Mark persuaded me to run this race, spurred on by a notification in September from Trail Outlaws that there were only 30 places left for the full marathon, and that the half marathon (running the next day) had sold out. Mark had really enjoyed his run in 2017 – very cold, but with clear skies and good views over the Cheviots. It seemed like a great way to finish off an epic year of racing, so I signed up and booked a bed in the Youth Hostel (also the start and finish line and general HQ of the race) for the Friday night.

Looking through the entry list, I spied some well-known names from the Scottish ultra-running community. So it was that I found myself in the Tankerville Arms on the Friday night, a cosy 17^th century coaching inn on the outskirts of Wooler town centre, supping Guinness with the likes of Daniel Kershaw, Jeni Rees-Jenkins, Sharon Hassan and Karen McInderwar. They are all runners I admire, and it was the first time I got to really talk to any of them, which was lovely. Turns out I was also room buddies with Karen, Jeni and Sharon that night, so we all walked home together and got our kits ready for the next day.

During the Friday evening, an email was sent out by Tim and Garry, RDs of Trail Outlaws, to say that due to the poor weather the conditions on The Cheviot were too treacherous to allow the marathon route to go ahead. It had been snowing earlier in the week on the hills, and pouring with rain for two days previous. Instead of cancelling, however, we were to run two laps of the lower-level half marathon route – same distance and elevation overall. I was not keen on the idea of running laps, but glad it hadn’t been cancelled. I hadn’t even looked at the half route and only had a print out of the full course in my kit, but was reassured that it was well flagged and that there would be enough runners and marshals around not to get lost. There was much muttering on social media about it, but as we tackled the half course the next day, it became apparent it was the right decision to make!

The next morning, after a very poor night’s sleep on a hard hostel mattress full of anxiety dreams about getting lost/missing the start/etc we gathered on the road up from the YH for the start. I’d met up with Tracy just before we set off, the only other harrier there, and on her fourth consecutive Wooler marathon. After a delayed start due to registration taking longer than usual (the race has grown from around 150 runners in the first year to over 300 this year) we were off.

It was already pretty damp and drizzly when we set off, and as soon as we turned off the road on to the St Cuthberts Way, it became apparent that this was going to be a tough gig. The trail was very muddy heading into the woods, and coming out onto the common it was also very waterlogged. I was wearing waterproof socks, but they were only ankle high. After only a few miles, I stepped into a large icy puddle that went up to my shins, filling my socks with water. Still, I had Injinjis on inside the waterproof ones, so even though they were wet my feet stayed relatively warm for the duration. I did start to worry about trench foot though…

Some very swift ladies passed me early on, and I couldn’t envisage catching them, so settled into survival mode. I focussed on staying upright and tried not to think too much about placing in this race, despite a great year of racing with podium finishes in most. It took me miles to settle into a rhythm, not helped by crowding in the early stages on narrow trails flanked by gorse and heather either side. There were also a lot of gates, styles and slippery bridges to negotiate. This was not going to be over quickly! I had a target of 6 hours in mind, but that was for the full route. I was hoping the low level route might buy me some time, so readjusted my goal to 5.5 hours and told myself that it really didn’t matter and finishing would be a satisfactory result in these conditions.

The rain was pelting down once we reached the turn off from the original route onto the half marathon course, which cuts across the moor to re-join the full route at Yeavering. The trail was very wet underfoot and I was already soaked through. Every time I squeezed my hands, water poured out of my gloves. A lad in front of me was filming with a Go-Pro, but probably should have been concentrating on the trail as he ended up thigh deep in a bog! He managed to drag himself out, Go-Pro intact, by the time I reached him.

I reached Yeavering CP after a satisfactory bit of downhill running, the first time I felt I’d actually run in miles, and quickly turned around and headed back out. I didn’t need my water re-filling so just grabbed a handful of cola bottles and headed back up the hill. What was a nice bit of downhill running was a total slog coming back out. The route has about two miles of out-and-back to Yeavering CP so I tried to spot as many runners I knew as possible and give them a wave, until the trail turns off along the St Cuthberts Way at the top of the hill. This was when things really got bad! The route was almost completely underwater, pretty much until we reached Wooler Common 4 miles on. I was not enjoying myself, particularly when thinking about having to tackle this section again in a couple of hours. I tried really hard to push all the negatives out of my mind, but it was tough. In the end, dreaming about taking off my wet socks, having a bath and eating some hot food was what kept me going. To illustrate the challenge, see the photo below taken by Daniel. The fact that the runner has decided to take the style despite the gate being open tells you how unpleasant the trail was!

