A load of Carnethies made the journey along to Foxlake last Saturday for the inaugural Foxlake Nocturnal Ultra. A simple idea, one of the few as-many-laps-as-you-can ultras, consisting of a 5k loop and time limit of 6 hours. I’d entered a while ago as a means to getting a long run during the winter, which is something I always struggle to do. Also, my workmate, Roger, managed to persuade me that 5k laps would be fun and we should totally do it. I’m really not an ultra person, as I always just buckle at an early stage and withdraw. It seems that I can happily run ultra distances, as long as there’s alcohol involved and nice stops at country pubs. I have no idea why this is. So it seemed only sensible that I ask the organisers via facebook if there was a bar, and if it had beer, and if I was able to have a pint on the way round, but they laughed it off thinking I was joking. Em…haha!(?) A subsequent race-prep email confirmed that if anyone turns up drunk they’ll be ejected from the event. Sob.
So to the race itself. The route was actually really good. Lovely single-track trails through forests, and edges of fields, over bridges and weaving through farms. Coloured lights lit-up sections of forest, people whizzed overhead on zipwires, and they even put a “rave barn” on the route to run through which was great fun. FYI: it was more of a disco barn as I didn’t hear any of the Old Skool Anthems I was expecting. It was all great fun and had a brilliant atmosphere.
At the leading end of things, Carnethy heroes Dave Hanna, Matt Curry and Nicola Duncan were all pushing hard in the solo event, followed not far behind by Phil Humphries and my workmate Roger. In the teams, Eoin, Aisling and John Busby had formed a team for Aisling’s work and were always out in front, but Alan Renville also had a Carnethy team in who were also running strongly. During the race it was very hard to tell, because the live timing results were nothing short of incomprehensible, so for the entire thing I had no idea who was winning at anything.
In the end, Nicola won the Ladies’ event, Dave Hanna was second male, Matt third male, Phil 7th male, and Roger 10th male. I withdrew as expected, obviously. I chucked it on the 8th lap, after confirming 8 times that there was no bar, and I just fell apart. Eoin, Aisling and John won the mixed teams prize, with Alan Renville and co in third place.
I thought that the results presentation hid some of the outstanding runs involved. For the presentation the solo males and females were separated, as were male, female and mixed teams. So, I thought I’d pool some of them together. It was pleasing to see that in the top 6 overall included three males and three females. Also, the overall team results were dominated by mixed team, not a male-only team, setting a high bar for any team in future.
Solos
Name | Laps | Time | Fastest Lap | Category |
Stuart Paterson | 14 | 6:05:57 | 21:37.3 | Solo Males |
David Hanna | 14 | 6:28:41 | 23:50.3 | Solo Males |
Nicola Duncan | 13 | 5:51:09 | 23:27.6 | Solo Females |
Matthew Curry | 13 | 5:59:38 | 23:30.8 | Solo Males |
Ali Wyllie | 13 | 6:06:00 | 24:43.4 | Solo Females |
Jo Newens | 13 | 6:10:52 | 26:32.4 | Solo Females |
Teams:
Team | Laps | Time | Fastest Lap | Category |
Team Lennon Busby Allum | 18 | 6:14:52 | 0:17:07 | Mixed Teams |
Team Ross Pollock Parks | 17 | 6:11:11 | 0:18:44 | Male Teams |
Team Griffin Saunders Peacock | 17 | 6:21:45 | 0:19:51 | Male Teams |
Jim