Falkirk 8 hour Ultra

While many other harriers competed in Fife and at Strathclyde Park last weekend Ian Rae and I were up with the larks on Sunday morning and heading to the familiar surroundings of Callendar Park in Falkirk for the inaugural running of their trail ultra. As the name suggests this was an eight hour race consisting of as many laps as you could run of of an undulating 3.8 mile circuit situated entirely within the confines of the park.

I had run a lap race before, at the North Inch in Perth in 2016, but that was over a set distance of 50k, all on tarmac and on a pan-flat 2.1k circuit. This was a very different proposition being longer, hillier and over a variety of surfaces – mud, trail, tarmac, mud, grass, gravel paths and, did I mention it before, mud?

Callendar House in the January dawn

The tented village near the start/finish line

Ex-club colleague Ivan Field was there too although as he had run a marathon in Ireland the day before he ‘only’ intended to run another one to add to his total in the 100 marathon club records. 

104 solo runners and 15 relay team members belatedly crossed the start line at 08:07 with the relay runners very quickly disappearing into the distance. After Ian left us behind early on Ivan and I had a very pleasant and chatty first circuit of the park, please note this was the only lap where I ran all the hills!

Ivan resisting the temptation of the coffee van (I didn't, three times!)

The route was very runnable (to begin with) and with a huge chunk of it under the trees we were sheltered from the worst of the weather although, from what I hear, we had it easy compared with the the harriers at Strathclyde Park. 

It was fairly wet to begin with

There's not much else to tell really as it became a bit more of a grind with each passing lap but the company of friends old and new made it most agreeable. My only real moment of excitement came when I high-fived the most exuberant marshall on the course, lost concentration and went down like a ton of bricks - onto soft and grassy mud fortunately and, even better, no photos! She was most apologetic.

Mark Wheeler of Hamilton Harriers (better known to some of us as Kai's dad!) looked steadily impressive all day and came home seventh having run 48.2 miles. 

Mark negotiating some of that mud

I had been dreading the mental effort when setting out on the last lap but was very fortunate to be almost immediately caught by Lorna, a friend of a few years and a vastly experienced ultra runner. We ended up chatting for the entire lap which helped both of us no end. I'm sure she could have left me at anytime but chose not, for which I was grateful. She finished 16th overall with a total of 44 miles under her belt. I, meanwhile, came home in 33rd place, just exceeding my self-imposed target of 40 miles by 0.2.

The weather improved so much I ran the latter half of the race sans jacket

While Ian out-performed his own expectations by totalling 38.9 for 43rd position. 

Ian, smiling as ever (it masks the pain, I do it too!)

Ivan ran 26.6 miles before dropping out, finishing in 91st place.  

Race winner was Neal Gibson with 51.99 miles while the female winner, and fifth overall, was Egle Laurinaityte with 49.08 (who had also run leg 3 for Carnegie Harriers the day before at the Devil's Burden!). The relay race winners (teams of four) ran a total of 62.09 miles. 

A well organised race over a superb course (I'll take undulating over flat any day of the week) if a tad early in the season - I think I might just run this one again. 

Some stats from the organisers;

Total number of runners 161, total mileage for 14 relay teams 721.99 miles, total mileage for solo runners 3656.26 giving a overall mileage of 4378.25 which is the equivalent of running from Falkirk to Jamaica with a combined calorific output of 777,800. 

Photographs are all courtesy of Sandra Hunter who stood out in the wind and rain all day - it's definitely easier running!

Balloch to Clydebank removed from GP

Thedate for the Balloch to Clydebank half has been shifted to 25th March. As this is the same day as the National 6/4 stage road relays, I am removing this half from the Grand Prix. It seems a crazy decision to issue a permit for a road race on the same day as a national road relay Championship (if indeed it does have a permit for that date). We will find another, better organised half for the GP.
Alan

SVHC Road Relay 2018

Typically dreich weather conditions prevailed on Sunday morning for the annual Scottish Veteran Harriers Club Road Relay Championship at Strathclyde Park. Fortunately the weather did not put off the runners who travelled from all over Scotland to compete. This included a great turn out from the Harriers with 1 and 2/3 ladies teams of 3 and 3 and 1/4 men's teams of 4, including one M50 team. Our ladies A team was a strong one led off by Julie Beveridge in the worst of the wind and rain on a complete (5.8km) circuit of the loch. Julie ran strongly in a tightly packed field bringing the team in 4th in an excellent 23:28 and 8th fastest time of the day, exactly the same ranking as last year although 30 seconds slower, no doubt due to a combination of the conditions and the crowded field.

The very much in form Joanne McEvoy set off in the rain on leg 2 to build on Julie's position. Joanne very quickly established 3rd position and held on to that all the way round to the handover, finishing in 24:09 (13th fastest). Frances Ferguson was given the running equivalent of the "hospital pass" in rugby, as she set off only metres in front of Scottish Masters internationalist Michelle Sandison of Springburn who was soon past and successfully chasing down 2nd and 1st positions to win the event. Frances has had a good spell without injury and this was reflected in a time over a minute faster than last year, finishing in 5th place in 25:58.

