later when Nigel passed through. The track became very narrow at this point, only a foot wide and typically I managed to roll my chocolate ankle. 

I was slowing up badly now, and 500metres out from the finish, I heard Nigel shout "You're a tough bastard to catch!!" He caught me on the final corner, with 200m to go and we ran in together. Not holding hands!

Looking at watches, we were both under one hour which we were pleased with. I was really impressed by Nigel's race management and pace. The race itself was well organised. The route was varied but well marked. The only downside being the section  mentioned above. 

58m58s 22/215

Aviemore Half Marathon

For the October week off school, we had booked a lovely house in Newtonmore. On the search for more race action, I found the Aviemore Half Marathon would be happening on the first Sunday of that holiday week.

I knew a colleague at work had run it a few years ago, and managed a fast time (for him) of 1hr40mins since he said it was mostly downhill. Sally had also run it in 2010 and reported the same. I hadn't run in Rothiemurchus before and thought it would be a great opportunity.

The booking process wasn't the slickest with a dodgy website and some post submission requirement to check your name on the entry list, but I paid my £35 fee and forgot about it.

After arriving in Newtonmore in a downpour, I headed the 20mins up the road to Aviemore and registration which was being held in the resort hotel. Parking was fairly chaotic, but I was in and out of the hotel with my runner's pack (brown envelope containing timing chip, number, bag label and pins) in a couple of minutes.

On the Sunday morning, the rain had passed and skies were overcast. Temperature was around 8C, but calm. Sally drove me up to Aviemore and I jumped out at La Taverna roundabout for the short walk up to the hotel car park and the waiting buses. Although I was wearing shorts, I did have extra layers on top, including hat & gloves. It was brass-monkeys waiting in the queue. There was a real mixture of runners, most of them looking cold!

On the bus, I chatted to the young lad sat next to me. He was from Aberdeen, and it was his first time running the race too. He had done a couple of other halfs (Nairn and Aberdeen), plus the Edinburgh full this year so was capable. He said he was aiming for 90mins which I was impressed with.

10mins up the road, we were dropped at the entrance to Badaguish Outdoor Centre in the woods. It was very busy, with hunners of other runners dotting about trying to keep warm. I thought it wise to make a toilet trip, so joined a queue. 20mins later I was still in the queue and clearly not moving anywhere fast. I took the next best option, along with other opportunist males.

Eventually it was time to line up along a single track road, beside the predicted time markers. I stood between 1h40 and 1h45 and checked out my neighbours who all looked as cold as I felt! There is actually a 10K race that starts from Badaguish at the same time as the Half, but heads off in the opposite direction so there was some confusion initially where to line up.

At 09:58 we all started to shuffle towards the actual start line. There was a lot of nervous laughter, a bit of stretching, last minute gear checks. And then we were jogging...over the starting mats...beeping of watches. I waited for the pace to increase but it didn't and everyone around me was settling into what felt like a slow jog. Sack this! I dodged to the side and squeezed past as many as I could until I was running at a better pace.

The field starts to open out

The initial couple of kilometres were a real delight, along a wide LR track through plantation, then downhill with an incredible vista over Loch Morlich and up to the Northern Corries. Now I was at race pace, with good spacing between other runners. Suddenly I spotted the young lad I had been chatting to on the bus about 100m ahead. I was gaining on him.

We ran through Glenmore, briefly on the road before back into the forest and then over the road again for some climbing up to the high point at 6km / 403m. The field was really spaced out now and there were some people walking on the gradients. I kept the young lad in view, conciously trying to catch him, and by 8km there were only 4 other runners between us, possibly 50m. If he was going for 90minutes, I was doing good and this only helped me run faster.

Between 10km until 11.5km, the paths became a little less maintained and at one point we had to splash through a shin deep river. The path also was narrow and winding, which made overtaking a little tricky. The tarmac arrived at last, and I took the opportunity to stuff a gel down my neck. I walked while doing this so lost a few places but managed to claw them back.

