Mike Lynch’s review – Kit Review_MoreMileCheviot2
Archives for February 2014
Wintervals
A large turnout, on a still, cool night: perfect for a trip to Whinny hill. We opted for a speed session, doing 4x90s, 4x60s, 4x30s, jogging back down for recovery. Only 12 minutes effort, but it felt like forever. Thankfully everyone managed to avoid the rabbit hole in the middle of the path, though the recent rain made for some comical slips on the way back down.
Iain Whiteside
Wed Training
map
3 very diverse runs!
Slow run
With Andy Lennie unable to make the slow run there was some chopping and changing of run leaders. At one point 3 of us were going to lead it but when I turned up at 7.25 the only person waiting was Helen. Where were you all?! Did the forecast put you off? It was lovely out! Still and clear, we had a very pleasant run around the Hermitage and Blackford Hill, stopping occasionally for a ritual roundup and headcount.
Digby
Social group
The fast runners decided to do the 7 Hills route without Arthur’s Seat so there was one hill left for us. Willie led a new variation of a Craigmillar Arthur’s Seat loop adding a new section of woods to bring us past the ERI. WIth the combination of wet rock and greasy mud there were a few more fallers than usual, but still a great run completed with Pollock Halls turnstile confirming we are all slim enough to stay with the group.
Michael
Fast group
14.75 miles. 2hrs 15mins.
The weather has looking wet, so decided on a lower level route to avoid the muddy tracks – The Seven Hills route but missing out Arthurs Seat. As it turned out the weather was fine, underfoot any tracks were wetter than a garden in Somerset, with the path round St Leonards challenging in trail shoes.
5 started, but we lost Andrew Normand at Haymarket (hope he got back ok), the remaining 4 took the fast route to Corstorphine Hill, past Roseburn and up Murrayfield Road. Its interesting to find so many route variations on the 7 hills route. The climb up to Craiglockart really was a “climb”.
Back at KB we had just enough time to get a pint of Stewarts before the bar closed.
Graham
Monday Arthur’s Seat Handicap
Some unseasonal dry weather encouraged a large turnout, including five newbies.
Welcome to Alistair, Bill, Mike A, Dessie and Andrew (as first timers, you will get an actual handicap for the next race).
A PB from Neil clinched the race for him. But beaten handicaps also for Eddie, Cameron, Chris, Digby and Mike R.
Runner | Actual Feb |
Fin Time |
Time Order |
Fin Order |
Neil McL | 00:39:10 | 12:57:38 | 14 | 1 |
Eddie | 00:34:25 | 12:58:03 | 9 | 2 |
Cameron M | 00:30:00 | 12:58:07 | 5 | 3 |
Chris Hill | 00:35:02 | 12:58:20 | 10 | 4 |
Digby | 00:38:51 | 12:59:23 | 13 | 5 |
Mike R | 00:26:43 | 12:59:28 | 2 | 6 |
Andrew N | 00:26:06 | 13:00:00 | 1 | 7 |
Dessie | 00:31:14 | 13:00:00 | 6 | 7 |
Mike A | 00:32:36 | 13:00:00 | 8 | 7 |
Bill K | 00:45:40 | 13:00:00 | 15 | 7 |
Alistair McG | 00:51:56 | 13:00:00 | 16 | 7 |
Gordon C | 00:37:20 | 13:00:18 | 11 | 12 |
Stewart W | 00:27:00 | 13:00:40 | 3 | 13 |
Colin Doig | 00:32:05 | 13:01:19 | 7 | 14 |
Paul F | 00:28:53 | 13:02:42 | 4 | 15 |
Matteo | 00:37:25 | 13:03:03 | 12 | 16 |
Next handicap will be March 3rd
Mike Lamont
The John Muir Winter Carnival, Trail Race – Foxlake
The trail race at Foxlake formed part of the John Muir Winter Carnival, as was again organised by the Tri Trail outlet. The day of events kicked off with the trail race, and a host of other events followed including cyclocross, open water swimming and wakeboarding.
