Three intrepid Harriers set off for the long drive to Royal Deeside for this picturesque race around the estate of Balmoral Castle. A 1pm start time meant an early rise was not necessary and Ngeme did the honours and picked me and Robin up at 9am.

This was the second time I have done this race, the first being in 2015. I have entered each year since but have unfortunately always been injured or ill when race weekend arrived. Pleased to make it to the start line this time, hoping to take a couple of minutes off my previous time of 2:01:20 and dip under two hours.

The first mile or so of the race is fairly flat along a road leading away from the castle then as the road peters out and turns to tractor track and then forest trail it gently climbs. After about three and a half miles we are sent down a track which loops around through the woods, steadily climbs back up then heads us back the way we came along the forest tracks. So far, so straightforward.

At 8 miles comes the first of the more challenging climbs, up a slightly steeper incline through nice woods which eventually open up onto a more exposed hilltop and barren terrain. The track circumnavigates the peak of Ripe Hill, but still climbs until about 10 miles in where a downhill section is welcome. However the respite is temporary as the tracks heads upwards once again.

From 11 and a half miles in the track levels out then begins a long descent back towards the Dee valley and the finish line. But there is a sting in the tail shortly after reentering the woods, we are sent up a steep, muddy trail which after half a mile evens out. Then it’s a really nice finish through the woods, down the other side of the hill, back to the road and a sprint for home.

Despite having one eye on the Fling the next weekend I ran pretty hard and didn’t walk any of the uphill sections. At about two miles to go I counted seven people within a couple of hundred meters in front. I set my sights to catch as many of them as I could. I managed to reel all but one in before the end, overtaking a few on the final descent. Just shows it pays to practice fast descents.

The scenery is really nice, most of the course is easily runnable and was pretty solid underfoot, despite some rain that day. The weather was perfect for a good run, cool with sunshine and showers and light winds.

Medal, t-shirt and bottle of water for all finishers. By the time we all finished and got changed we had missed the burger vans that smelled so good before the race, so had to stop for a chippy in Braemar on the way home.

I would thoroughly recommend the race, and the Hungry Highlander chippy. A great Harriers day out.

This event was added to our road grand prix calendar in place of Lasswade 10 mile which was cancelled this year. I have to say I think it was a great choice. Not too far away, just an hours drive. Loads of parking. Facilities in the watersports centre such as lockers (for a fiver deposit) and showers. The route was picturesque making circles around the loch in Strathclyde country park. It was reasonably flat with only a few small inclines making it a great PB course. There was also a 6k race that started with us so you had to beware of trying to keep up with those runners before the split. The first couple of miles I was running at just over 7 minute miles and was thinking ‘no way can I keep this up!”. Bottles of water, mars bars and caramel wafers at the finish hit the spot and we all got a nice medal. Stuweb did the electronic timings so we were able to get a printout of our times right away. A fab morning out helped by the lovely weather, we were all home in time to spend the afternoon eating easter eggs with our families. Happy days! 🙂

POS NAME CAT FINISH TIME
82 Ritchie Thomson M 75 SEN 52 01:01:30
144 Allan DUNBAR M 125 V40 31 01:07:00
157 Michael GREENS M 134 SEN 77 01:08:12
225 Sadie KEMP F 41 V35 26 01:14:58
236 Gordon Campbell M 193 SEN 94 01:16:39
264 Ian FORREST M 209 V60 10 01:18:48
335 Ngeme Ntuli M 247 V50 48 01:28:39

Full results: https://www.stuweb.co.uk/race/1Ny/
Race summary: https://www.tomscottroadraces.com
Map: https://www.tomscottroadraces.com/10-mile-maps

Thanks to the organisers for a very enjoyable and coordinated event and to Stuweb for accurate and timely results.

