It’s a toughie especially when the suns beats down on you but the 7 Hills of Edinburgh is a great race!

You choose your own route between the hills but you must do them in the following order : Castle Rock, Corstorphine Hill, Craiglockhart Hill, Braid Hill, Blackford Hill, Arthurs Seat and Calton Hill. There is no wrong route, there is just slower routes –  it is up to you. I think we were quite a spectacle for the tourists on the Royal Mile and on the top of Arthurs Seat.
Rewarded with yummy food and drinks and Sadie and Vicky got a wee minature for having done Edinburgh Marathon and 7HoE 🙂
PB’s for all the girls, 2 who hadn’t done it before, I don’t think Duncan got a PB but he has a ‘double race weekend’ as his excuse 🙂

Hill races can be a navigation nightmare, but the Red Moss Kips race provides a beautiful circuit with visibility for miles on sunny days (like yesterday) – it’s impossible to get lost.  I’m not exactly famous for my navigation skills but this time I excelled, even for my own standards. It takes a genius like me to start one race and finish another – all in just under 1 hour! To my own defense, I was perfectly aware that I was running in the opposite direction to the route indicated on the map (so was not really lost), but picture this series of unfortunate incidences (not to be used as a ‘golden rule for race navigation’):

1. Be sufficiently confident that you can find your way through the Pentlands with your eyes closed, so you don’t bother looking  closely at the map
2. Only listen to the route description of the race organiser with half an ear. So if he mentions a ‘sharp left turn’ don’t worry – it will be obvious which turn he means
3. Look closely at the ground while running so that you only see the runners in front of you and miss any runner that may join you from a different direction
4. When you reach the top of West Kip, follow the runners taking a sharp left U-TURN (‘ah, that must have been the sharp turn the organizer mentioned!’) although you bloody well know that this is opposite to the route on the map.
5. Draw the only possible conclusion one would reach if ALL runners (carrying race numbers) in  your vicinity confidently take the u-turn and absolutely nobody takes the direction you think is right: I must have the wrong map (or more precisely: my husband must have handed me the wrong map)
6. Even when the first doubts creep in, keep going as the new route is nicely downhill and easy.
7. Suffer the consequences by serving as the evening’s entertainment for the Carnethy runners who completed their handicap from Nine Mile Burn to West Kip and back.  See excerpt from their blog (http://carnethy.com):

Meanwhile, in a place far far away, a race (The Red Moss Kips race) was minus one runner.It is not the first time that Carnethy has led someone astray.
The very runable route was enjoyed by all as we ran up the “Eskalator” (Strava Segment) past Spittal farm and on over Spittal Hill.
As we ran over Green Law we could see a long string of runners heading up The Kips. We seemed to be climbing faster than them as I ran past Davie Duncan and, turning at the top, I noticed Big Al approaching from the east having chased the pack.
The descent was fast and furious and soon we were all back at Nine Mile Burn, but one runner looked a little confused. A female runner (name with held to avoid embarrassment) had been led astray by the Good looking Carnethies and had chased us back to end up only 4 miles (in a straight line) from where she should be.

The only silver lining for the Harriers is that I didn’t wear my Harriers vest – and may refrain myself from doing so in the next few races.

Congratulations to all proud Harriers who completed yesterday’s race in the baking heat. Sorry if you had to wait and look for me. Thanks to Fran and Alan for giving me refuge. Finally, apologies to Rob for doubting you – I should have known that you’re never wrong!

Andrea

[Rob note: What a plonker]

After our Black Rock 5 race on Sunday, we continued our weekend with a spot of Tough Mudder fun! Sadie and I ran this last year and decided to volunteer this year, along with my husband (which also gave us a great discount to run on Sunday!) It was a very early start as we had to be at Dalkeith for 5.45am where we were given breakfast and a typically enthusiastic TM briefing. We had volunteered for the course and got to pick our obstacle. We chose “walk the plank” which consists of a high platform jump into deep cold water. It was a pretty full on obstacle to volunteer on and as well as the three of us were joined by a further 5 volunteers, 2 safety guys, a team of around 6 divers an ambulance and some paramedics and doctors! We were given a full safety briefing and instructions on how to run the obstacle. We took our positions and watched as the divers ran a couple of trial runs hauling their dummy out the water to practise their routine for pulling bodies out of the water and then we were all set, waiting for our first mudder to appear!

