It was a cold but bright and sunny day for the Braids this year with the gals doing the 5k and the guys doing the 10k. Poor Charlie had a dicky tummy so didn’t finish his race, but the rest of us got round in one piece despite the stampede at the start. Great results all round with Billy having notable success getting first V40. Susie and David were there doing official stuff and dishing out encouragement. 🙂

5K:

10K:

I’d heard this long twenty eight and a half mile trail marathon was a tough route over the Cheviot hills in Northumberland. It’s organized by Trail Outlaws who also run the St Cuthberts Way amongst quite a few other races, and they are really well organized with a very well marked route over the hills.

There were other Harriers going so I booked it as an extra on the back of some ultra training I had just finished. A bit too close together but I thought I’d get round fine if I taped up my creaky knees before the race which really helped. There’s quite a lot of kit requirements which makes sense with it being well into November and very icy at the tops of the hills. Trail Outlaws had booked all of the Hostel where the race started and ended from which made it affordable to stay over before race day. There was also time to register if you were wanting to go on the day from 6:00 to 7:55 for the start at 8:00.

Wooler is just over the border so not too long a drive down and you actually run along the Scottish/English border on one section where the Pennine way joins the St Cuthbert’s Way. Yan picked me up and we headed down the evening before the race to stay at the hostel. We had a few hours to pass by before turning in so we went for one pint in the local bar. I’ve never done this before a race before but Yan was quite up for it so thought one wouldn’t hurt. With it being Saturday night the locals had clearly been out for a while and some were very merry.

The hostel beds were very good so I had a good sleep. We got up early and got our kit checked before getting our bib numbers and were all set. This was great as it was really busy later with so many people arriving on the day. It was a very frosty morning and we were warned about the icy conditions on the tops. The weather was brilliant for running though as it was a fantastic clear day with no wind. The half marathon which is held on the Saturday was quite windy but we were lucky on the Sunday.

Michael and Tracy arrived for Tracy running and we got a pre race photograph in front of the race banner. We set off at 8:00 and I kept to a 10 minute mile to save energy for later with it being such a hilly route. I had started far to quickly three weeks earlier at the Jedburgh Ultra and found the last 10 miles really hard. Everybody was in good spirits and it was great to chat to other runners as we ran over the various hills. The marshals at the check points were great and they had water, juice and sweets. CP2 was for emergency only so we had to fill up with water at check point 1 at about 6 miles as it would be CP3 at 18 miles before we could get more. As we got to the top of the hills there were large slabs as a walkway through the boggy ground. This kept us dry but was quite hard going on the legs as it went on for quite a way. Somebody told me they were from an old mill and they got helicoptered up. I was really surprised to hear of so many people doing this as a first marathon since it was so tough going. One guy had only run the Great North Run before and his longest run was 14 miles, I hope he managed round okay. The slabs were very icy in parts but as the organizers had gone round marking the route with little yellow flags they had put lots around the worst areas. It was totally fine though as the ice was easy to avoid. It was more going down the steep descents of the hills where the grass was very frosty that there was more likelihood of taking a tumble where I landed on my back once. I was taking it quite easy as I was worried about jarring my knees and putting myself out of training for the Highland Fling which I had to pull out of this year. Since the 50 mile Ochil Ultra in October I’d not had enough recovery time before doing the Jedburgh Ultra three weeks back, so knew I’d not have fresh legs for this but really enjoyed it anyway and I was sure I’d make it round fine. I’d never been up the Cheviots before so it was brilliant to see so much of them on such a fine day.

