Tour of Fife Day 4 - "Never Count Your Chickens......"

The beach race! 2 and a bit miles along the coast line, which is probably 1 and a half miles straight, then it veers off to the left and the terrain changes, round a marker and back. There’s actually many different types of sand as you soon realise when you have to run on it.


As usual, I arrived a bit early to check things out. An almost deserted beach, with a few people packing up after a day in the sun and heading for dinner, loads of barbecuing on the grassy area. The tide was out and there was about 400mtr wide of sand to choose your running line from. I thought that I’d do a warm up, but after 5 minutes, I thought “sod this, it’s too hard work! I’m off up to the grass instead! They’ll be plenty of time to run here later! “. By the time I returned to the beach, it was jammed packed with runners and families, and you suddenly think ”Oh god, what am I doing here?”. Too late to turn back now!

We hear the 5 minutes to go announcement and we all line up between 2 flags at the town end of the beach. Then we’re off and into a very fast start along the wet sand. I’m on Julies shoulder, but it’s too fast for me! This was my 10 race within 2 years with this bunch and I know the faces around me....this lot aren’t, they’re usually all a minute or 2 ahead. I decided to ease off a bit, thinking that “ Many runners can run for 20 years and never experience this, it’s a beautiful night with the sun going down and the sea glistening off it....I should be taking this in and trying to enjoy the experience”. Just before the bend the people that Julie had been running with had forged ahead and she was hanging on the back on her own, and I was getting closer and closer. As I came along side, I enquired if she was ok “yes, fine” she said.....not what I wanted to hear!! I decided that I should just push on and run my own race. As we hit the bend, like last year, everyone cuts across the soft dry sand. Now you feel the difference and it suddenly gets a lot harder. Then we’re on to some hard packed surface covered in green slime. I had decided to run in the pumpkin racers again since they are light weight, but lots of runners had gone for trail shoes judging by the spike marks in the sand. I was sliding all over the place and thought “what have I done? ”. However, it wasn’t long before the sand changed again to really deep stuff, this was like running in the snow, and the best tactic seemed to be to try and step in previous runners footprints. We then hit the turn, but there was no cone like last year.....there were posts and tape, and you had to run a straight line to the shore. Where’s this taking us?....round a second post, kneed deep in the sea! Julie’s sister told us afterwards that she had lost her footing here and was unexpectedly baptised again...not sure if she change her name though! As you head back, you’re a bit wiser and know where not to run. I picked up with a runner from Perth that I had never beaten and clung to them for about a mile, just couldn’t stay with her. I glanced at the watch and there was about 8 minutes left. I was think about what I would say in my report “ Julie left to play in the sand was one option!”..... It was hard going as the finish is dead ahead, but it’s so far away, you can’t even see it. I was conscious of a few runners behind me for a while, but refused to believe it could be Julie, as I had run a very good race up to this point. I caught a glimpse of the yellow vest and thought ”oh no!! ”....I have never felt so helpless in a race. I put in a spurt and passed 2 runners, but I just tied up after that and Julie was still gaining. I was done for..... I knew I could out sprint her, but we’re still about 600mtrs away. I just had to watch her past and think, hang on and see if I can get her the last 100mtrs. I made my bid, past the runner between us, but just couldn’t get there...beaten by 3 seconds!!

After the race a number of runners headed in to the sea to recover their legs. This was made easier this year as we all had wet feet anyway and there was no need to leave your trainers on the dry sand, Julie decided it was a bit cold to go knee deep, but I went in...if only to get away from that constant grin that she had suddenly adopted!

Fish & chips from me and home for 11pm.

Results – Julies sister, Louise 4th female 28.40 (51st position), Julie 11th female 30.32 (70th position) and George 30.35 (71st position)...I did manage to beat last year’s time by 1.27.

Overall - Julie’s sister, Louise 4th female 1.53.44 (51st position), Julie 9th female 1.58.57 (64th position) and George 2.30.27.....1min 46 sec behind! (71st position).
 
George