We had a good vantage point where we were as mudders ran into the field, did some other obstacles and then ran out again to come back into the field at a later point in the course to do our obstacle. There were some lovely bright fantastic costumes as they started and ran past us for the first time, but as they came to do our obstacle proper, they were all the same muddy brown colour!

We spent the day either on the microphone and loud hailer cheering on the Tough Mudders, shouting “feet first and swim to the cargo net” and getting lots of muddy cuddles or atop the structure sending our mudders off in waves shouting 3, 2, 1, GO! Checking for heads to bob back up, waiting for them to swim clear and sending the next wave off. We watched non-swimmers hurling themselves off and being hauled out by divers, we watched barechested macho men back flipping and somersaulting off (not allowed! FEET FIRST!) We watched a fair few face plants (don’t look down!), we watched terrified people overcoming their fear and taking the plunge and their friends rushing to congratulate them on the other side and we had a few who climbed up, stood and peered into the deep, murky water with race numbers, straw and the odd wig floating on it and try to muster the courage to jump, but then sadly climbing back down, disappointed that they never managed to take that leap of faith.

It was a great experience that certainly shows you the good side of people, the support, encouragement and camaraderie between friends.  Everyone you meet is so full of excitement, anticipation and enthusiasm.  It also had Sadie and I excited for the next day!

Sunday morning saw Sadie and I back at TM, this time ready to take the course on ourselves. As we had volunteered the day before we got to enter for £15, which is a huge saving on the standard price and something I would certainly recommend to anyone thinking of taking part. Tough Mudder may have its detractors but they put on one hell of an event, it takes them about 4 weeks to build it, they put everything into the event and you certainly get your money’s worth (especially if you only paid £15). From the warm up, the 6 foot wall you have to climb over to get to the starting pen to the build up in the starting pen where you kneel in the mud and make your mudder pledge to ” leave no mudder behind” and chants of ooh-rah! It gets you hyped up for what is to come, and then you are off! It is 13 miles of running and obstacles some easier than others, everyone has their own personal nemesis and mine is definitely Artic Enema, a skip full of ice cold water that you have to jump in, fully submerge and duck under a partition and out the other side. This year might not have been as cold, deep or with as much floating ice cubes as last year, but I still struggle to stop every fibre of my body screaming to get out and mentally prepare myself to stick my head under and out the other side, but it’s amazing what you can do when you are sure you can’t. This year there were 30 obstacles, I won’t go into each one, my reports are long enough as it is! But Balls to the Wall, Glory Blades, Electric Eel, Hero Walls are just some of them, each testing something different but this year the mud really came into its own. I don’t think I have seen as many different kinds of mud! We were crawling through it, sliding down it, clambering up it, splashing in it, it clung to us and stuck to us and everyone was smiling and laughing and a fair few just rolling in it for the hell of it, well what else could you do? It was like a bunch of kids let loose. This is not a timed event, “its not a race, it’s a challenge” so I don’t know how long it took us this year, but around 3 hours later Sadie and I made it to the finish line, wet, muddy, cold (well me anyway), bruised and bleeding to be met with a pint and the coveted orange headband but now as we are 2 x mudders we get a green one too! Are we going for our blue headband next? Well all I can say is OOH RAH!

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We had to register quick with this one, luckily Sadie had made a note of the opening date and reminded me when it opened which is just as well as 900 places went in a matter of hours, the Friday 13th race date not putting anyone off. It was a lovely evening as we made our way to Fife for this Friday night race with an 8pm start time. The race itself starts in the village of Kinghorn and the whole village seemed to be full of either club running vests or fluorescent yellow jackets, this was a well marshalled race!