I was pleased to finally reach The Cheviot summit as I’d heard that was the hardest part of the race covered. There were quite a few smaller climbs here and there though which were great. Especially the eccentric older guy half way up one of the hills beating a drum and shouting out words of encouragement, “The spirits are with you!” We were then heading down into the valleys and CP3 where the marshals were very helpful and filled my water up. It was good hearing the Geordie accent too which made the race a bit different. Where the Pennine Way joins St Cuthbert’s Way there was a great spooky wood section to go through. My legs were getting quite tired now with so many hills and boggy ground over large areas. I had plenty of jells and bars to keep me going though and I started counting down the miles as I got closer to the finish. I had no idea how long the race would take but was surprised how much longer it took compared to the Glencoe trail marathon, this was a far tougher route! I got scanned for my time at the finish and there was great soup and sandwiches in the hostel. The medal was brilliant and the T-shirt was great too in Harriers Purple!

Everybody staying over on the Sunday night were taken out to the pub for a few free beers from Trail Outlaws. Yan and I left the bar at closing time and had a few drinks back at the hostel. Quite a finish to a great day on the hills.

I had taken a camera in my bag but it was too cold to stop and take it out so I’ve taken images from Michael Philip’s Facebook page and others found on the Trail Outlaws page.

Yan Horsburgh: 5:27:32
Tracy Philip: 6:58:10
Mark Dawson: 7:21:43

The alarm woke me at 06:00 after a short but deep sleep. After breakfast, I made up my bladder of drink and was away at 06:35. I forgot my running shoes but, fortunately, remembered them just after Leadburn so had time to get back for them. It was very cold: -3.5 on the Moors. I got to Glentress with ten minutes of registration time left but, back in the car, I discovered that my Garmin hadn’t charged overnight so I had no means of checking my pace other than by doing calculations with the time and dodgy GPS of my FitBit. After the shoes and this, I did wonder whether I should do the race since my shins were still rather tender from the two 49″ and 56″ Estate 10k runs I’d done on Thursday in an attempt to make up for not having run for 2.5 weeks. What would a 50k trail race do to my shins – if I finished? I’ll give it ago, I thought. At the start, I soon found myself up at the front. Four guys shot off, and I was 6^th, soon dropping to 9^th as a group of four got away from me by the time we got through the Glentress section. One was a young Polish guy, with whom I chatted briefly, and he gave me a high-five when he discovered that this was also my first Ultra. To Cardrona and into the forest, they were still in sight. On the descent to the Traquair road I overtook the older guy with the stuttering cadence, bringing me up to 8^th. At Traquair village hall – which we had to enter as a check point, I snatched some jelly babies and a banana, so was out before another of the group, and must have overtaken the Pole, too – so 6^th. The tall skinny guy was still ahead of me on the climb, and the runner with the stuttering cadence caught me up – particularly when I got my phone out to take photos. The weather had been stunning. Early on there was low light on the frosted fields below us, and then beautiful sunlight on the hills. At the top of the descent to Walkerburn I put the phone away and thought “Back to business”. The tall skinny guy was 200m ahead of me, and I thought I’d catch him easily, but he was also well equipped to make the descent at speed. I was also wanting to be careful not to run too fast, as I had on my recce three weeks earlier, when I did the 6km descent in 26.5 minutes. I caught him towards the end and we ran together for a couple of kilometres, chatting about races. Once we got onto the grassy trail by the Tweed, he couldn’t keep up with me so I found myself 5^th. From there to the Innerleithen car park it was fine, I could feel a little tightening in my hamstrings – particularly the left, but was running better than three weeks ago – and with 11 kilometres more covered. I grabbed a piece of flapjack and two chunks of cut banana and carried on. From there to Cardrona was tough – once over the Tweed, the first half was a grassy trail and then the interminable tarmac trail of the old railway, but I kept it going. Just before Cardrona I overtook someone who had been going well, but cramped up. No time for sympathy, and I didn’t see his number to know if he was a “50”, but he must have been, so I was 4^th. This took me to about 40km in just over 3:45. It was hurting to keep up the pace, but I knew I was running a good race. By now I was thinking that there would be the odd 65km drop-outs to overtake, so when I saw two runners ahead of me I wondered if they were too. However, they were moving only a little slower than me. When I finally caught them, I saw their white numbers. It was a real lift and I made an effort to run through them so was soon well ahead – up to 2^nd, although I was starting to not want to believe I was so well up the field. I eased off, but still didn’t see them. Passing two officials, they confirmed that I was second. By then I’d entered Glentress forest and the final 200m climb. Although I could run up the easy angled path initially, I had to walk as it steepened. My hamstrings were raw and, even when the slope eased off, it was very hard to run. At the end of one open straight section I looked back and saw nothing, so I felt confident that I had sufficient lead to hold off the two behind me. Finally, I got to the downhill and, although it was easier to run, I couldn’t stretch out on the gentler sections, and didn’t have the control to run fast down the steeper parts. I could tell that it wasn’t far to the finish, and even my Fitbit was approaching 50km. The finish was 20m up a steep hill from the Peel Centre, and I managed a pathetic jog, but made it, and second was confirmed (4:37:33). Within seconds, third (4:37:38) and fourth (4:37:44) arrived. I didn’t know whether I was glad I didn’t know how close they were or not! Although I was in a mild state of shock (and some discomfort – even in my arms!) places 2-6 chatted amongst themselves. Eventually we identified the winner, and it was sobering to learn that he’d finished over 50 minutes ahead of me (3:46:37). Cold and uncomfortable, I made my way to the car to change and let my wife know I’d finished OK. Then I verified that prize-giving would be no earlier than 15:00 and retired to the warmth of the Peel Centre café. I sat alone and wrote my account of the day, drinking a large mug of coffee, then wandered up for the prize-giving. This was shambolic, and ended up with folk collecting their prizes as they turned up. I was asked whether I wanted 1^st M50 or 2^nd Male, and chose the latter since it’s more prestigious and worth £15 rather than £10 in Run-for-It vouchers. I’ll use these to get a new pair of gloves, since I lost one from the mesh pocket into which I’d stuffed them once the day had warmed up a little. So, I collected my prize and “trophy” and drove home.

