Black Rock 5

I headed to Kinghorn on Friday night to take part in the Black Rock ‘5’ Race.  This is a road-beach race of about 4.5 miles in length.  The course is an out-and-back one, with the turning point at the Black Rock, which can be found in the Firth of Forth.  The race has, for obvious reasons, to be run when the tide is out.

The race starts on a hill and climbs for about 100 metres before turning at the top of the hill and descending down to the beach.   From the start of the beach out to the Black Rock it is about a mile.  I got out to the Black Rock and ran around it, by which stage I was ankle deep in water.  After that it was a mile run back along the beach.  Having enjoyed nearly a mile of relatively flat/downhill road running at the beginning as this was an out-and-back course you can guess that I now had a mile of ascending back up the hill to the finish line.  Don’t be caught out by the finish line either as although I had the 100 metres back down the hill that I had started on, you get to the bottom of this hill and turn at the railway viaduct to discover the finish line which is on another hill, about 100 metres up the hill.

I crossed the finish line in a time of 33.24.  I did not have a time in mind due to both the nature of the race and also my level of fitness over the last few months.

The weather certainly played a part in making this an enjoyable race as it was a lovely sunny night in Kinghorn and many of the locals were out supporting the race.  The views once you got onto the beach were lovely as you looked towards Edinburgh and the Forth Bridges. 

There was a bottle of beer for all finishers after they had crossed the line and there was also a post-race barbeque.  The race was well organised by Hunters Bog Trotters.

752 people finished the race last night, with the winner being Dermot Cummins in a time of 22.48.  The leading lady was Jennifer Emsley in a time of 26.27.

Julie