Frostbite 3

You might be wondering what happened to Frostbite 2?...Christmas parties won that one! Anyway, you only need to do 3 out of the 4 to get your special edition “Frostbite Medal”.

Frances and me headed to Falkland today to do battle in round 2. We arrived nice and early with an hour to spare – serious runners need to ensure that they do that, get a good pre race stretch, warm up with at least a lap under their belt, check the course conditions etc..... but since it was bloomin freezing, we decided to just sit in the car for as long as we could!!

With only 30 minutes remaining to the start, we were forced to shuffle though the time warped village streets to the estate.
The start of the race had moved to the nearby football pitch from the cricket pitch previously. So after finding it, we went for a warm up to see how deep the burn crossings were. Not bad to be honest, but there was a fallen tree just after the second burn and we were told that we could either go over it or under it.

The race was delayed by 10 minutes due to the high volume of runners. True! And after the race organisers announcement, we were off for 2 laps of the football pitch. There was lots of photographers at the start. I started at a steady pace, but halfway round the football pitch I notice a female Fife runner in front of me, and given the fact that this wee girl was only about 10 and I was soon to be approaching the paparazzi, I though that I'd better get my finger out and get past her. Thankfully I managed to avoid an embarrassing one! Frances had also started at a more steadier pace than her 7.15 first mile last time (was actually 7.45 this time, so was soon chasing being 30 seconds down).

After completing the 2 laps, we were onto the path, with a number of slower starters finding their pace and passing me. The course is made up of a number of different parts, so my next target was to get to the steep down hill part. I was 5 meters behind a couple of guys that I normally beat. So I was forced to make a judgement call, and decided to give it 95% effort on this downhill section and sped past them, knowing that there was a sharp right turn into the woods followed by the burn crossings and fallen tree. A good move as it turned out, as I never saw them again. Both Frances and me were determined to do better with the water jumps than last time, which cost us a few seconds each time we stepped in the water and failed to negotiate the muddy bank. Think we would have at least managed a 10 from Len Goodman this time round.

Before long we are heading back up the trail to do another lap of the football pitch before a second lap of the course.
I managed to finish in 25.52 (26.55 last time) and 54th with Frances 27.15 (27.25 last time) and 79th...a fast second lap from Frances to make up from being 30 seconds down in the first mile.
Pictures

YouTube

Thanks to George for the report, some great action photos still to be added.