Am I converted to trail running or Ultras? I have to say “no”. Although Glentress was pretty, the best part of the course was from Cardrona to Walkerburn – the bits in the hills, surprise, surprise! The trail running in the Tweed valley was rather boring, so I’d want a race in more interesting terrain than that. Anything longer than today’s race would need a lot of training to be able to attack it the way I did today – when I treated it a bit like the Edinburgh Marathon and “hung on” for the last 8km. So, even though I might be better suited to flatter races [and Mountain Marathons, which  are completely different, being fast hill-walks with sporadic running on the tops and descents, and route finding plus navigation being important.] my heart’s still in the hills.

Distance 7 km
Climb 460 m

A crisp and cold day for Tinto this year, no cloud on the hill and good running conditions. Great turnout and fantastic effort all round from the harriers. Also very well done to Bill’s grandchildren coming first and third in the junior race. It was lovely to see Bill there cheering us all on.

Pos. Runner Category Time %Winner
23 Billy Colvin M40 00:36:51 114.70%
34 Michael Greens M 00:38:21 119.30%
69 Rob Wilson M40 00:42:39 132.70%
72 Mike Brooks M50 00:42:46 133.10%
92 Allan Dunbar M40 00:44:06 137.20%
95 Gillian Cairns F40 00:44:14 137.70%
103 Gregor Gorjanc M 00:45:30 141.60%
133 Robin Hall M40 00:48:03 149.50%
137 Alan Thornburrow M40 00:48:14 150.10%
157 Andrea Wilson F40 00:50:16 156.40%
159 Craig Davenport M40 00:50:42 157.80%
166 Julie Hand F 00:51:20 159.80%
177 Daniel Greens M 00:52:24 163.10%
179 Charles Crawford M 00:52:33 163.50%
189 Sadie Kemp F40 00:53:29 166.40%
190 Chris Downie M50 00:53:50 167.50%
212 Andrew McDermott M 00:56:23 175.50%
218 Tracy Philp F40 00:57:38 179.40%

Junior race:
1  Struan Bennet Fife 18:14:25 also first MU14
3  Ailsa Bennet Fife 21:21:18 also first FU14

Full results here: http://www.scottishhillracing.co.uk/RaceResults.aspx?RaceID=RA-0108&RaceYear=2017
and http://carnethy.com
Sadie’s Relive: https://www.relive.cc/view/g15489075380

I can’t remember when or why I decided it might be a good idea to run an ultra.