Realising I had a flat tyre in the morning wasn’t the best start to the day as I was meant to be driving us through for the race. Luckily Jan was able to take her car so we all piled in and headed off to St Margaret’s academy where registration was being held. There was plenty of parking at the stadium next door. When we entered the academy there were huddles of runners organising themselves. We found the registration table and queued for our declaration form. We filled in our names and these we tallied with numbers. Then we queued again for our numbers and timing chips. There was yellow numbers for the long legs and red numbers for the short legs. We each got a timing chip for our ankle and I had an extra one being the last leg. Once we were sorted we headed outside to watch the mens race start which was 10 minutes before ours. There was a lot of young fast folk and we were just hopeing not to be last. Dave came over to give us some last minute advice and then Lynne was off in the first rush of the ladies race. It was really fun to see the runners start to come in and do their changeovers. Although there was some waiting around the time went fast as there was so much going on and lots of other runners to chat to. We roughly estimated when each of us would come in so we had time for a warmup and were in position at the right time. The route was undulating and because Livingstone has so many underpasses we were able to cross under and over roads with ease and no waiting for traffic. Susie and Yan were out marshalling and gave us loads of encouragement as did the other marshals, the route was well marked with arrows and red and white tape. I couldn’t beleive it when I ran in and the comentator shouted ‘third vet team Penicuik Harriers’ it was very exciting and we were handed medals and had our pictures taken. Dave came rushing over to congratulate us and he looked so happy. It was a great day out, helped by the fact it was lovely and sunny. I hope next year we get more teams in as it was a fantastic experience.

Leg 1 00:25:37 Lynne Stevely
Leg 2 01:08:33 Jan Dawson
Leg 3 01:39:29 Romana Gorjanc
Leg 4 02:24:54 Sadie Kemp
Total 02:24:54

This race had been cancelled due to snow the previous week so we were all glad to get a chance to complete the series and do the final race. There was still a bit of snow on the ground but it was a lovely mild day. Conditions underfoot were extremely muddy in places. The route was changed slightly from previous years being 2 laps instead of a longer loop. Massive well done to all who made the long journey down and put in a great effort. Special congratulations to Gillian who won herself prize.

Juniors:
51 Lewis Cairns M10-11 18:49.0
59 Calum Hind M10-11 19:48.0
70 Duncan Hind M8-9 21:36.0
76 Glen Dawson M8-9 23:03.0

Full results: https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=129818

Seniors:
6 Billy Colvin M40+ 29:34.5
19 Michael Greens MS 33:13.6
27 Gillian Cairns F40+ 34:52.5
31 Alasdair Hind M40+ 36:20.6
50 Jan Dawson F40+ 38:50.9
59 Sadie Kemp F40+ 40:53.0
66 Chris Downie M50+ 41:40.0
72 Daniel Greens MS 44:41.2
91 Ngeme Ntuli M50+ 54:11.9

Full results: https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=129817

Series standings:
Juniors:

59 Lewis Cairns
65 Calum Hind
77 Duncan Hind
78 Glen Dawson

Full results: https://www.webscorer.com/seriesresult?seriesid=119217

Females

8 Gillian Cairns
20 Jan Dawson
26 Sadie Kemp
29 Juliane Friedrich
38 Tracy Philp
50 Gilly Marshall

Males

28 Billy Colvin
35 Michael Greens
52 Allan Dunbar
62 Alasdair Hind
79 William Dickson
89 Daniel Greens
92 Ian Forrest
92 Robin Hall
102 Charlie Crawford
114 Ngeme Ntuli
121 Andrew McDermott

Full results: https://www.webscorer.com/seriesresult?seriesid=117523

Allan, Andy and I made it to this year’s Eildons trail race, a lovely 10 miler starting with the hills and then lots of muddy trail. This is a great race for getting a little bit more mileage in after the short XC races over the winter. Conditions were good for running and there was slightly less mud than last year. Allan and I managed PBs by a small margin, despite going past the turn to the hills along with two thirds of the field, not so great when you’re nearer the front group of runners. This made the hills section slightly less enjoyable only because we were trying to pass folk who’d either turned back before us or actually gone the right way. We really should know the route by now!

As usual there was a great spread of food after the race, much needed after losing all of our body heat on the cool down back to the rugby club. Definitely one of my favourite races!

