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| 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.
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| Sprint for the finish, he beat me :-( |
34:30 18/138
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