I suppose some might say it’s a logical progression once you have done a few marathons to dip your toe in the water of an even longer distance – and I can’t resist a challenge. But it wasn’t like I had done loads of marathons, only three by the time I registered for this race, and usually in the middle of it I tell myself to stick to shorter distances in future. However, encouraged by a decent few months of running, and having sought the advice of Jan and Gilly who had run this one before, I was reassured that this would be a reasonably achievable race for an introduction to the “dark side”.

The course looked OK; a mixture of trail and tarmac, a few hills but not too bad. It was essentially a 20 mile out and back with a ten mile loop between the “out” and the “back”.

So date in the diary, I booked onto Loch Ness marathon six weeks prior as a “training run”. The plan was to run that slowly and finish fresh, feeling like I could go a few more miles. That went out the window on the day when I realised I was on for a decent time and I was completely spent by the time I finished. I hadn’t done a huge amount of long runs since then, with the exception of the Skyline which didn’t go well. So I was unsure how I was going to fare.

As usual, I hadn’t been quick enough to get the good deals on hotel rooms so we ended up in a self-catering holiday let for a couple of nights, which was lovely and actually worked out perfectly for us with the kids. We travelled up to Killin on the Friday evening. I had reset the trip meter on the car as we left the house and as I pointed out the Kelpies to the kids on the way up the road I noticed that we had come exactly 33 miles. That made me feel a bit apprehensive about the idea of running the equivalent distance the next morning.

We got there in good time so we got checked into our accommodation then went to the village hall to register and leave drop bags. I had prepared the bags the previous night and knew I had put too much in them, but being my first time I didn’t know what I would fancy and figured better too much than too little. Then we went home for a huge plate of pasta and a couple of glasses of wine and I got my kit ready for the morning.

I was up at 6am, giving me loads of time to eat some porridge, drink some tea, get dressed, faff around with my bag – taking stuff out and putting it back in, change my outfit, another tea, kiss the girls and walk down to the start area.

Alan Thornburrow and Vicky Lyon were also doing the race and I hoped to see them at the start. I found Alan immediately but unfortunately didn’t see Vicky all day. Alan told me he had a bit of a manic morning – having slept through his alarm, not waking until 5.30am, and driving all the way from West Linton. He clearly has a time machine for a car as he was in Killin by 7.25am and standing in the registration queue when I saw him.

The place was busy with the chatter of excited runners. The atmosphere was very jovial, not as serious as some road races; there was a real feeing that we were about to embark upon an adventure and we were all in it together. Mel and the kids wandered down to give me a cuddle and see me off at the start which was fantastic, though I look a bit nervous in the start-line photos.

Mel asked how long I would be, but I hadn’t a clue. I didn’t have any time goal or expectation but guessed at between 5 and 6 hours.

After what seemed like a very long pre-race briefing, all of a sudden we were off. I wasn’t quite ready, busy fiddling with my watch, and forgot to wave to the girls.

“Nice steady start, don’t get carried away” I kept telling myself. I’m generally not good at keeping myself reined in, see Loch Ness, above. I then spotted Alan just in front so pulled up alongside as we ran through the village and over the Falls of Dochart. I figured if I kept to a pace where I was able to chat it should mean I’m not going too fast.

Since running Loch Ness I had had a slightly dodgy knee, which starts nipping after about 6 or 7 miles, but today it felt it before I’d run one mile. I feared the worst but just decided to ignore it in the hope it went away, or at least didn’t get any worse.

