Nine Harriers made an early start today and headed for the hills, the Lomond Hills in Fife to be more precise, to recce legs 2, 3 and 4 of the forthcoming Devil's Burden Hill Relay (leg 1 was deemed too easy to recce). If all went to plan this would give us about 16 miles and 2500 feet of climbing. Kenny Leinster had planned the day to perfection providing maps, detailed knowledge of the routes and told us where to place the cars at the start in Strathmiglo and finish in Falkland. So how on earth did we end up starting in California!
The first leg (leg 2 of the relay) was a challenge to say the least and definitely the most difficult of the day. Although no more than 6 miles it took in two major ascents, the first of which was way too steep to run up. Near the summit we split into two packs (plus lone trail blazer George) to compare the direct, straight up approach to the summit of West Lomond and the indirect, corkscrew path to the top. The corkscrew won and even allowed a little bit of running over the final few hundred metres. The ground was frozen on top and so were we, therefore we quickly started the descent into the glen and then climbed again to the Devil's Burden and onward to the second summit, Bishop Hill (fortunately a local runner directed us onto the best path up, saving some time). A brief (due to the extreme wind chill) lunch stop below the summit and we were off again, still on our first leg.
We took a slight short-cut by not going to the change over point down in Scotlandwell (as we would only have to climb straight back up again) but instead stayed up top and picked up leg 3. This was an altogether easier leg on downhill trail and then farm roads taking us to a reservoir for the final changeover. Here we were into severe mud due to forest felling operations and the final climb to East Lomond. This started off easyish across fields and moorland but the final ascent was as steep as the first one. After suffering the embarrassment of the entire club contingent being beaten to the top by a 12 year old girl who was just out for a walk with her parents, we gathered for the final high level photos at the trig point in the form of a convenient coffee bar table. The descent to the finish was very, very steep and only for the mountain goats but at least it was all down hill to the finish.
It was just as well we did this recce as it was an eye opener and at least we now know what legs those who were not able to attend the recce will be doing in the race! A big thanks to Kenny for keeping us on track (20+km, 1000m climbing and 4 hours in motion) and well done to all for the company and the usual Harriers "where do you want us to run to; aye nae bother" spirit. More photos from Billy and I
here.
Alan
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| Today's Route Profile |
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| Today's GPS Track |
3 comments:
It's a tough race! I've done the old leg 1, leg 3 and old leg 4 and I'm the worst descender in the world! So this year I've strategically arranged to be on-call that weekend...then they changed the race date!!
Might go along to support my club but doubt I'll be running (unless I got leg 1)
On the bright side - the choice of soups at the end is impressive and I'm sure there was cake as well.
Good luck!!
Thanks Lou, we didn't recce the soup and cakes but we do have two more weekends to prepare for that!
Alan
Hi guys, great looking race. The 4 hills would have been great training (aye right)Looking at the photos, I glad to see Joanne had time to stop and talk with the locals.
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