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