We quickly left the road and onto forestry tracks heading steadily uphill. They were mostly runnable but on any steeper bits I made myself walk to conserve energy. After a couple of miles Alan said he was going to ease off the pace a little bit but I felt OK so kept on going. I briefly saw Alan again a few minutes later when he caught me on a walky bit, but after that, despite expecting him to overtake me any minute, I didn’t see him again for the rest of the day. I had to make lots of new friends, and set about chatting to anyone who seemed vaguely receptive to my overtures.

The first 3 and a half miles are uphill then it flattens out for bit before heading sharply downhill. I had spoken to a chap who had run the race a few times and he said he always makes the mistake of going too fast on that downhill bit, so I let him go off ahead and held myself back – for about 30 seconds – then decided there is no point fighting against gravity. After a little while the forest track evened out and joined a tarmac cycle path. There were a few groans from those around me but I was quite happy, I don’t mind tarmac – you don’t slip, you don’t get muddy, you get back what you put in. I had been advised to wear road shoes and it was definitely the right call. There were two or three times I slightly slipped on hilly trail sections, but the comfort of the road shoes more than made up for that.

We crossed the A85 and there was the first check point, not even 6 miles in. I grabbed a couple of things from my drop bag, and chucked a few bits down my throat, leaving anything that seemed like it was going be challenging to either get into (orange) or get down (dry cereal bar), stuffed the rest in my bum bag and headed off. Total time at CP1 about 2 minutes, but I thought that was too long so resolved to be quicker next time.

The next section was a nice, long, flat section on the old railway, now a cycle path, that goes over the Glen Ogle viaduct then continues above Lochearnhead, with stunning views down the loch. At this point I was averaging 8 minute miles, including time to stop and take the occasional photo, but I wasn’t worried as I was relaxed, forcing myself to eat and running easily, despite still feeling the knee. I didn’t really notice at the time but it was on a significant decline, hence it felt so easy. Somebody I talked to a little bit later said something about always struggling on the long uphill railway section on the way home, and I didn’t know what he was on about as I hadn’t noticed it being downhill on the way out.

There was a steep zig-zag section of switchbacks on the path taking us down to some nice trails and before I knew it checkpoint 2 was there at about 11 miles in. I guzzled my smoothie, took a few things I thought I could stomach and left the rest of my drop bags to be picked over by anyone else. That checkpoint seemed a bit slicker, but my Strava tells me I was still there for two minutes.

At this point I got chatting to a nice woman, Gayle, from Tinto Hill Runners who was telling me she had done the 120km UTMB six weeks previously where she had been second FV40 and has another big run in four weeks time so was just doing this as a training run. We hung out together for the next few miles chatting away. It was good to chat to her as it stopped me from getting too eager and going too fast, just kept it nice and relaxed, reminding myself to eat and drink.

We passed a signpost pointing us towards Rob Roy’s grave at Balquhidder. I was slightly disappointed not have time to go in for a look. It was mostly undulating, hard-packed, but slightly muddy tracks at this point, as it was until we came to the timing point at the halfway mark at Strathyre. I dibbed my dobber, filled up my water bottle and was on the move again in 30 seconds, crossing the A84 then heading uphill on forest tracks.

As we made our way up the track then we were suddenly presented with the most amazing rainbow I have ever seen. I slowed down as I fumbled to get my phone out my bag for a photo and waited for it to switch on, just about walking so I wouldn’t go past it, but it took ages and by the time I got a photo I was well past the place it had been most impressive. The photo I did get doesn’t do it justice at all. One for the memory banks instead of the hard drive.

After 1.5 miles of uphill we came down the other side for 2 miles which was nice and quick, then it was under the A84 and back to the point where the 10 mile loop had begun. I was now heading home. A mile of trails and checkpoint 3 was right there so I pushed on and got to my third drop bag, where I had stashed some cola and a few other goodies I thought I would like. But when I got there I pretty much didn’t fancy anything. I took a couple of swigs of my cola, grabbed my cheese spread and crisp sandwich and tried to force it down my neck over the next 4 miles.