25th Allan Dunbar 01:35:04 (always catches me!!)

26th Gill Cairns 01:35:16 (2nd lady)

101st Andy Briggs 02:08:53

It was a new format this year with the 10K and 21K being held on the Saturday and the 42K being held on the Sunday, instead of the three races being held on the same day with staggered starts and I much preferred it without the speedy 21kers trying to get past you on the narrow mountain bike tracks.  We also had the best conditions of all the years I have run this, although it was very cold the sky was blue and the sun was shining.  The course does not get any easier with a seemingly never ending uphill followed by a leg shattering downhill before turning around and doing it all over again.  The course has been extremely muddy and wet in previous years but this year we got lovely hard packed ground with just a few icy and snowy patches on the exposed hill tops, and a new route over the top of the hill by the hut at the top by the mast instead of round the side of the hillside.

Thanks to Michael and Molly for your support at the end and getting us up that last hill!

Julian got first MV50

Results:

26 04:31:18 Julian Hall
91 05:13:14 Sadie Kemp
106 05:26:00 Gilly Marshall
118 05:35:39 Tracy Philp
142 06:03:13 Mark Dawson
146 06.08.01 Lori McCrae

There are some fab pictures on the Grand Day out website. https://www.granddayoutphotography.co.uk/high-terrain-events-glentress-42k

T

Harriers did themselves proud again at the borders series at Galashiels. Superb effort from young and not so young. 🙂 Great to see Yan out on the course cheering us on even if he did have a green hoodie on!

Race report and footage of the starts can be seen here: https://planetradio.co.uk/borders/local/news/watch-borders-cross-country-series-helps-get-name-5-doddie-foundation-running/

Juniors:

75 Lewis Cairns M10-11 10 14:53.6
92 Calum Hind M10-11 11 16:05.0
100 Duncan Hind M8-9 8 18:27.1
101 Glen Dawson M8-9 8 18:31.4

Seniors:

46 Michael Greens MS 26:58.8
56 Allan Dunbar M40+ 28:13.7
63 Gillian Cairns F40+ 28:55.6
74 Alasdair Hind M40+ 29:53.3
86 Ian Forrest M60+ 30:54.4
98 Robin Hall M40+ 31:46.5
99 Juliane Friedrich FS 31:50.5
107 Daniel Greens MS 32:40.7
108 Jan Dawson F40+ 32:44.4
119 Sadie Kemp F40+ 33:35.9
151 Andrew McDermott MS 38:06.3
169 Ngeme Ntuli M50+ 41:43.9

The weather was much better than had been forecast, we had a bit of sleet at the start of the race but this soon blew over and we even had patches of sunshine. It was the usual stampede to Scald Law and once on the uphill your position is somewhat set as there isn’t much room to overtake unless you want to expend a lot of energy jumping over the heather. Once at the summit it is possible to gain a few places as the track widens. Coming off South black hill was a slippery affair and care needed to be exercised in finding a firm foothold. Puffing my way up the Kips there was Billy taking pictures, he appeared again near the summit of Carnethy (how does he move so fast?!), it’s always nice to see a friendly face during a race. Coach Dave was also there doing his bit to help with the timing as we made our way up Carnethy. The descent was frantic as ever and I focused on not losing too many places here (too focused to spot Bill on the hillside!), again I got a bit stuck behind some other runners on a narrow track, once we hit the flat I was off and raced to the finish with all I had left in me. The hot tea being served in the tents was very welcome and after a bit of a blether we quickly dispersed. Congratulations to Robert on completing his 21st C5 and Chris on completing his 30th. The rest of us have a way to go to catch up!