Lorraine Buchanan had a long day supporting at the Devil's Burdens the day before but was ready to race on Sunday, covering the first leg in 32:06, a good improvement on last year's 32:34, so heading in the right direction. Not to be outdone, Allison Johnston also improved by a similar margin to finish in 33:09 compared to last year's 33:32. Well done to both ladies on keeping the consistent training up with the result being a steady improvement.

Mark Saez is making rapid improvements nowadays and hence was given first leg for the men's M35+ team. Mark did not get carried away from the start and made up a half dozen places on the way back in to finish in 21:33 and 21st position. Making his much welcomed return to racing for the Harriers after an absence of many years, Alan Cullie burned his lungs in on leg 2, setting a respectable new benchmark time of 24:56. Welcome back Alan; the form will soon come back after a few races. Jim Mearns hasn't raced anything that isn't prefixed with "ultra" for several years and was keen to get a bit of pace into the legs again. His time of 26:58 is one that Jim will easily better after  a few more "sprint" races. In a team which could easily have been titled the "Comeback Kings", Ian Hughes was back in a Harriers' vest after a few years away from running. Ian has not lost his trademark fast finish and blasted across the line much to the alarm of those around him to finish in an excellent 23:57 and 39th position overall.

Our M50 team were out to defend last year's bronze medal with a 50% change in team personnel. However, there was no change at the front with Davie Watt being called into action and doing what Davie does best - just going for it and taking no prisoners! Davie ran an excellent 21:27, our fastest leg of the day and an excellent 3rd position in the M50 race. Martin Howell has recently turned 50 and had targeted this race. There is always a bit of pressure taking over from Davie as he tends to drop the next runner right into the heat of the action.

This was indeed the case for Martin who nonetheless was only 7 seconds down on last year, finishing in 23:52 and 7th position. A spate of injuries has hampered Allan McLellan in the past 6 months but the racing experience is still there. So Allan was selected for leg 3 despite suffering with a bit of an illness on the day. Because of this Allan was feeling a bit weak and was disappointed with his time of 24:47, having run about 40 seconds faster last year. However, at this time of year, it is difficult to stay healthy. Allan held on to 7th position. After a crazy long day of work and travel on Friday, I had picked up a sore throat and upset stomach also (which stopped me in my tracks on the far side of the loch during my warm-up). However the prospect of a chase on the last leg spurred me on a bit for the last leg. Unfortunately the legs were like lead from the off. With hindsight, this was no bad thing as it meant that my pace was sensible for the first half. The wind speed had dropped since the warm up, so that helped too. I passed quite a few on the way around but I wasn't sure whether they were M50 teams or not. A later inspection of the Garmin splits showed that it had been a very even paced run into 5th position in a time of 21:50. Although only 8 seconds down on last year, I wasn't impressed as I was well down on many regular M50 competitors. However, I was glad that the Harriers confirmed their strength in depth and all is looking good for the forthcoming Scally and National Road Relays.

Richard Lawton was another of us who was unwell over the weekend and did well to turn up at all on a day that was only ever going to make him more ill. Richard led off his team in a time of 26:59, only 15 seconds down on last year. Stuart Waugh continues to be one of the fastest M65's out there, running with his usual fine style to cross the line in 26:54. Billy Buchanan has had a load of injuries and illnesses in the past 6 months and his time of 27:10 on leg 3 was in his target window. Hopefully this is the start of some consistency and improvement again for Billy. Paul Rooney took a quite lonely 4th leg, pacing himself around in a time of 27:01. Russell Couper had the luxury of a leg to himself and, in traditional Russell style, improved by 1 second over last year to finish in 30:41, which is also his fastest ever time on this course. Well done Russell!

Thanks to our very hardy supporters (including Sandy, Andy, Neil, Marion and Gordon) and photographers (Ruth and George) for keeping us motivated out there. All the photos are here (and no, a special, soft filter has not been used, that's is just the way everything looked on Sunday!). Full results here.
Alan

The Devil was Blowing Hard in Fife on Saturday

A well matched team (at least in terms of height!)

The intrepid sextet of Sandy Hayden, Jim Holmes, Andrew Buchanan, Eddie Reid, Kenny Leinster and Chas Steven headed through to Fife on Saturday morning for a very dreich Devil's Burdens Hill Relay. Billy Buchanan and myself joined Lorraine Buchanan to lend our support and to help with the logistics.

Whereas the recce was carried out in arctic conditions, the snow had completely gone by race day to be replaced with horizontal rain and the hills hidden in the mist.