The road was good running since it was downhill and constantly changing direction without any long straight sections. I settled in behind a tall bloke, using him as a wind shelter but when he inexplicably started to slow, I made sure to pass him. At both of the water stations, I grabbed a cup and stopped to drink losing more places. The young lad was now 20 places away, perhaps 300m distant, but I wasn't bothered.

With one mile to go, a runner overtook me after being on my heels for a while. He had obviously noted me flagging, and said "Break 8minutes for this final mile and we'll be under 1h35, dig deep!"
What a motivation!! Was that true?? Was I really going that fast?? I didn't look at my watch and just kept plodding, trying hard to not be overtaken again.

We were now catching up with the 10K stragglers who offered shouts of encouragement at our passing. The Bridge Inn flashed to the left, then under the railway line, up the hill to the Aviemore high street where marshalls had stopped the traffic to allow us to cross. I got my GoPro out and tried to up the pace for the final straight across the grass.

People lined the tapes on either side, clapping us in and on the left I saw Sally with the kids waving. Over the finish line, stop the watch. Happy days!!!

101 / 1035
01:33:38

Meall nan Tarmachan hill race

In mid-August, I met up with Andy Nicholls for another Munro bagging trip accessible from Glasgow. He wanted a short day so I chose this Tayside hill with the option of the Ridge to add interest. At the same time, I had been looking for another race to do at the beginning of October. The inaugural Penicuik Estate trail race was scheduled for 6th October, but I discovered it was already full so looked for something else and the Scottish Hill Racing site came up with this race.

18th August on Meall Garbh with Andy

Over the subsequent weeks, I kept an eye on the SiEntries page for the race. There were only a handful of names down so I wasn't worried about missing out. On the week of the race, the weather forecast looked OK so I got my wallet out and signed up.

On the Saturday morning, I calculated my driving times and arrived in sunny Killin. I wandered along to the NTS office at Lynedoch, spying a few stick insects doing the same. Inside I was greeted by three windblown men at a table who gave me my number, a car park pass and map of the route. They reminded me that I had to carry weatherproof gear (waterproof trousers, coat, hat, gloves, whistle, compass). I said my bag was back in the car, but they grinned and said "We trust you."

After a visit to the public lav, I drove up the Lawers road crawling past the now full NTS car park and stopping in a grassy layby. The weather was fine and bright. All the hills were clear but there was a slight Nwerly breeze coming down from the damhead. I ate some food and got changed, initially deciding on a single t-shirt, but quite quickly adding my thermal & eventually my wet weather coat.

I trotted along to the start line. a couple of hundred metres up the road on the LR track that heads off round the Meall nan Tarmachan hillside. There were perhaps a hundred people gathered there, runners, supporters and marshalls. I trotted about to keep warm, and then slotted into the melee with 5mins to go.

The organiser (Dan) stood on a gatepost and made a briefing about the route, the race, the prizes (of 288 bottles of beer!) We were asked to cross the bridge in single-file in order for them to count us out and finally we were off. I immediately found myself being subsumed by the pack and struggled to get into a rhythm on the rough track. After a couple of minutes, we suddenly left the track for the hillside and the footpath. There was an initial bottleneck at a burn crossing, and some swearing. Some athletes jumped into the heather to overtake.

On the initial ascent

Very soon, most resorted to fast walking, with a little trot on anything that was close to flat. Onto the ridge and then some faster progress towards the first checkpoint at 923m. It was manned by a couple of Killin MR team members, I passed a greeting before horsing down to the fenceline in the col. I was able to overtake the two I had been on the heels of, and then realised I was at the front of a small group for the final summit (very steep) summit ascent 😟

In the summit gully, heart pounding out of my chest

After the gully, I was overtaken again and the final metres to the Munro summit were a bit of a slog. I put the camera away just beyond the marshalls on the summit, and then tried to up the pace along the ridge towards Meall Garbh. My legs were like jelly and any ground undulating to uphill reduced me to a walk. The runners who had overtaken me before the summit were now a long way in the distance, I tried hard to stop anyone else passing me. 

At last I reached the marshalls at Meall Garbh and turned left off the ridge to follow the line of flags that had been placed to mark a 'recommended' descent route. Although I followed it closely, it was clearly not the optimal line. A handful of other runners came careering past away to the right of the ridge. They obviously knew something I didn't! 