The race started at the bottom of a hill under the railway line and it was a bit of a jumble as 900 runners made their way down to the start line and shuffle past each other to line up behind the start line. The race started and we had a sharp uphill start which was followed by a gentle rolling road through the villiage down towards the all important beach, the locals were all out in their gardens, drinking wine and beer, having bbq’s and cheering us on.

We hit the beach and then it felt like the real race had started, the Black Rock is a huge rock out in the sea which is normally surrounded by water and is only accessible at low tide, hence the 8pm start time. The sand was still wet from the tide going out and the rock seemed a long way away. I was a bit worried about running in the sand as my previous beach runs have been hard but the wet sand made the going a bit easier. It was a tremendous sight seeing the snake of runners in front of me stretching the miles across the beach. The view of the sea and over to Edinburgh in the evening light was pretty special too. As in most of my races lately I seemed to have a steady flow of runners passing me, but I kept my head down and feet moving. As we neared the Black Rock the sound of bag pipes could be heard and I looked up to see a piper standing on top of the rock playing. I thought it looked fantastic and evidently so did Sadie as she managed to photograph him while running!

We splashed round the rock calf deep in seawater and then back onto the sand for the homeward stretch, as we got close to the shoreline there were lots of little kids running around looking for high fives (although I am sure the lead runners don’t get as many running alongside them) then back on the same route but the gentle rolling downhill has now turned into an upward push, as we hit the final downhill to the start line I knew to keep something in the tank as I had read there was an uphill at the end as the finish line is just beyond the original starting point. I was glad I had, as we hit the bottom of the hill there was a sharp left them, under the railway line and a very sharp lungbusting uphill with the finish line at the top.

My hill training seems to have paid off as I pushed hard up the hill and passed more people in that final stretch than I had the rest of the race. We were rewarded with a bottle of water, a banana and the all important bottle of beer! Sadie and I had an early start the next morning (more of that to come shortly!) But there was a bit of a beer festival going on after the race and a lot of clubs seemed to have come in minibuses to take full advantage! Harriers minibus and designated driver next year?

This was a great race with a fantastic atmosphere and one I would recommend!

Results:
Sadie Kemp – 36.21
Gilly Marshall – 43.02

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A nice race starting and finishing at Neilson Park on the same day as their festival so there was lots happening in the park and a very nice gala day atmosphere. The weather was nice and sunny but started to cloud over and there was a little drizzle but nothing too bad despite the bad weather warning. The course is run in the roads surrounding Haddington with only 1 appreciable uphill and a similar route to the Haddington half later in the year. A medal at the end and some apple juice for me and a sweety for Michael. I was only a couple of seconds off my PB for a 10K so was quite pleased with that. Results are below:

Sadie Kemp 47.16 Position 79 Gender position 15 Cat Position 6
Michael Greens 51.00 Position 100 Gender Position 80 Cat Position 5
Lori McCrae 51.15 Position 104 Gender Position 21 Cat Position 10

1.06.2014 – sunny, warm, minimal breeze. Always good weather in Yetholm!!

http://penicuikharriers.org.uk/2013/06/03/yetholm-hill-race/

Despite a 1.5 hr drive, this is one of the better mid-distance races on the calendar as far as I am concerned and is well worth the drive. We left the grey cloudy weather of Midlothian and entered the sunny south-east of Scottish border region.

Stuart, Mike and I ran Yetholm last year when it was part of the British Championship (231 runners). This year however, it was a much more relaxed affair with only 37 participants. We were joined by Mark and Kirsty. As per advice from Melanie, I had bought some new hill shoes as the bevelled heels of the INOV8 300s appeared to be a possible factor in my calf problems. So, with Paolo Nutini ringing in my ears, I was all set:

 “Hey, I put some new shoes on, and suddenly everything is right,”

Yetholm is a ca. 12.5 km loop on the Scottish/English border with about 750m of climb.

Yetholm Hill Race Route

This year the course went clockwise (the harder way around) as opposed to last year’s more normal anti-clockwise easier option. This meant that times would likely be a tad slower.