79 258 01:03:55 Des Crowe M50 4
104 338 01:06:13 Michael Greens M 66
182 289 01:12:15 Allan Dunbar M40 45
183 344 01:12:16 Julian Hall M50 22
218 31 01:15:29 Gillian Cairns F40 25 9
226 361 01:16:14 Alasdair Hind M40 59
305 269 01:21:50 Craig Davenport M40 74
314 579 01:22:42 Robert Walker M50 55
323 286 01:23:41 Tim Doyle M50 56
366 343 01:27:26 Robin Hall M40 91
395 88 01:31:23 Sadie Kemp F40 82 27
419 339 01:35:00 Daniel Greens M 131
432 109 01:36:42 Gilly Marshall F40 102 30
436 30 01:37:32 Christopher Downie M50 74
483 220 01:49:07 Andy Briggs M 135

Full results: http://carnethy.com/2018/02/carnethy-5-2018-results/

Thanks to Billy Colvin for these great pics:

Another tremendous turnout for the Penicuik Harriers at the cross country on sunday. We were treated to mild weather and sunshine. It was great to see Bill and Sarah there marshalling and Rachael was there at the finish too. The race was enjoyed by all, although Allan was enjoying it so much he did a bit extra. Daniel fell and hurt his hand so that wasn’t so good and this slowed his time also. A few of us went into the Tweed afterwards to get the mud off.

Massive well done to our juniors:

Juniors
100 Calum Hind M10-11 11 Male 13:01.0
105 Glen Dawson M8-9 8 Male 13:42.8
106 Duncan Hind M8-9 8 Male 14:10.9

Full Results: https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=126552

Seniors:
29 Billy Colvin M40+ Male 29:10.2
45 Michael Greens MS Male 31:02.3
96 William Dickson M50+ Male 35:55.3
104 Robin Hall M40+ Male 36:35.8
108 Juliane Friedrich FS Female 37:10.3
113 Charlie Crawford MS Male 37:38.4
121 Sadie Kemp F40+ Female 38:10.9
122 Jan Dawson F40+ Female 38:12.5
136 Tracy Philp F40+ Female 39:39.1
137 Allan Dunbar M40+ Male 39:40.3
146 Gilly Marshall F40+ Female 40:26.7
157 Daniel Greens MS Male 42:53.7

Full Results: https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=126551

Allan’s extended route: https://www.relive.cc/view/1391281687

Many thanks to Aldo and Michael for taking pics and dishing out encouragement. The support of them and all the partners/families is so important to us runners.

Thanks to Alex Corbett for these action shots:

Des Drove Stuart and I (and Haggis) down to Kilmarnock via the M8, M74
and M77 on Saturday morning for the annual Scottish Athletics Masters
Cross Country Championships.

To get there, rather than use phone Sat Navs we old gudgies thought we
would use my more reliable ‘map’ sketched from the SA website instead.
All was going well until we miscounted the number of R turns and ended
up doing a detour through Kilmarnock (by then resorting to our phones).
Fortunately we were very early and still arrived over an hour before
the start.

The event was being held in the Dean Castle Country Park and the
Residential Centre had recently been done up and was very posh – but
about to be trashed by 400 muddy runners.

I had large misgivings about the race as I was only just starting to get
some fitness back after a series of colds. But I was ‘happy’ to make up
the numbers.

We changed leisurely in the Centre until Stu discovered that he had
forgotten his hill shoes! You just can’t trust these old guys.
Fortunately, a very generous chap lent him his spare shoes. Phew. Mind
you it would have been highly entertaining watching Stuart slide around
in the mud in his slippers – sorry, trainers.

We jogged to the start and were greeted with much enthusiasm and a big
grin from Dave – a very rare thing for Penicuik Harriers to field a
whole team in a Championship race. We jogged around part of the course
and watched the women and very very old geezers tackling the mud and a
substantial hill half way round. It looked a good course.

The start was the usual mad dash to get a good position but things settled
down and I found that I had started too near the front and runners started
to huff and puff past me. Boy was it muddy – give me a sandy beach any
day. There were some bits of grass left but even these were soggy with
little traction.

On the second lap I had found some sort of steady pace, but Des
and Stuart were quite a way in front and looked un-catchable. On the
third lap I recognised Yan who gave me his customary enthusiastic
greeting and encouragement. I overhauled him painfully but then got
overtaken by a very loud wheezing M60. Flip, I had to keep up with him.
It was not to be, he zoomed up the hill and disappeared from sight.

