Although the conditions were challenging, good times all round [not mine!! – Digby].
April Handicap will be on the 6th.
Mike Lamont
Archives for March 2015
Weary Willie’s Wild Wet Windy Run
With a three hour window of opportunity for a run this morning, and the weather forecast saying that it would be warm, I decided that an outing from Carlops would be fun.
A quick email late friday and a few text exchanges saw 6 of us heading off from Carlops at 9am.
The plan was a 14 mile clockwise circuit taking in East Cairn Hill , Hare Hill and the Kips. Climbing Mount Maw the weather was grey, and the pathless mossy, cattle divoted hill was hard work and as we reached the Trig the wind was getting up.
The track from here was good running and with the wind behind it was nice climbing Grain Heads, and then on to The Mount. Turning more sideways to the wind we dropped into Deer Hope and up the well named Wether Law. The Weather closed in and being blown sideways in heavy rain we crossed the Henshaw Burn watershed and found the shelter of the wall on the way towards East Cairn. Leaving the wall for the last 500 metres it was very wild and wet.
After a regroup and replacing the pertex with full waterproofs we ran off to the shelter of the lower ground at the Bore Stane with the wild weather on our backs. Looking at the watch and the rain and the sign saying Carlops 3 miles, a quick decision to abort was made and we followed the path through the valley.
My legs and knees were paying the price of a 60 mile week as the young things scooted off down the path. The track loving Joanne and Kathy quickly disappeared into the distance. Regrouping at the gates the last mile into Carlops saw Fraser and I taking up the rear but we made it back to Carlops in just under the promised 3 hours and four miles short of the promised 14, (10.01 miles on my Garmin).
A grand day out with Fraser, Joel, Joanne, Kathy and Graeme.
Willie Gibson
Final winter talk
A resounding finale to the series!
Wed training
7.30 run – With last Wednesday being rather flat, I decided to try to be a bit more adventurous this Wednesday. We headed up to the Observatory and then ran round the north side to give a good climb to the summit. As Paul and Euan were in Mountain Marathon training I then put in a stream crossing in The Hermitage, although a lot of Wooses took the long way round across the bridge. Then up the muddy slope out of The Hermitage and over to the summit of Braids, before golf coursing a circuit back to the Blackford Quarry via a nice slippy descent. A quick Dash across Craigmillar Park Golf Course took us home in just over the hour and 4.4 miles! Willie Gibson |
The 7pm social run to Arthur’s Seat |
Five for the faster run with new member Andy joining Jim, Neil, Bruce and me. Strengthened by his weekend coast run Jim led the way up Blackford into a headwind before we continued onward to Braidburn Park, Swanston and a muddier than expected Pentland Hills. The ascent of Allermuir got the legs working with only a brief rest stop halfway up to admire the flares being released by the military as they conducted night exercises below.With Neil giving the directions we headed north along a trod, encountering slippy snow on slipperier mud just prior to crossing the bypass near Dreghorn barracks. Back to KB by the quickest route we could find with the steps up toward Blackford a final challenge for those with tired legs. 16.7k and 500m climbing in new money, 10.5 miles/1600ft in old. Chris Busby |
Northumberland Trail Marathon
With the Fling looming, and the cold realisation that I simply don’t put in enough miles, I entered Saturday’s Endurancelife Coastal Trail Series Northumberland Marathon event to force me to run a bit more. It seemed perfect: mostly offroad along nice coastal trails and beaches, through pretty and undulating terrain. Ideal! There are four events on the day: Ultra (35.5miles), Marathon (27.4miles(?!)), Half Marathon (13.1 miles, I assume) and 10k (10k?). All events finish at Bamburgh Castle, and start at the various distances along the coast. The exception being the ultra, which starts at the same spot as the Marathon next to Alnwick Castle, but involves an additional and cruel 10mile loop after Bamburgh to get in the miles. I chose the marathon over the ultra for many reasons, some including valid overtraining concerns, but mainly because I’m a bit of a Jessie and the ultra looked hard.
Bishop Hill Junior Race
I ran the Bishop Hill race on the 1st March. Everyone started at the same time. 1 2 3 and we were off. Sprinting the ditch and up onto the path. We ran along the flat for a wee while and then the up hill kicked in and we were all slowly making progress up the hill. The path went in a zig zag and then disappeared to a trod up the hill. We ran on until the gate where the juniors turned and I turned around and sprinted back down. We found the path and then cut off again and came down the near vertical trod. We then picked up the path, then through the ditch and across the line.
By Andrew age 11
[Senior race report here]
High Peak Marathon 2015: Haggis do a Tour of Bleaklow
After having such a fun experience last year, we had resolved (before we had even finished) that we had to run it again the next year. Fast forward 12 months, and on Friday night at 23:45, team Haggis on Tour (me, Konrad, Jasmin, Jon) set off on our second run around the High Peak Marathon.
Aboyne (Long) Duathlon
At the start of the year, when I was scanning the landscape for events to put in the diary (pre-negotiation with Mrs L), I noticed the Winter Duathlon Series run by Aberdeenshire Council, and one in particular that was in Aboyne. My in-laws live in Aboyne, so that tied in nicely (staying with her sister and family somehow seems to make me think that my wife will buy my absence more readily. It doesn’t.), and having done the Bowhill series recently (which was fab – do it if you haven’t already) I fancied a crack at some nice trail runs/mountain bike runs in what I imagined would be lovely wooded parts of Aberdeenshire. It’s lucky then, that I looked into this in more detail a few days before departing by train to Stonehaven as it turned out to be a road bike duathlon, on roads, with the runs on roads too. Oh well. Not what I was after, but I’d done a fair amount on the road bike recently so I got going up the road anyway.