I eventually hit Wooler Common and saw Michael, who was out with his camera and Stella in the rain. Soon after that I saw the red druid guy – a regular feature at Trail Outlaw races – and knew end of the first lap was near. A quick look at my watch at the CP revealed 12.5 miles had passed, so not quite a full lap of the ‘half’, which is usually 14 miles. Still, it had taken me 2:17 so was pleased that it looked like I’d be home and dry well under target. At least the pack had thinned out a bit too, so I was a bit more relaxed heading out into the second lap, fuelled by some Tizer from the CP and my trusty Kendal mint cake.

I’m not going to lie, the second lap wasn’t fun. It went by in a bit of a blur, and I got a bit of extra déjà vu when I passed Jeni at the exact same spot we did near Yeavering CP the first time round! The trails were even wetter and muddier now, having been churned up by 300+ runners and soaked by the constant rain. But I dug in and gave it my best. I had no idea where I was in the race, but not many ladies had passed me on the out and back so hoped I’d be somewhere within the top ten, and maybe in with a shot of a veteran prize. After swearing and stumbling my way through the waterlogged SCW section again, it was down into Wooler and a dash along the road to re-join the trail into the YH. I clocked 25 miles in 4:52:23. Not quite the 28 miles we’d been promised, but a tough day out in any case. I collected my medal and headed into the HQ for a cup of hot, sugary tea. The prize giving was just starting, and I’d just taken a few sips of tea when I heard Tim call my name. 1^st F40 prize after all! A lovely surprise after what was a very challenging race.

I dashed off not too long after the race, so didn’t manage to catch Tracy at the finish, but she reassures me that this was her toughest Wooler yet. I’m glad it wasn’t just me! I’d love to come back next year and make it over the Cheviot. Fingers crossed for better weather.

Results:

Jan Dawson, 54^th, 04:52:23 (5^th female, 1^st F40)
Tracy Philp, 128^th, 05:50:07

Full results here: https://www.trailoutlaws.com/wooler-results-2019.php

This was one of my first hill races from back in 2013, so I was looking forward to doing it again six years on. We met up at the Penicuik Centre at 12:00 to see how many cars we’d need. Since there was just five of us it was fine to all go in Sadie’s car and the drive only took about half an hour. There were some new arrangements for parking this year, so once we had sorted that out there was about a ten minute walk to the hill from registration, where there was a kit check.

The race starts at 2:00, so we had plenty of time. It was very muddy but my inov-8s were fine for it, it was my legs that felt like they didn’t have much in them as I tried to keep some momentum up the hill. The forecast was for quite bad rain, so we were very pleased that it held off till after the race. There’s quite a few false summits, but I knew it was a four mile race so wasn’t taken in by any of them. There was good visibility for most of the way but got quite misty at the top. As the fast runners started careering back down the hill, it’s important to keep a good eye on them as I clambered on the way up, to avoid any collisions at full speed as they come down. At one point a guy slipped in heavy mud after leaping down above me and only just managed to correct himself as he veered out of control towards me just to the side of a lot of rocks. With a sigh of relief I headed onward and was quite aware I was not going very fast and would not be getting a PB on this run.

There’s a big trig point at the top which you run around the back of, just a bit below the top. There was some fantastic views on the way down, but could only glance up for a second to avoid tripping on the rocks. It’s an easy craggy path all the way up, so no chance of taking a wrong turning. It was very muddy towards the bottom section of the hill and we splashed on towards the end.

We headed from the finish to where registration was and got a free cup of very nice soup which warmed me up before going up to see Des get his prize for first over 50 runner.

A great race which I’d highly recommend to anybody of all levels of hill running.

Des Crowe: 00:36:56
Adam Gray: 00:40:11
Sadie Kemp: 00:53:04
Mark Dawson: 01:00:28
Gilly Marshall: 01:01:53

2 relay teams and 8 solo runners took on this year’s Jedburgh 3 Peaks ultra and relay. Conditions were brilliant weather-wise, if a little muddy underfoot!

As ever, the race was full of well-kent faces, both runners and marshals alike. We set off after a YMCA warm-up, with all relay teams in compulsory fancy dress, and there was the usual detour over the children’s play park at Bowden. This was perhaps inadvisable in the conditions though and poor Susie took a tumble on the wooden bridge! But like a true harrier, she pushed on to finish with a smile on her face.

