Gala XC, 27 November 2011
The locals told me that the conditions were better than last year when the course was covered by about two and a half feet of snow. Last year’s race, of course, was cancelled. This year parts of the course were under about two and a half feet of watery mud. Unfortunately we did not see the entire course, I gathered that the front runners had gone off course and we had all followed. Certainly, while the marshals we did see were very encouraging, the course was not well marked or marshalled and I found myself on 3 or 4 occasions in some doubt about where I should be going. But, having said all that, I enjoyed the run. But not only the run, I enjoyed the lentil soup at the finish; it was delicious. Our rather muddy runners were Duncan Ball 33rd, Sarah Blake 45th, Jane Hart 125th, Gilly Marshall 144th, Viv Blake 150th and Bill Bennet 161st.
Full results can be found at the Borders website www.bordersXC.com .
I think I prefer two and a half feet of snow! It took considerable effort to scrub the mud and sheep poo off my legs and more effort to get it off my shoes. I didn’t realise that we had gone off course by mistake – I just thought that the organisers had shortened the course to avoid even more mud (and to avoid installing gang ways and hand rails). It was welcome though as I was a long way off ‘whippet’ mode.