The first half follows the final stage of the Pennine Way with a well marked path. However, it is a gradual climb, so is annoyingly runnable in a rather exhausting way. Last year running down this eastern side of the loop was fabulous. However, this time the return trip was down the western side loop which is much rougher and much more undulating.

Yetholm Hill Race Profile

A slow start by most runners except for “dummkopf” moi where I found myself not only in first place but stayed so (with Stuart, I think, shouting encouragement) for much longer than was probably wise. After about half a kilometre the universe righted itself and the proper lead runners passed me and cruised on by – all probably thinking, “idiot!”. Stuart and Mike soon followed. Once my legs forgave me for my quick start, I started to get into a rhythm and concentrated on keeping Mike in sight who was hovering between 50-100 meters ahead of me.

It took about 40 minutes of steady climb to get to the high point (The Curr) which is roughly the half way point. Apparently the views were lovely, but all I saw was Mike’s back end just ahead. The descent of The Curr is steep and rough and Mike was just in front of me and I was determined to keep up with him. Despite a tumble half way down (with appropriate screaming to try and get some sympathy from him – none came!), I managed to keep up with him. On the immediate steep upslope, I passed Mike who was making rather strange grunting noises. Having never beaten him in a race (although we have had some battles) I knew it would be tough to stay ahead. The next 4kms, although on average a descent, undulates between steep ascents and descents. Hard to get a rhythm. I focussed on the runner ahead in the distance and tried to think about catching him rather than worrying about Mike behind. This section seemed endless and I was happy to have brought a small water bottle with me as it was getting quite warm.

At the top of the last peak, I looked back – Mike was surprisingly far behind – could I actually beat him for once? Possible. The final descent was marked with a Saltire flag – with no time to think about yes/no votes, I plunged down the steep slope worrying that Mike might make a final push. A last mad dash through thistly scrub, over a cow hooved rutted field, through a small woodland and the final stumble across the finish line. Stuart shouting, “where’s Mike?”. I grinned and pointed back.

So – this has been all about me, but the real success story was Stuart. Last year, Yetholm had been his first race for almost 4 years after injury. This year he was back in top form. Of the 5 Harriers running, our places and times were:

Stuart Sanderson (6th):  1:19:10                (last year: 1:23:04)

Rob Wilson (16th): 1:27:30                         (last year: 1:27:14)

Mike Brooks (17th): 1:28:38                        (last year: 1:22:51)

Mark Dawson (31st): 1:52:36

Kirsty Loudon (37th): 2:47:15

A final thank you to the race organiser Les Turnbull who kindly brought Kirsty to the pub in Kirk Yetholm as we had buggered off to “sup up” in the beer garden there. In Kirsty’s own words:

What an amazing weekend ! Started off with dinner on Friday night with a dozen or so of my fellow AYE Club members at the Roamin’ Nose (Eyre Place). Sadly, I was late and missed speeches but still enjoyed great company, good atmosphere and delicious food. Fascinating chat with our guest of honour, Neil Kilgour (EM Race Director), on the technicalities of race course design.

Saturday took in final kit preparation and a move from West Linton down to my race base camp on the prom at Joppa (aka my mothers house). This has been a bit of a tradition and I always love being beside the sea though I have to say that things always look very wild on the beach at 6 in the morning on race day.

The day itself started with AYE Club pre-race photo-shoot. Some bright spark had the idea of doing it on top of Calton Hill – it was so dreich that it could have been anywhere but great to see a number of folk able to make it for the photographer.

And so to the race itself. Well firstly, the Met Office forecast I looked at showed heavy rain for most of the day. Okay, so it was a wet start but by the time the race started, the rain had stopped. There was a fresh breeze all the way, no rain and even a fair amount of sun – near perfect. And as for my run, well it’s taken me a fair few years to realise that ones chances of success climb dramatically the more one gets to know oneself. In other words, if you are naturally not fast and have done little training, run slow and steady and you will get there – eventually! Most years, I feel as if I have done about two thirds of the training I should have done. This year was definitely down to a third. Still, I did make it to the finish line, stress free and delighted to be wearing my Penicuik Harriers shirt. I also met Susie M, not once but twice en route – fantastic support – how lucky am I? Marathon number 15 in the bag !