The relay runners did us proud, with the men’s team fighting hard for 2^nd place over all. They looked very pretty too! The Peni-pandas, cosy in their hand-knittted panda hats, claimed 4^th combined team. Penicuik always do well in the relay and 2019 was no exception. Well done all!

I just love this race. It’s a blast from start to finish. Make no mistake though, it’s a tough course with a lot of tree roots, boardwalks, steps, mud and rocks to negotiate, plus the small matter of the three Eildons 17 miles in! I felt really good this year though and gave it everything I had to get as close to my target of 6.5 hours as possible. Less time faffing about at checkpoints also helped! Except CP3, I had a wee go on the swing there. It would’ve been rude not to!

Results:

Peni-panthers: 04:52:27 (2^nd place and 2^nd male team)
Peni-pandas: 06:47:34 (10^th place and 4^th combined team)

Jan Dawson: 6:31:36 (3^rd female)
Sadie Kemp: 07:08:13
Yan Horsburgh: 07:22:33
Tim Doyle: 07:59:05
Tracy Philp: 07:59:06 (and 02:01:09 in the half marathon the next day!)
Gilly Marshall: 08:40:46
Susie Maxwell: 08:40:46
Chris Burns: 10:27:59

Ultra results here: http://www.kitst.co.uk/jedburgh-ultra-2019-runners.html
Relay results here: http://www.kitst.co.uk/jedburgh-ultra-2019-teams.html

Another super skyline. So much support from our wonderful club members. Rob Wilson summed it up perfectly:

Can I just say, on behalf of all who ran today, thanks for the amazing support. Epic…. especially as you were mostly in the first half when we were all nice and fresh.
Gillian Cairns (and Lewis) , Mark Snodgrass, Gilly Marshall, Kirsty, Jan Dawson, Julian Hall, Juliane Friedrich, Kate Crowe, Alan Dunbar, Rachel Drummond and of course the beautiful Andrea.
AND THE GUY WITH CAMERA….. Paw Man

Results:
30 Adam Gray M 3:02:32 125.5%
90 Rob Wilson M40 3:35:42 148.3%
175 Sadie Kemp F40 4:15:19 175.5%
228 Mark Dawson M50 4:46:26 196.9%
232 Tracy Philp F40 4:48:00 198.0%
233 Susie Maxwell F40 4:48:00 198.0%

Below are a selection of Michael Philp’s pictures:

I had been wanting to try this race as it looked a bit qwerky and different. The route was very scenic along by the Tweed then up into the hills behind Peebles. The second half was hillier than I expected and running through the tunnel with all the coloured lights on was fun.

Sadie Kemp 01:58:26
Tracy Philp 02:07:11

Although the weather looked threatening on the drive over we were blessed with clear skies and good visibility. The going under foot was rather boggy though. Julianne had to pull out through injury unfortunately. We all enjoyed some soup and sandwiches at the new race venue at the school post race. 🙂

45 Adam Gray M 3:37:26 128.7%
74 Duncan Ball M50 3:58:01 140.9%
76 Rob Wilson M40 3:59:26 141.7%
112 Yan Horsburgh M50 4:31:12 160.5%
131 Sadie Kemp F40 4:39:09 165.2%

Resipole is a good 4 hours drive (+ ferry) away from Penicuik and therefore is not a race that one would often consider. However, as I had fieldwork on Rannoch moor the day before I saw an opportunity to run a new race. It is always nice to lose one’s “race virginity”. For me it does not happen very often now, but there is an added excitement to a race when you have no idea what is coming around the next corner. I asked around if anyone else was interested in coming up and I was surprised when Andrea, Duncan, Kate and Des were game. We decided to make a weekend of it so booked a fixed birth caravan on the Ardnamurchan peninsula.

The Ben Resipole Hill Race is ~12 kms with a hefty 845m height gain.

Ben Resipole – full route. Due to weather we did not do the loop at the summit.

The SHR Ben Resipole website also includes a nice video of the race from 2017:

http://www.scottishhillracing.co.uk/RaceDetails.aspx?RaceID=RA-0328

To be honest, the video is a complete lie – it looks sooooo pleasant. In reality, this is one of the muddiest and more technical races I have ever run but it was a good crack.

