Musselburgh 67 Mile Road Race

SUN 18 FEB
Yes, after only 67 min of Carnethy on Sat I felt the need for a bit more of a leg stretcher so entered the 67 mile Musselburgh Road Race. A cracking sunny cool day dawned over in East Lothian as about 200 of us set off handicap style, slowest first, fastest last. I tucked in behind a nice fast group through the rolling country roads and picturesque villages and hung on to them for the first hour before the long drag up to Redstone Rig (433m), and the rigours of Carnethy, took its toll and our pack split up over the desolate moorland climb. From the top I enjoyed a roller coaster descent even managing to exceed 5 minute miling. I was on my own now but still had some bodies ahead to focus on and reeled a few in on the descent to Nunraw Abbey, before hammering along through Garvald, Stenton and Pitcox to a refreshment stop at Dunbar. Fuelled by a cheese roll and some juice I took a 10 min time out before heading off for the 20 odd miles that remained, determined to try and get under the 4 and a half hour mark. After a few miles I caught a couple of others and then a few caught me and I tried to hang on to them for a while but failed. Fortunately the last 15 miles or so are mainly downhill and I picked up the pace a bit as I cruised past Traprain Law and down into Haddington for a quick pit-stop. I hooked up with a few Edinburgh guys and trailed them up the climb out of town, enjoying a cracking descent soon after. I started trying to push it a bit at the bottom on the drag along to Longniddry with one of them tucking in behind me. When we hit the seafront road for the final 10K I managed to drop him and wound it up a bit with the benefit of a nice tail wind through Cockenzie and Prestonpans. With a few miles to go a couple caught me at speed and I managed to hang on to them and hit the finish line in Musselburgh in 4h 25 mins for 67 miles and 4000 ft, not bad eh? Oh, did I mention that it was a cycle race?!

Carnethy Hill Race

SAT 17 FEB
There was a great turnout of 24 Westies for the classic gem of a race that is the Carnethy 5 Hill Race, and a record field of 484 finishers. The weather was kind to us and more akin to a spring day than mid-February. Almost 500 runners took part and they were led home by Rob Jebb in 47m 59s with Angela Mudge 1st female in 56m 09s. Border Westie Damon was first yellow W home making the top 20. As for me, in my 18th race I ran my slowest yet, but felt just as hard as all the rest. The usual sprint across the marsh had me gasping for breath, but the queue at the gap in the wall at least gave a welcome rest before the heathery trudge up to Scald Law. Fighting the urge to try and get past people by coming off the trod and into the heather I contented myself by the thought that it would do no harm to have a steady 1st climb and then see if there was scope later in the race for pushing the pace a bit. There were plenty of Westies vest around me at this point, with Tom, Graham, Val and Rob all close by. Off Scald Law and round to the Kips I managed to start picking off a few bodies and just nicked ahead of Val at the turn on West Kip. The descent off here wasn’t too slippy and I picked off a few on the descent before settling into a steady pace along to the Howe, hoping to conserve some energy for the long climb up to Carnethy. I had spied Rob, Garry and Shona not too far ahead and wondered if I might be able to haul them in. Shedding my thermal for the Westies vest I took some energy drink down me before settling into a steady rhythm. The slog up proved as hard as ever but I managed to pass Garry half way up and by the top was not too far behind Rob. In the horrible deep heather I managed to sneak past him and had Shona just ahead. I got just behind her at the bottom but flagged a bit across the marsh and had resigned myself to taking a beating, when a few yards before the line on the slight uphill Shona flagged ever so slightly and I decided to ungraciously sprint past her on the line – sorry Shona!

Westies finishers -

19- 55:02 Damon Rodwell
22 - 55:49 Manuel Gorman
24 -56:04 Nigel Scott
26 -56:26 Chris Upson
111 - 64:18 Steffen Gorgas
140 -66:47 John Donnelly
141 -66:48 Shona Robertson
149 -67:04 Rob McQuater
165 -68:01 Murdo Macleod
169 -68:09 Val Houston
170 -68:10 Graham Kelly
176 -68:38 Gary Tompsett
189 -69:17 Tom Bertulis
194 -69:25 Hamilton Semple
208 -70:32 Brian Brennan
258 -73:40 Keith Adams
274 -74:50 Jane Robertson
330 -79:19 Katherine Kirk
335 -79:41 Jason Kaushal
342 -79:52 Elspeth Scott
409 -87:07 Pauline McAdam
444 -93:33 Drew Turnbull
451 -94:24 Patricia Mclaughlin
474 -109:27 Graham Benny

Westies Ochils Run

What better way to spend a Sunday?! 3 hours of trail running through forests from Alva to Tillicoultry, up Tilli Glen with waterfalls and views of the quarry, a steady plod up the "descent" of the Maddy Moss race route, starting off muddy and slushy and ending up a slog through knee deep fresh snow to reach the summit of Ben Cleuch. From there it was downhill (apart from Ben Ever) round the side of The Nebit and back to Alva. We then enjoyed tea, toasties, soup and scones in the warmth of the Mill Trail Visitor Centre tea shop. Thanks to Chris, Ellen, David R, Cat, Hamilton, Val H, Rob, Jason and Jane for a great day out. Photos on Chris' blog here

National Cross Country, Falkirk

Twenty years after my first ever "National" at Falkirk as a nine year old, I returned, having only missed two in between (one by being in New Zealand in 2004 and one due to injury last year). Despite the passage of all those years, I still sort of "enjoyed" my energetic plod round 3 laps of Callendar Park - nice firm tracks, muddy corners, a few wee hills. With my usual even pacing I managed to take Hamilton at the start of the last lap and edged past Rob with a quarter of a mile to go. Fighting off the urge to heave my guts up due to the effort I was putting in at that point I managed to stay ahead and had a sprint finish down the home straight to come home in 52min 51sec and 282nd 0f 413 runners, only a mere 14mins behind the winner! My heartrate monitor showed that I was working at an average of 90% max during the race, 735 calories and 90 metres of ascent. Chris had a great race to lead home Westies in 88th place, 8 mins ahead of me, followed by Brian Bonnyman, me, Rob, Hamilton, Jason, Graeme and Drew. Results here