At last the final charge to the finish. That was hard and I didn’t enjoy
any of it – except when I stopped running!

We didn’t hang around too long and were soon back on the M77, remembering
to collect haggis who had been immaculately behaved. I did notice that he
refrained from lying on Stuart’s lap on the return trip – Stuart was
obviously too muddy and smelly.

Thanks to Des for driving and being keen and persuading us to enter,
Allan for the paperwork and Dave for the support. I might consider doing
it again next year but only if I was super-fit. Aim for an old geezers
team for the Devils Burden first.

Results:

Des 35:14 5th / 40 M55 (72/237 overall)
Stu 36:49 19th / 54 M50 (105/237 overall)
Dunc 37:17 11th / 40 M55 (114/237 overall)

M50 – 60 team 6th / 14

With injuries coming thick and fast, we still managed to get four teams together for DB although all teams needed someone to run two legs: Hats off – Michael Greens (L1 + L4), Alasdair Hind (L3 + L4), Sadie Kemp (L2 + L3 + a little bit more :-)) and Tracy Philp (L3 + L4).

The final teams were:

10.30 Late Start

Team 1: Peni-Panthers

L1: Michael Greens; L2: Des Crowe + Stuart Sanderson; L3: Duncan Ball + Rob Wilson; L4: Michael Greens

Team 2: Peni-Tense

L1: Kevin Anderson; L2: Julian Hall + Allan Dunbar; L3: Gillian Cairns + Alasdair Hind; L4: Alasdair Hind

9.30 Early Start

Team 3: Charlie’s Angels

L1: Lynne Stevely; L2: Sadie Kemp + Charlie Crawford; L3: Sadie Kemp + Romana Gorjanc; L4: Julie Hand

Team 4: Cuiken with Gas

L1: Melanie Dunbar; L2: Juliane Friedrich (bossiest) + Robin Hall; L3: Tracy Philp + Sarah Burthe; L4: Tracy Philp

Team results are already in (splits not yet up). From a record turn out of 151 teams, we came in at:

Go Harriers

Full results here:

http://www.fifeac.org/events/fife-ac-events/devils-burdens/1277-devil-s-burdens-2018.html

but at the time of writing/posting this, they are updating it, so I hope the results do not change and they are just adding the split times etc

I am pretty sure 18th is the best place we’ve ever had. Our time was even 2 seconds quicker than last which despite the extreme windy conditions of leg 2. The V50 first male team was 22nd, so we really need to find a couple of old codgers for next year.

FaceBook has gone nuts with photos which I will not post here, but rather than write a multi-author blog post, it might be best if people simple write their experiences below in the comments section. I’m pretty sure there was some experiences.

One particularly good one can be viewed here. 🙂

https://www.relive.cc/view/1377672457

Fabulous!!!

some select piccies from the day

A shortened route due to the snow.
My Strava made it 7.6miles 2,290ft ascent.
We started at the Corby Lynne car park (not the field). The route was the same as usual until you got to the 3 Brethren (2nd checkpoint). You then headed down to join the drove road which took you over onto foulshiels. Then it was down to the 3rd checkpoint at the woods (and boardwalk). You turned to join the usual track back up foulshiels and the 4th checkpoint. Route was as normal after that, along foulshiels to Tibbies and then left down to the reservoir, returning by the same track to the finish. The route was well marked with yellow flags and arrows. There were plenty of marshalls ensuring no-one took a wrong turn and mountain rescue were there as well. Hats off to them for standing around in blizzard conditions so we could run.

A really enjoyable run/hike/slide and I am so glad they shortened it and did not cancel. It was snowing during the race which made it a challenge to see where the path was. In parts the route was a channel in the snow which was knee deep in places. The track at the beginning and end was very icy so runners were cautious. We were all glad of the hot food back at the rugby club afterwards. Unfortunately Mike didn’t finish the race due to injury. Congratulations to Gillian Cairns on her 1st FV40 place!