So – last Saturday, we woke up around 7-8am (Race start 1pm) to the nice gentle shaking of the caravan. The gorgeous view of the previous day (see below) was now greyed out with heavy horizontal rain – explaining the rocking of the caravan. Luckily, we were completely offline because Twitter and FB were saying that the Ferry had been cancelled, and the race was in some degree of cancellation jeopardy. Meanwhile, Kate “zombied” into the living room looking like death and immediately returned to bed to nurse her migraine (we did admittedly drink perhaps too much while playing cards the night before). So – overall – perhaps not a good start to the day.

Long story short, we turned up to the race start at lunchtime (after completing a 500-piece jigsaw) with Kate feeling somewhat better and the weather much improved. The race had not been cancelled and the compromise was that the summit loop would not be run, and the race would simply go to the summit and back. Andrea – the “hip recovering Uber-Spectator” left about 20 minutes before the race started to get up on the hill to take some pictures.

Only 41 runners – a super relaxed atmosphere and initially fairly good weather although we could not see the peak which was clagged in. I wont go into a lot of detail, but the race started off pleasant enough, but after about 0.5 kms the route dived into the woodland beside the river with no real path – extremely technical with slimey rocks, vegetation and trees etc. It was initially a relief to come out of the wood onto the open hill side until we realised that the whole route was a huge mud pit until the steep technical slimy rocks of the last kilometre. It was a tough leg sapping climb. Des was battling with Angela Mudge with Duncan not too far behind. I could always see Duncan in the distance but lost him once we entered the mist.

Andrea seems to have been everywhere and despite her “not running”, was in fact often running up slope quicker than many of the runners.

Much of the race route was relatively sheltered from the strong southerly wind, but for the final kilometre once the route left the river valley, we were all exposed to the full onslaught of the wind (and now rain). It was all rather grim to be honest – thank god I put my contacts in. I was battling with two guys at the summit and on the turnaround, we sprinted off down through the slippy rocks and mud in a rather terrifying fashion. One of the guys soon fell back but all the way down to the final track I battled with a Lochaber runner – both of us not giving an inch – both of us clearly terrified about twisting an ankle but not wanting to give the other an advantage. It was fabulous fun and we both kept screaming at each other when we slipped or got bogged down but quickly got up to battle on. This is what racing is all about. I love it!

Alas – for the final kilometre the route joined a rocky track which my knees hated. My speed immediately slowed, and I quickly lost him. Meanwhile as I made my way down the track, I saw Des waving and shouting at me. To my embarrassment, I did not realise that Des had lost a shoe somewhere further up in the bogs. I had assumed he had already finished and had jogged back up to shout encouragement. So, I ran past gargling thanks for the support and focussed on the final half kilometre. It was only when Des crossed the finish line about 30 seconds after me (with odd shoes – a random person had given him a trainer to finish with) that I realised what had happened. In hindsight, I wish I had realised so we could have either 3-legged the final half kilometre together or, for more kudo creds, it would have been rather funny to have given him a piggy back. Next time.

I would just ike to add that we did make fun of Des at the state of his shoes before the race. He’s not a newb and should have known better. 😉

When conditions are so bad, it somehow makes the whole process much more satisfying when you finish. There was a buzz of “job well done” in the marquee at the end while we waited for the prizes. It was a lot of fun, but I am sure the organisers were happy and relieved that no one got lost or injured.

Final results:

Anglea Mudge – 7^th – 01:27:27 – 1^st lady

Duncan Ball – 8^th – 01:32:54 – 1^st V50 – taking full advantage of Des’ woes

Rob Wilson – 13^th – 01:35:33 – 2^nd V40

Des Crowe – 14^th – 01:36:08 – 2^nd V50

Kate Crowe – 32^nd – 02:13:57 – 1^st FV50

Kenny Cairns – 34^th – 02:17:13

Andrea Wilson – did not race but still beat some of the slower runners – she’ll be back!!!

It was a hot day and the views were spectacular. The heat did make for difficult conditions and unfortunately Chris had his first ever DNF. He was there at the finish though and we all enjoyed a cooling Prosecco together. Stuart managed a dazzling time again, and I got a PB by 1 minute which pleased me alot. Thanks to Gillian for the action shots, it was great to have her and Scott there supporting us.

78 02:07:34 Sanderson Stuart
385 03:01:02 Kemp Sadie

Full results here: http://www.bennevisrace.co.uk/pdf/Ben_Nevis_Race_2019_Finishers.pdf