Moffat 15k

Last Tuesday evening John McBride, Hugh Simpson and myself made the journey down the M74 to the lovely town of Moffat for the thirtieth edition of their 15k road race, part of the town’s Gala Festival of Running. Both of them have competed in this race a number of times before but it was a first for me, my previous efforts to take part having been frustrated for a variety of reasons. Malcolm and Russell took part many years ago which fired my initial desire to do this one.

The guys had told me that the highlight of the evening was actually the fish supper afterwards and I was certainly looking forward to that. Hugh also advised me not to worry if I was given a tee shirt of the wrong size as it really wasn’t worth the bother, which turned out to be extremely prescient.  

Arriving in plenty of time, although still not early enough for John, we immediately bumped into the familiar faces of Graham Lindsay and Scot Hill who were also down for the race. We all wandered up the High Street to collect our numbers at the Town Hall and then watched the youngsters taking part in the 5-16 year old races, Hugh declining John’s offer to enter him into the 1k at the last minute!

Also down for his umpteenth Moffat 15k was fellow harrier Ian Hughes. While chatting on the start line his son wandered past with a fish supper in his hand, the smell of which nearly caused me to DNS and head for the chippy before the race.



As has been noticed previously Hugh looks smaller than ever in this photo, sorry pal, I’m not very good at selfies.

The race started in the high street beside the Ram statue and immediately headed north along Old Edinburgh Road for just under four miles undulating all the way and, as my legs informed me, climbing some 350 feet in the process. It was a warm and sticky evening and I was glad to reach the far point where the field was directed through a farmyard and up on to the infamous ‘climb’, rising 550 feet over a mile or so of fairly rough farm track. Glad as it meant I had a legitimate excuse to walk for a while and catch my breath.

Having lost sight of both John and Hugh fairly early in the race I was surprised to catch and pass Hugh just halfway up the incline. Unfortunately the only photos I have managed to find were taken at the very top and don’t show Hugh and I very well. There’s no hiding place in a race although Ian and John managed to look like runners.

The above four (cruel) photos by Vicky Hart

The runners were then faced with the delightful prospect of 4.6 miles downhill back into the town along the A701, presumably also know as New Edinburgh Road. I headed off hard from the start of the descent in the hope of discouraging Hugh from trying too hard to catch me and ended up running faster than I have managed for a number of years almost running a sub-seven mile at one point, quite exciting for me - the wind would have been blowing through my hair, if I had any. The net result of which was that I took almost a minute per mile from Hugh all the way to the finish.   

A nice touch at each of the three water stations was the provision of wet sponges which I haven’t seen available at a race in a long time and was especially welcome on such a muggy night. It also made for a change to be told by the marshalls ‘it’s all downhill from here’ and know it to be true!

Having eased back with around a mile to go I ran hard again over the last few hundred yards as I sensed the group ahead were flagging and was pleased to be able to catch and pass three of the four of them before crossing the line in 81:21 which was both a course and distance best, never having run either before - win, win.

Ian had crossed the line in 62:39 for 21^st place and headed for home (or the chippy) before I got there. John had tried to stay with Graham but had to let him go and finished in 75:51 one second behind Scot’s brother Les who is on the comeback trail after injury. Scot ran 68:23, Graham clocked 73:02 while Hugh came home in 85:30.

The teas and coffees at the finish line were very nice as was the home-baking, then it was back to the car for a quick change and away for the main purpose of the night. Straight into the fish and chip shop and blagged the only table in the process. I don’t know what it is but there is something special about hot food immediately after a race with good company on a fine night that makes everything taste that wee bit better than normal. Yummmm.

As previously mentioned Hugh was dead right about the tee shirt, see below. The body of the shirt was ok but both sleeves were too short, one was twisted, the neck was askew and it was so long I could have posted a photo on here of me wearing only the tee-shirt and it would not have been indecent (don't panic, I'm not going to)  

And a dreadful hat to boot but both were made up for by the gorgeous slate memento,

 

Needless to say both hat and tee-shirt are already on their way to the South Lanarkshire Civic Amenity Site (aka the tip)

Another fine night for the harriers on the road and a big thanks to Hugh for his driving and for arranging that beautiful sunset as we were heading back up the motorway, just sublime. A great way to finish an excellent trip.