Results:
Pos. Runner Category Time %Winner
37 Michael Greens M 01:24:00 121.10%
46 Rob Wilson M40 01:27:31 126.20%
49 Gregor Gorjanc M 01:28:27 127.50%
59 Allan Dunbar M40 01:30:46 130.90%
60 Gillian Cairns F40 01:30:50 131.00%
124 Daniel Greens M 01:44:53 151.20%
125 Sadie Kemp F40 01:45:24 152.00%
126 Gilly Marshall F40 01:45:42 152.40%

A super turnout from the Harriers for a rather far flung race. It was a mild winters day with a hint of sunshine. Mud and streams to run through make this a quintessential cross country. Strava made it 3.9miles with 443ft ascent, so a pretty challenging route. Extra Kudos to Gillian for coming second in her category.

Junior results: https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=124639
Senior results: https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=124637

Juniors:

Lewis Cairns M10-11 Male 15:11
Calum Hind M10-11 Male 15:12
Duncan Hind M8-9 Male 19:50
Glen Dawson M8-9 Male 19:51

Seniors:

Michael Greens MS 30:21.7
Gillian Cairns F40+ 31:10.3
Allan Dunbar M40+ 31:20.1
Alasdair Hind M40+ 33:50.4
William Dickson M50+ 35:01.6
Ian Forrest M60+ 35:18.1
Charlie Crawford MS 36:22.3
Jan Dawson F40+ 36:53.4
Juliane Friedrich FS 37:13.3
Tracy Philp F40+ 38:16.4
Sadie Kemp F40+ 38:32.3
Gilly Marshall F40+ 38:33.6
Romana Gorjanc F40+ 46:47.9

Thanks to Neil Turnbull and Sandra Vick for the action shots.

Distance 3.3 km
Climb 200 m

It was quite a cold day and threatening rain, it did drizzle a bit but not too badly. Of course the sun came out as soon as we had finished. Lovely soup and plenty of beer was on offer as always in the village hall. Gillian Cairns (First F), Jan Dawson and Stuart Sanderson along with Bills grandchildren all won beer. It was lovely to see Bill and David there. Thanks to Kate, Alan and Leo for the action pics.

Results:
http://www.scottishhillracing.co.uk/RaceResults.aspx?RaceID=RA-0012&Year=2018

Pos. Runner Category Time %Winner
14 Stuart Sanderson M50 00:20:09 128.50%
18 Michael Greens M 00:20:39 131.70%
19 Des Crowe M50 00:20:40 131.80%
24 Mike Brooks M50 00:21:48 139.00%
25 Rob Wilson M40 00:21:49 139.10%
30 Allan Dunbar M40 00:22:37 144.20%
31 Gillian Cairns F40 00:22:51 145.70%
40 Jan Dawson F40 00:25:15 161.00%
44 Ian Forrest M60 00:26:00 165.80%
49 Andrea Wilson F40 00:26:35 169.50%
54 Sadie Kemp F40 00:27:58 178.30%
56 Gilly Marshall F40 00:28:12 179.80%
58 Mark Dawson M50 00:29:00 184.90%
60 Chris Downie M50 00:29:08 185.80%

Video of start: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH3O0_443bg&app=desktop

We had all weathers for this race, snow, wind and sunshine. It felt very cold but as always the excitement of the cross country soon warmed our hearts and muscles.

Seniors:
Michael Greens MS 26:39.5
Allan Dunbar M40+ 27:54.6
Gillian Cairns F40+ 27:58.3
William Dickson M50+ 29:10.5
Robin Hall M40+ 30:28.4
Ian Forrest M60+ 30:37.3
Charlie Crawford MS 31:03.4
Daniel Greens MS 31:37.7
Sadie Kemp F40+ 32:50.7
Andrew McDermott MS 34:43.7
Ngeme Ntuli M50+ 36:41.0
Mike Pearson M70+ 46:24.6

Juniors:
Lewis Cairns M10-11 13:28.9

All results:
https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=122695
https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=122709

Thanks to Richie T and Sandy Wallace for the action shots.