D33 - Deeside Way Ultra - Sat 17th March 2012 |
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A clutch/collection/calamity
of Carnethies made their way up to Aberdeen for
the Deeside Way Ultra (the D33) on Saturday.
Clear blue skies, little wind and lots of sun,
it was a lovely day for a run. Andy Millard and
I walked down to the start at Duthie Park to
be met by Michael Nowicki, Graham Nash, Phil
Humphreys, new-guy Chris Pedley, Ian King and
Graham Nash's brother Paul. Michael, Chris and
I were ultra-newbies, so it was going to be an
interesting day. The route mostly follows an
old railway line up to Banchory, and then back
the way you came to finish back where you started
in Duthie Park. Fairly flat, quite a lot of tarmac,
but the route was fairly simple to follow and
had beautiful scenery throughout.      From the off, Graham staked a claim near the head of the field, and a group of us Carnethies formed a clot in the middle of the pack chatting through the first few miles. Andy thought we might be taking it a bit fast, and dropped-off the back. Later, Phil Humphries pointed-out that we were going far too fast and he dropped-back too, leaving Chris and I rattling along at a clearly unsustainable pace. As we approached Graham it was obvious that Chris and I had made a fatal mistake, but we didn't care, we were laughing so much at our lack of control that we just decided to keep it going. Why not! In fact, I was so misguided as to what was going on, that I decided to ditch Chris at the halfway point because I thought he might hold me back! Ahhhh, hindsight is a wonderful thing. As I approached the third checkpoint, the wheels fell off so catastrophically I could barely move, I was trying not to puke, and I was ready to quit. What remained for me was a lurching walk to the end, intermittently raising the lurch to a shuffle, and back again. Sigh. However it did put me in a good position to cheer-on the other runners, and watch how Team Carnethy were getting on: In the distance Graham never faltered, pushing hard to the end, and Phil Humphreys was powering along despite some knee trouble. Paul Nash was strong all the way through the race. Chris recovered well, to cruise past me near the end, closely followed by Andy. I managed to upgrade my lurch to a stumble and follow Andy home just ahead of Ian King and Michael Nowicki. An excellent race, made better by possibly the coolest medals ever handed-out at a race (made from reclaimed debris from Hurricane Bawbag). Also, a bottle of D33 beer, made by Brewdog. Simple race, excellent marshalling, great cakes at the end, and great fun too - what more could be asked? Results here: http://deesidewayultra.webnode.com/ James Hardie |
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A sunny
morning for race day, I thought are we really
in Aberdeen? As always I was way to early for
registration, but thats me being nervous before
my first ultra marathon race. I didnt know
what to expect even though that i covered that
distance many times in my training runs. There
was a good carnethy turnout, Chris, Andy, Jim
and few faces I didnt know and forgot their
names. Also met up with few of my mates from
Portobello RC. At the start I met up with Andrew
Murray (the guy who ran from Scotland to Sahara),
also the day before I went to his talk in Aberdeen
Uni which was very inspiring. He has been a
good friend to me during my training for my
London to Edinburgh run and giving me advice.
So just at the start Andrew was giving a speech
to us runners, it was great that he turned
up as he had an accident the day before which
put him out of the race. So the race started, I started off nice and steady as it was my intention just to enjoy the race. The first half of the race I took it very steady and I was talking more with fellow runners than listening to my mp3 player which is a good thing. The check points were very well organised with plenty of food and drink, total respect to the organisers for doing this. I reach the half way in Banchory, rang the wife how I'm doing, load up with food and away I go. I thought I go bit faster on way back which worked out ok until the last 4 miles I started to suffer slightly. I reached the finish line very happy indeed, my son Greg gave me a big shout "Go Daddy go!!", that was special. My wife Monika met me along with our friends from Aberdeen. It was a special moment as I havent finished a race 2 weeks before as I was ill and it was great getting this out of the way. I also met up with the other Carnethies after and boy did they do well!! So this is another race out of the way before my big run and a very well organised one indeed. Here is the race route : http://connect.garmin.com/activity/159544715 Michael Nowicki  |
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