At just over 24 miles I was back on the switchbacks, but this time climbing rather than descending the hill. Then it was the long railway section that I had so enjoyed on the way out. I swear, somehow the path had been tilted since I came the other way, it definitely wasn’t anything like this sort of incline earlier. The words of the runner who had basically predicted my misery came back to haunt me at this point and I struggled on with a jog/walk strategy for the next couple of miles, trying to eat a dry sandwich washed down with warm electrolyte drink. This was probably the low point of my race.

A good number of runners were overtaking me on this stretch, so I eventually pulled myself together and got going properly again. Crossing the viaduct I came across Fishy Gordon who had chosen that spot to take his photos. I don’t know how he did it but the picture he took definitely shows that he managed to tease a smile out of me with his enthusiasm and energy.

From there it wasn’t far back to the final checkpoint where a lovely lady peeled my orange for me when I was just staring at it wondering what the heck to do with it. The guy who spoke for ages at the start line was at the checkpoint encouraging people on. “Only four miles to go, all downhill to Killin!” he was shouting. Looking at my watch, I was trying to do the maths – I only had a tad over 28 on my watch so clearly 4 wasn’t going to add up to 33, therefore he was talking rubbish and couldn’t be trusted. I was convinced it was going to be 5 miles of hills.

But as it turns out, he was a nice man who didn’t tell porkies, the paths and trails to the finish were downhill and it was just a bit over 4 miles, along lovely cycle paths through the woods. At 30 miles I started to imagine the finish line and how Mel would be there with the girls, who would both run to me and I would cross the finish holding hands with them both. I got quite emotional at this image and really hoped it would come true.

I managed to run reasonably strongly to the end, making back a place or two that I had lost earlier as I ran through the village. I turned into the park and saw the finish arch, but was sent for a lap round the park. As I plodded round I was looking to see if my family were there but couldn’t spot them. As I got closer I realised they weren’t. As I crossed the finish line I felt a strange mix of emotions. Satisfied to have completed the race, but a little bit deflated.

I was disappointed that I had crashed a bit towards the end and had to walk on bits that weren’t that hilly, and disappointed that I didn’t have anybody there to welcome me in, and weirdly a little bit sad that it was over. But the disappointment didn’t last long; I was pleased to have got round without incident and I was happy with my time of 5 hours 15 minutes – towards the lower end of my prediction.

I went inside to get some dry clothes and was just getting changed when Mel and the girls showed up. They had been sitting having lunch in a cafe when they saw me running past. It made me feel better that at least they had seen me. I want all of them to be proud of this old man. We hung around at the village hall for a while waiting for Alan to come in, me drinking tea, the kids eating cakes. I wasn’t remotely hungry after the moving feast of the race. Eventually we decided that we must have missed Alan and went home where I had a long shower and a nice lie down.

Rob and Andrea were staying the night in Killin so we made plans to hook up with them for some drinks in the Killin hotel. They went off for dinner, we stayed where we were for dinner, then the plan was to meet up again at the post-race Ceilidh. But when we got there it was busy, there were no seats available and it was getting on and we were all kind of tired so just headed for bed, and back home in the morning.

It was a great weekend. An experience which I loved, and such a fantastic race. But now I think I could have done it quicker…

I’m now looking forward to doing another ultra – which is just as well as I’m in the Fling next year!

Results

Des Crowe ran for GB at the World Masters Mountain Running Championships in Slovakia on Saturday 2nd September 2017.

Stewart Whitlie ran an excellent race finishing third and claimed the Bronze Medal.   As Des Crowe was also placed well up, they were part of the GB team which claimed the Silver Medal just behind Italy.