For the trail race, the route was exactly the same as that run on 12th January with racer numbers up from 93 to 144. The main difference was the condition of the route – although it was a fine morning the legacy of several wet days had left it very muddy and this told in several falls within the first couple of miles (shoe selection was a problem for some).
A headwind in the first half made for tricky sections too, but the the second half of the route was much firmer and the wind didn’t come into play.
In the end, Prasad Prasad (Squadra Porcini) won again with a time of 50:18, almost 2 minutes slower than his winning time of 12th January, with Elke Prasad (Squadra Porcini) first female in a time of 58:16, nearly 3 minutes slower than before. Overall, the times for the leading runners that completed both races were slower in Race 2. I managed to limit my losses to 35 seconds to come in 17th (for the second race in succession) in 1:00:28 and Colin Ledlie raced for the first time in 1:16:49 for 94th place.
Results for Race 2 are here. Overall series results to date are here. Race pictures here
Mike Lynch
Angela takes Masters title at Hawick – Sat 1st Feb
Angela Mudge became Scottish Over 40 Cross-Country Champion at Hawick on Saturday with an easy win of well over a minute – in what were horrible conditions. This is the 3rd time she has taken this title, though missed out last year. Joanne Anderson was43rd. Harry Gilmore ran in the men’s race. Report and Results
Fife Coastal Path Jaunt
A text from Graham Nash had five of us arrive a Lower Largo in Fife at 0900 today for a jaunt around the Fife Coastal Path to St Andrews as the hill forecast was pretty poor and there looked like a weather window over East Fife, even if a bit windy. The sun shone to start and after a few miles and a muddy farm track heading inland and through a load of cows, we realised that we weren’t actually on the coastal path at all. We diverted south and hit a lovely windy path along the edge of the beach on Largo Bay in the sunshine. We ran on the beach, again missing the path diversion and were confronted by the Cocklemill Burn. Graham Nash and Jim Hardie figured they could keep dry feet if they ran far enough down the beach while Mark Hartree, Craig Mattocks and Kate Jenkins and dog Jess figured we would have wet feet at some point, so it might as well be now, and waded the burn to cross Ruddons Point to get to shell bay. At Earlsferry, Kate and Jess decided to return to the car and drive to St A’s and run back along the path to meet the four who continued on via the lovely Fife coastal villages of Elie, ST Monans, Pittenween, Anstruther and on to Crail. The sign of people buying up holiday homes and not living in them was clear as most of the towns were empty.
Refreshment was taken for 20 mins in a nice wee Crail pub at 18 miles before the second half tf the route ot turn Fife Ness and on NW towards St Andrews with the wind now behind us. The odd spot of rain fell, the path wandered up and down the cliffs and along beach edges, and here and there timing of waves was needed to get past the to bits (nearly) impassable at the high tide and sometimes strewn with rocks and flotsum from the recent storms. Jim followed instructions to wade into waist deep foam, and Craig mis-timed the waves at the bottom of one of the cliff pass making for some entertainment to me and Graham. We waited for Jim with the video camera ready till we noticed that he had headed up and over to avoid a soaking, damn. The route then basically fringes golf courses for miles but by Kingsbarns, Jim’s bodily functions dictated a bus to St A’s leaving Mark, Craig and Graham to finish the 8 miles to the finish. We soon met Kate and Jess and continued together along a nice section with an old sea wall with spouting waves past Boarhills and the final stretch on tired legs. The rain was on and off and the path now got really muddy in places particulary from Buddo Ness to Kinkell Braes just to take a bit more out of us. But, St A’s was now in sight and in the bag and we hit East Sands with waves crashing against the sea wall, past the old Cathedral Ruin and into town. Jim had found the Central Bar so we me there and had a wee refreshment. Thankfully, Kate and Craig taxied us back to Lower Largo in 30 mins saving an 1hr 20min bus ride. 32.5 miles done in 6hr 50mins.
Mark Hartree