Devil's Burdens Hill Relay Team Selection

Kenny, Jim, Eddie and Sandy - Billy is sheltering behind.

The recce for the Devil's Burdens hill relay always throws up some sort of a weather based challenge and Sunday's recce was no exception with Arctic conditions prevailing. Seven Harriers converged on Strathmiglo and Falkland early on Sunday morning in sub-zero but clear conditions. I left my car in Falkland Estate and ran/skated the 5km or so along the low level farm and forest roads towards Strathmiglo where the full team were meeting. A brief phone call on the hoof soon had Eddie, Sandy, Jim, Kenny and Billy running away from a very icy "California" to meet me at the head of the trail. George had shared the driving through to Strathmiglo but due to a 5 week absence from running due to illness, was going to do a shorter run from Falkland rather than the recce of legs 2 and 3 and meet us back in Falkland (much) later.

Perched precariously on the first major climb

The second leg is the toughest of all and needs to be viewed in advance. The total distance has been increased this year to about 11.5km, adding a full 1.5km to the end to wind around and into the finish from the side rather than from above as usual. This, we think, is to avoid the severe danger of out of control inbound leg 2 runners colliding with outbound leg 3 runners on the near vertical ascent. However, the 11.5km isn't the problem on this leg, it is the 700m of ascent! The major traversing climb up West Lomond was a nightmare in deep snow with the narrow rabbit tracks which usually provide some footing completely hidden. The higher we climbed, the stronger the icy wind so it was little relief to reach the summit and very inhospitable conditions.

Summit of West Lomond - a very brief stop.

We didn't hang around long before plunging down the other side in very deep powder snow. At this point Sandy dropped most of us for dead, confirming that descending is her strong point! The bottom of the glen was wind free and we stopped for lunch before the climb up the other side. For this stage, other runners had ploughed a channel through the snow and navigation was easy. When we reached the summit of Bishop Hill. The next checkpoint was at a stile just below the summit. A brief discussion with some runners from Crieff ended up with agreement that the most distant stile just visible below was the right one. While we faffed with maps and gloves, the Crieff runners charged off. By the time we were ready to go we heard the shout from below "this isn't a stile!" So in fact the correct stile was the closer one in the other direction, which we reached very quickly! There's a lot to be said for faffing about! Thereafter our major problem was finding the new, extra bit at the end of the route. After a bit of solo recceing by Jim down a steep path, the correct path was found and we carried on to the leg 2 finish (which we were disappointed to discover is now uphill).

Start of leg 3 - near the top of the ascent

Just as we were about to start leg 3 (about 1000 feet straight back up), the blizzard started.  Getting cold during the climb wouldn't be a problem and we knew the leg well enough to be confident that we could run most of the way once up on top. So we carried on. Eddie and I reached the top first and sheltered against a rocky crag where we soon began to freeze whilst waiting for the others. It really was a bleak scene at that point. After a brief stop to regroup, we headed off and were soon running well, following Sandy along the pre-existing furrow in the snow, gradually descending. With our heads down and very poor visibility, in our haste we missed a critical turning and ended up too far West to pick up the main path down. By this point we weren't interested in climbing back up to find the correct path so we dived off-piste again. The beauty of deep powder snow and frozen ground is that even the bogs are easily passable. On reaching the floor of the glen we headed East along a track to our earlier lunch stop and had another break.

You will enjoy yourself! Picnic stop in Glen Vale

At this point Sandy declared that she was "sick of chocolate" as Kenny tried to keep her properly fueled. You may never hear that statement again! However, one Crunchie bar later and Sandy was off like a rocket along the trail to get a head start on us. We couldn't catch her until she stopped at the next junction a km or so later. Leg 3 is also 11.5km but "only" 420m of ascent, the last part of which was in front of us as we climbed the shoulder of West Lomond again. Once on top we were presented with a very bleak landscape, driving snow and icy winds. So we kept moving, soon picking up the wide trail gently descending back to Mapsie Glen just above Falkland. We kept a good pace going and as we descended, conditions improved. The final descent into Falkand Estate is on a steep, narrow, twisty path which we descended quickly in single file. A cry from behind brought us to a halt. Billy had slipped off the edge of the path and was fully hidden in a ditch! Unhurt thankfully. A few minutes later and we were done. Something like five and half hours on our feet and 24km (29km in my case with the run to the start). George was waiting in his car with the heater on wondering where we had been! The soup, cake and coffees in Campbells Cafe were never more welcome!

Well done to all for completing a very challenging day but none of us would have had it any other way as the location was spectacular in those conditions. And so to the much anticipated team selection. I know that everyone wanted leg 2 but you can't all have it.

Leg 1 - 7.7km, 150m ascent - Sandy Hayden
Leg 2 (pair) - 11.5km, 700m ascent - Jim Holmes & Andrew Buchanan
Leg 3 (pair) - 11.5km, 420m ascent - Kenny Leinster & Eddie Reid
Leg 4 - 5.5km, 390m ascent - Chas Steven

Backup support on race day will be provided by Billy Buchanan and I. Further arrangements to be made on Thursday. The race is on Saturday - 9:20 start for our team.
Alan