Scottish Masters land World hill medals with GB

The Pentland Skyline 2017 (The Support Crew Report)

Sunday morning 7.30am, a day in the life of a runners spouse starts early, the pre race healthy breakfast toasted bagel, poached eggs and a cup of black English Breakfast tea carefully prepared the night before, thrown out the window in a sudden change of pre race diet to a slightly less healthy fried egg and bacon doubler with tatie scone chucked on top just for good measure, meant another trip to Lidel to wait on the 8am opening for the bacon as unfortunately this was not available in our well stocked sports nutritionists larder.
Fortunately due to the close proximity of the race start at Hillend Ski centre a mere 20 minutes drive away we could relax for a while as the race start was not until 11am, or at least until Tracy decided it was time to leave as she wasn’t sure how many pee stops would be required before she started.
So of we headed at 9.20am sharp, making good time to find us at Hillend at 9.35, 1 hour and 25 minutes of pee time available.
Parking was under strict supervision by the organisation this year after last years poor choice of parking by competitors delayed the race by 45 minutes causing scores of other race spouse to freeze on the hill tops whilst waiting for the race start, although this did not effect us as we were so early, we had the choice of any space we liked.
Registration faultless and swift left Tracy plenty time to look and study the very expensive Skyline Buff she had already decided to buy the week before. It was at this time I was thankful for the early arrival as the news was broken that she had no money and I was swiftly sent to the cash line at the petrol station to get money for this beautiful drawer filler.
A quick coffee for myself and the 1st of the many pre race comfort stops for Tracy in the Steading Bar and the use of the comfortable changing facilities helped pass the time.
So back to the registration area to wait on the rest of the Harrier runners, Billy Colvin, Sadie Kemp, Michael Greens, Allan Dunbar, Gregor Gorjanc, and little Miss Hilly Harrier, Gillian Cairns along with Tracy P of course. It was sad but true that many of the old men of the Skyline where unable to make the start, due to……… Well, old age. Rob Wilson, Stuart Sanderson, Chris Downie, Duncan Ball to name but a few feeling the fear from the new young blood in the club and the other old guy Billy Wiz Colvin.
So to the start, changed slightly from the previous year slightly further left hill reps base camp, making myself and other poor spectators walk up a steeper slope than the normally accustomed to a summer Thursday evening. Some amazing sheep dog work on the hill, Molly and I managed to gather all Harriers around for the pre race photo.
226 hill hungry runners poised on a start line, with an almighty challenge ahead, it was not long to go, just the safety briefing, slightly longer than the Jedburgh DON’T BE A DICK chat, and the horn blew bang on 11am for what I have to say was one of the quietest race starts I have seen, no shouts of HBT, just the shuffling of feet before entering an almost orderly single file climb up the side of Caerketton Hill. Gone from view time for me to relax a while before heading to my one and only vantage point at the base of Castle Law hill, car parked already Billy and Michael through as I was parking the car, time to see a few runners pass with the occasional face plank coming through the kissing gate it was time to warn runners of the easily missed trip hazard it was time to warn the fellow runners with shouts of mind the step. Seeing everyone through safely apart from
Mrs G Rumpy that failed to heed the warning and blamed me for my poor marshalling abilities after her epic long belly slide across the the gravel path.
Safe in the knowledge my running buddies made it through the gate without eating tarmac and stones, plus a chance meeting and quick chat with Mrs Ultra Queen Marshall and The amazing Mrs Fran Jones I left to head back to the finish knowing everyone would be looked after by the purple and white scattered throughout the many miles ahead.
Back to just above the finish line to watch the runners home,
1st Alexander Chaplin, Edinburgh University Hare and Hounds 2.2812
2nd Alasdair Anthony, Ochil Hill Runners 2.37.01
3rd Dessie Flanagan, Carnethy 2.39.06

1st Lady Charlotte Morgan, Carnethy 2.59.13
2nd Shona Robertson, Shettleston 3.02.57
3rd Zoe Harding, Edinburgh Uni Hare andHounds, 3.03.56

Penicuik Harriers

60 Michael Greens, 3.22.58
70 Billy Colvin, 3.26.45
122 Gillian Cairns, 3.44.09
146 Gregor Gorjanc, 3.54.13
178 Allan Dunbar, 4.07.01
197 Sadie Kemp, 4.23.50
216 Tracy Philp, 4.44.11

A Grand day out, now time for a beer