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?!
No comments:
Post a Comment