I was overtaken by at least ten runners on the descent, and didn't overtake anyone. Not good. Dropped onto the LR track and then tried to trot the ~2km back to the finish. This transition reminded me of the Earlston race when I hit the tarmac after the hill descent. My legs struggled to get back into a rhythm, and once again another runner came past. But I kept the pace, and was able to claw back some metres, even passing one person. 

From the finish, I continued to jog back to the car and home as I had commitments waiting. Latterly, I was interested to read that the 2nd place runner was only 18 (Kieran Cooper), and had beaten the Lairig Ghru race winner George Foster, both of whom would feature on the Adventure Show the following weekend. 

1hr10min09s  43/79

Kippen Trail Race

Having registered for the Aviemore Half-Marathon in mid-October, I felt I needed some further training inspiration and found this race advertised on the Scottish Running Guide site. When I saw the race entry fee of £1 it had to be done!

Pensively waiting in the registration queue with my £1 coin

I managed to find a Strava route for the 2016 race, and assumed this would be the same. I studied it on the OS map to familiarise myself ahead of the weekend. On the day, the weather was good, if a little cool but it was the end of September!

I drove to Kippen and parked off the main street in a lovely housing estate overlooking the Forth valley. A quick walk up to the 'sports field' to pay my £1 and pick up my number before returning to the car to change and stick the lenses in.

It was then I realised I'd forgotten my watch. I cursed myself, but wondered if I could just find someone else who finishes close to me and copy their GPX route from Strava. Unfortunately you have to be a premium user for this facility 😢

Back to the sports field and gathered at the gate outside the pavilion for the start signal. There was a woman with a microphone trying to make a briefing but a combination of it being too quiet and everyone talking meant nothing could be heard.

3-2-1 go and off we went into the trees. A very narrow path at first which made for a bit of jostling, then suddenly onto a single-track road. This rose gradually uphill, and I managed to pick off quite a few other runners who were toiling. It flattened off, turned into a vehicle track with a few stones and pot holes to avoid before a left turn and descent to a farm yard.

We ran through the farm, still downhill eventually joining another road which undulated towards the Forth valley. It then straightened into a long downhill which was really fast. The field was well spaced out now, and I played cat-and-mouse with a couple of others.

90deg left turn off the road onto another rough track and down to a gate which we had to climb over. Then up a steep hill (resorted to a few steps of walking), into a cowfield of lush grass. Downhill to the rejoin the initial narrow path and back to the finish.

Sprint for the finish, he beat me :-(

34:30  18/138

2018 Races

Date	Race	Dist(km)	Surface	Time	Position	Percent*
22/04/2018	Balmoral Trail Race	23.5	mixed	01:53:34	54/497	10.8
13/05/2018	Copenhagen Marathon	42.4	tarmac	03:41:22	1714/7886	21.7
06/06/2018	CAAC 5 Miler	8	tarmac	00:34:30	109/224	48.6
17/06/2018	7 Hills	22.6	mixed	02:17:54	102/213	47.8
03/07/2018	Earlston Black Hill Race	8.6	mixed	00:45:00	27/79	34.1
15/07/2018	Scurry to the Sea	18.3	mixed	01:38:32	15/113	13.2
30/09/2018	Kippen Trail Race	7.5	mixed	00:34:30	18/138	13.0
06/10/2018	Meall Nan Tarmachan hill race	9.5	hill	01:10:09	43/79	54.4
14/10/2018	Aviemore Half Marathon	21	trail/mixed	01:33:39	101/1035	9.75
03/11/2018	Foxtrail Race Series#1	13	trail/mixed	00:58:58	22/215	10.2
17/11/2018	Glentress Trail Half	19.7	trail	01:51:03	50/441	11.3
15/12/2018	Foxtrail Series Race#3	10.3	trail	00:46:53	15/191	7.85
22/12/2018	Kirk Craigs Christmas Cracker	6.7	hill	00:53:17	51/104	49

*lower percent generally means better performance