As Sandy was on the first leg and the team had yet to be registered, Billy, Kenny and Sandy left EK at 7am to register the team, collect the numbers and get Sandy onto the startline. The remainder of the team were leaving EK at 8am. It wouldn't be a Calderglen event without an Eddie Reid wind up and Saturday was no exception. Whilst on the road to Fife, Kenny received a phone call from Eddie to say that Chas had not turned up and that Billy would have to do the last leg. Kenny relayed the news to Billy and for at least 10 seconds, the interior of the car was blue, particularly when Kenny mentioned that his trail shoes would fit Billy. However, 10 seconds is all it took for Billy to realise that the caller was not to be taken seriously!

Jim and Andrew at the end of leg 2 with leg 3 runners climbing on the skyline

Sandy was off on schedule on the modified leg 1 route of 7.5km. There were two checkpoints on this leg but as always on leg 1, there were queues for the clippers, providing some welcome rest time. Sandy's legs were still tired from the recce and Thursday's run but she still ran a fine, well paced leg, flying down the final hill to hand over to Jim and Andrew. Jim is an old hand at this event whereas Andrew had not done a hill race before let alone this one. Leg 2 is a navigational leg and the runners must run in pairs for safety. This meant Jim was in control of the pace, which was a good situation to be in when accompanying a fast runner! Leg 2 is 11.5km and over 700m of ascent. This is the toughest leg. If that was not bad enough, on the summits of each of the hills, Jim reported that the winds were 60 or 70mph and that it was almost comical watching runners try to reach the clippers on the highest checkpoints where the wind was so strong that the runners were being blown away before they could reach the checkpoint. The trick was to send Andrew to clip the checkpoint sheet whilst Jim got a little head start towards the next one. This route was also modified with a longer descent to the finish. This turned out to be on the path we had rejected during the recce as being too indistinct. All the preceding runners had turned this path into a mud slide and this is where Andrews relatively smooth soled trail shoes gave up with two falls in the final km. Muddy but uninjured, Jim and Andy arrived at the changeover to hand over to Kenny and Eddie for the long climb out of Kinnesswood back to the summit of Bishop Hill, which they reached in an impressive 13 minutes. Thereafter the running was quite good and no problem to the experienced pairing who passed a good number of teams with Kenny particularly strong on the descents. By this time the rain had eased and the skies had cleared but the winds were still storm force.

Chas  on the final descent into Falkland on Leg 4

Chas was safely delivered to the final changeover down in Mapsie Glen and was on his way before much of the support team were able to get to there (due to parking difficulties in Falkland). Chas was well wrapped up for the exposed conditions on the top of East Lomond and thoroughly enjoyed his run, with no slips or falls. A mass of people crowded around the finish line in Falkland to welcome and support (vocally and physically in some cases) the runners charging downhill to the line. We finished in exactly 100th position out of 151 finishers in a time of 4:31:32 (splits Sandy 0:42:58; Jim/Andy 1:40:12; Kenny/Eddie 1:10:50; Chas 0:57:32).

It was only a short walk from the finish to the packed village hall where a selection of soups were being freely dished out (we were too late for the cakes it seems) and the end of another successful (i.e. helicopter and police free) Devil's Burdens. We can't wait until next year. Well done to the team and a huge thanks to Billy and Lorraine for ferrying the runners around and for constant enthusiasm (and bottomless flasks of tea).
Alan

Arrangements for Masters Road Relay AND TEAMS

Teams for Sunday are here. Note that I appear to be coming down with some sort of flu. Thought it was just tiredness from all day travelling yesterday but getting worse as the day has gone on. Therefore, may have to do a last minute re-shuffle (Alan Cullie moves into M50 team leg 4, Men's A team all move up a leg, R Lawton moves into A team, R Couper moves into B team last leg). Shall advise first thing tomorrow.
Alan

Start time is 11.00am so I would appreciate it if we can be there for 10.15am.
Teams and running order will be posted late on Saturday night so please be patient.
We have 2 Ladies and 4 Male teams entered.
Those listed for selection are
J Beveridge, F Ferguson, J McEvoy, L Buchanan and A Johnston.
A Derrick, R Couper, R Lawton, M Howell, S Waugh, M Saez, B Buchanan, A Cullie, P Rooney, I Hughes, A McLellan, D Watt and J Mearns.

We have 1 place available in the Ladies team and 3 available for the Men.

Anyone that can no longer make it please let us know asap and also anyone not listed that wants to run please let us know.

Devil's Burdens Arrangements for Saturday

Billy, Kenny and Sandy will leave EK at 7am and go to Falkland to register the team and get Sandy onto the start line for leg 1 (9:20 start).

Chas, Jim, Eddie, Andy (or is Andy going direct with family? Please let us know) are leaving Sports Club at 8am and heading straight for Strathmiglo for the leg 2 start where Kenny will meet you with the race numbers. Once leg 2 is underway, we will transport leg 3 runners round to Kinnesswood for that changeover and finally back to Falkland for the leg 4 changeover.

The leg 1 to 2 changeover is the only one with  a bit of time pressure as the revised leg 1 course is faster than it used to be. Won't take Sandy much longer than a half hour to cover it so Sandy will be in Strathmiglo before 10am I reckon.
Alan

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