Congratulations to all the fellow EM runners from various running groups – the AYE Club, Penicuik Harriers and West Linton.

Finally, all this means that not only am I still in the AYE Club but I am now President of the Club – hurrah! Results are still provisional but we were 32 in number last year and it looks like we may only be two down.

The future? Just about to enter next years EM but just as importantly, the training will now move up a gear or two and onto the hills – looking forward to a calendar with ultras in it again in 2015 !

We would like to say a huge thank you to the runners of our Penicuik 10k who helped us raise £237.92 for the Marie Curie Hospice in Fairmilehead, Edinburgh. We have recieved a lovely thank you from then for using our ‘Run & Cakes’ to support their very good cause.

There was a good turnout of Harriers at the recent Gypsy Glen Hill Race in Peebles, it was the first time I had done this race but really enjoyed it.  We started at Victoria Park, a quick loop of the park, along some roads, that all looked vaguely familiar – I am sure I have walked this way before!  Then we headed into Gypsy Glen and up the hill to the drovers path.  The route took us through a closed gate which I was unable to open (dope!)  I was panicking a bit as I was already really far back and was getting further the longer I faffed with the gate, so clambered over the gate and kept running.  I could still see Rachel’s ponytail bobbing up ahead in front of me so put a bit of a push on to try and reduce the distance between us and nearly got wiped out by 3 mountain bikers coming down the hill at breakneck speed.  A bit further up and another gate, thankfully this time propped open and the lead runners were heading back down the hill all thundering feet and flailing arms.  An encouraging shout and wave from Stuart and Mike as they passed me.  I am sure the view at the top was stunning, but I was too busy trying to close the gap that had stretched out between me and Rachel and her mum.  Sarah had come to the top with her dog to cheer us on – always nice to see a smiling face where it is not expected and then it was the downhill push, managed to work the catch on the gate on this time and kept running, legs were a bit wobby as we hit the tarmac and small inclines at the end but then back into the park and the finish where the rest of the Harriers were patiently waiting. A few spot prizes including locally brewed beer was on offer, but I missed out – next time!

Results as follows:-

59 runners

11^th Stuart Sanderson – 36.24

14^th Mike Brooks – 38.13

21^st Rob Wilson – 40.53

26^th Alan Thornburrow – 42.29

30^th Gillian Cairns – 43.28

39^th Mark Dawson – 46.06

44^th Rachel Campbell  – 46.44

45^th Chris Downie – 47.16

47^th Sadie Kemp – 47.59

55^th Rachel McGavin –  56.00

57^th Gilly Marshall – 57.19

58^th Kirsty Loudon –  65.54

Thanks to all who took part in today’s 10k Road Race – seems like another successful year. Well done to everyone – runners, marshals, supporters and everybody who gave up their time to make it happen. We can only apologise for the slightly damp weather – there’s only so much organising we can do!

Results for the 2014 race can be found here

Category winners can be found here

Update: Results have been scrutinised and an issue with a inadvertent ‘rogue’ runner who finished without a number has now been resolved – unfortunately if your time was > 43m 19s you previously had the time of the person in front. This has now been fixed.

Update: We’ve put some photos online and some video of the race is now online too (or see embedded version below).

Update: As usual, some fantastic photos now online from Bob Marshall – thanks again Bob!

See you all next year for what must surely be a drier event…

Susie, Race Organiser

2014 Race Start and Finish:

2014 Race Prize Giving:

Having spent last weekend in the Lakes as one of 100 runners shortlisted to join Berghaus and TORQ’S trail running team I was feeling rather optimistic about my abilities again after a long period of funk following a spell of injuries.

I had the pleasure of running down Helvellyn with Steve Birkinshaw that day who is about to embark on running all 214 Lakeland Wainwrights in under 10 days. A great down to earth guy juggling work, family etc too.

It was that false sense of security that helped get me to the start line at Stuc ‘a Chroin on Saturday. Myself and fellow Harrier Alasdair Hind enjoyed the journey up, got registered and waited for the off.

I kept reminding myself of the last couple of race reports from Rob and Duncan and praying it wasn’t quite that tough. Fool, there were 100% spot on!

In no time at all I found myself on the muddy descent into Glen Ample and, just like Rob and Duncan, knew I would be returning that way. Then came the massive slog up. This was more of a scramble for an inexperienced hill runner like me (Carnethy being my first one in Feb) and I don’t mind saying it scared the unmentionables out of me a couple of times as it was that steep.

Things improved once I hit the summit of Beinn Each, my first Corbett. Enjoying it a bit more now it was long walk / run from there across a ridge to Stuc. I was now firmly at the back of the pack but not really fussy about that.

Chuffed to have bagged my first Munro I started the descent and got chatting to a nice chap from Helm Hill Runners about classic Lakeland Races and generally keeping moving forward.

We motivated each other to keep at it all the way down. After a very long hard slog up I was really enjoying the descent but had found eating and drinking hard on the way up as I needed my wits about me. I felt the effects of that later on as we plunged back into Glen Ample.

Now there was just nothing left in me to climb back out but there wasn’t a plan B so head down and counted to 100 repeatedly to occupy my mind from screaming chuck it in. Thank you Paula Radcliffe 😉

More of the same continued along with horrible cramp which I’ve not really had much of before.

Fast forward and I ended up crossing the line in about 4:15 putting me in the very last dribs and drabs of finishers. Ach well, a good day out, some firsts achieved and I earned my tee shirt. Alasdair fared better around 45 mins before me, good on you!

A couple of reflections, train more, eat and drink more! Due to work and family I have only been getting out once a week for an hour or so which is not enough. Its been months since I put in a 4hr plus shift. I would also definitely have taken more food and drink on had I known how I would feel later. Should know better but sometimes you forget the hard way.

Its taken me a couple of days to answer a question from a marshall on the summit of Stuc…would I do it again? Yes, but with the respect it deserves!

Worth a wee note to say the organisation and support was brilliant. Route flagged all the way and you really could not go wrong. There were marshalls all the way and a ready supply of jelly babies and water. Big thanks to the Strathyre community for that and two helpings of much needed soup at the finish!

Thank you so much Penicuik Harriers for our places in the London Marathon – we all LOVED it!!!
The whole experience was incredible with unbelievable support from the crowds and because we all had our names on our charity vests we got lots of personal shouts. We have raised thousands for charity and had a great time too, we’re all so pleased that our training has paid off. My Garmin recorded my route as 26.9miles, Carl was right, there was no chance of sticking to any blue line! Susie

Mark : 02:56:51  1008th place

Susie : 4:05:49 13065^th place

Sarah : 04:12:28  14596th place

Helen : 04:44:18  22188th place

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Carl Proctor was due to have his last training session with Penicuik Harriers on Tuesday but didn’t turn up, however some crazy guy in a pink George the Hippo costume did !!!!

We will miss his neverending enthusiasm and wonderful support and encouragement at sessins and races.  Also thanks for helping some of us with our navigatoon skills ????

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My first marathon and a very enjoyable one to do. We registered and collected our T-shirts prior to the quick safety talk in the hall at the Nevis-center. The race started at the shinty club and made its way out through the houses and on to the A830 in the shadow of Ben Nevis. Unfortunately the mountain was mostly obscured by cloud although some snow was still visible. The route continued along this road in an out and back route along the side of loch Eil. There was nice little groups of support and plenty of water stations with water and lucozade sport. The mile markers were also useful for me as I had left my gps watch at home (duh!). The nice thing about the out and back route was seeing the faster runners making their way back and seeing some familiar faces spurred me on. The weather was pretty awful and it rained most of the time we were running but this kept us nice and cool. Back at the center there was a much needed hot shower available and tea and rolls. So the times:
Tracy Philp : 3:48:48 (149)
Sadie Kemp : 3:37:55 (112)

Out of 328 runners and 8 DNFs!