Scottish National Cross Country Relays

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Working hard at Cumbernauld

This was my 6th attempt at the Scottish National Cross Country Relays at Cumbernauld Park, and having run sub 15 minutes in 2009 and 2010, I was hoping to do the same again today.

Tom Smith ran Leg 1 in 14:45 to finish in 42nd, followed by Gregor Stewart on Leg 2 in 15:02 who made up 8 places to finish in 34th place. I was hovering around the start area with Ross Milne of Central who set off 3 seconds ahead of me.

The first hill out of the starting straight

I didn't want to kill myself in the first 3 minutes, so worked myself in gradually and reeled in Ross after a kilometre or so. I then set about the task of pressing the pace, and aiming for distant runners and bringing them back.  I managed to catch 6 more, to bring us up to 27th place with a time of 14:50, which is the 2nd fastest I'd run the course.  Niall then took the final leg and made 2 more places to bring the team home in 25th place in a total time of 59:40, which is the first time we've ever got under the hour.

The 4.1km race route

Pentland Skyline

Results

My 11^th Skyline in a row started in sobering mood with a minute’s silence to reflect on the passing of Darren Holloway at last Sunday’s Ian Hodgson Relay. John Blair-Fish spoke a few words, and emphasised the importance of stopping to help fellow runners in difficulty.

Once underway, the race followed a slightly new route to gain the gateway and path above the ski slope.  I’d already constructed a plan in my head that involved setting off ridiculously slowly, and putting in no effort until after Turnhouse, and even then saving myself until Bell’s Hill when I hoped to have a strong run to the finish.

I’d also decided to eat and drink more than before, and to start eating and drinking earlier. Therefore I’d decided beforehand exactly when and where I would take my 4 gels.

I arrived at the top of Castlelaw pretty much with Jasmin Paris and Iain Walker, and caught Jon Gay on the descent.  After Flotterstone, I took it pretty easy on the climb up Turnhouse watching Stuart Smith of Cosmics disappearing off into the distance and wondering if I’d catch him later.

I jogged over the 5 Carnethy hills pretty much together with Iain Walker, and was with Iain more or less to the climb up Bell’s Hill.  I had a chat with Stephen Winter who was sheltering in the gully, took my last gel and some more drink and tried to get organised to run from the of Bell’s Hill to the finish in under 40 minutes.

I passed 2 runners more or less straightaway, but then there was a big gap in front.  Strangely I suddenly caught Stuart Smith, but it looked like he’d taken a route diversion, since he then took off again, and I had to chase him all the way to Allermuir before I finally caught him again as he hesitated in the mist, not knowing which path to take towards Caerketton.  I made my move and jumped back, and tried to finish strongly down the super muddy slippery descent to hit the track running above the ski slope.  I wasn’t 100% sure of the final section, but forced the pace to the gate and then put in one last effort to the new finish, which gives a much nicer run in.

I was pleased to finish in 13^th position in 2:54:18, having made up 6 places in the second half of the race, although in less soft and muddy conditions I’m sure I could have run sub 2:50 again.  Perhaps next year...

Three Shires Fell Race

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Having the northbound M6 closed from Lancaster to Junction 36 didn't help much with stress levels prior to arrival at Hodge Close, about 10 minutes before the race was supposed to start. Luckily the race was postponed by 30 minutes, otherwise I envisaged chasing around after an already departed field of runners.

This was my 7th running at the Three Shires. Based on previous results, I was expecting to run around 2:18.

Summary of previous times:
2002 - 2:19:32
2004 - 2:17:07
2005 - 2:16:36
2008 - 2:11:32
2009 - 2:11:49
2011 - 2:23:46

When we finally got away at 11:30am, it was glorious sunshine and pretty much perfect running conditions.

Race Start - Photos: Pauline Charters

I set off medium hard along the track to Wetherlam, and reached the fell gate just inside 14 minutes. After crossing the gate, I decided this time, rather than following the crowds in front, to take a steeper more direct line, and was immediately followed by Gary Thorpe and Dan Duxbury both of Ambleside AC, which gave me some confidence I'd made a reasonable decision. As I climbed higher, at every opportunity I worked my way leftwards onto to higher ground which eventually brought me out onto a path of sorts, that lead to the summit of Wetherlam.  This definitely felt faster than the routes I'd taken in previous years, and brought me out right behind a group containing John Hunt, Jon Deegan and Chris Robinson who had all been well ahead at the start of the climb.

I chased this group to Swirl Hawse, but on the climb up Prison Band was caught by quite a few runners including Gary Thorpe, Mike Robinson and Richard Mellon. I reached the summit of Swirl How with Chris Reade but he pulled away on the descent. Just before the final drop to Three Shire Stone I was also caught by Dan Duxbury and James Archbold.

The climb up Pike o' Blisco was spent chasing Dan and James. Halfway up the climb I was reeled in by Jasmin Paris. I managed to stay just ahead of her, and we slapped the summit simultaneously before she turned and legged it across the summit rocks far faster than me.

On the fast technical descent to Blea Tarn I was caught by Ross Litherland and Adrian Davis just before the intake wall, and nasty descent through bracken and rocks. I jumped past Ross on this section, but then we ran up to the start of the final climb up Lingmoor together.  After faffing around for gels and dropping the contents of my bumbag, and Ross helping me get my act together, he took off in hot pursuit to catch Jasmin.

I was impressed how quickly he opened a gap, and I tried to catch James and Jasmin before the Lingmoor summit cairn. I was couple of paces behind Jasmin, so just relaxed and thought I'd follow her route off, but halfway down she veered off course into bracken, allowing me back in front, so I now had her right on my heels.  At the top of the zig-zags I told her it was quicker to batter straight down through the rocks and bracken. Once through the intake gate, I said she might as well go in front since I could tell I was holding her back, but unfortunately she promptly fell straight into the mud and lost a few metre, so I was no back in front as we hit the final track. I knew that after my 1-mile track race on Thursday, I could hammer out a pretty good pace from here to the end. So managed to reach the finish holding position in 2:16:08 for 23rd place.

Three Shires Race Route

Millport 10-mile Road Race

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This was my 4th attempt at the Millport 10-miler. My first race was in 2007 when I clocked 56:25 in reasonably windy conditions, and for last year's race I staggered round in 60:56 in storm force winds, where you could hardly stand up on the far side of the island.

I had hoped for calm conditions today, but it turned out pretty breezy, with heavy rain forecast for later.

Being chased by George Taylor at the start

The race started with a hooter almost before everyone was ready, and trundled out of Millport at a fairly pedestrian pace. I was surprised after a mile or so that there were only 4 runners in front, running as 2 pairs, and vaugely thought about trying to catch runners 3 and 4, who were Steven Reid of Ayr Seaforth and Billy Richardson of Irvine AC. But I also knew that after mile 5 we would turn into the wind, and I needed to keep something for the 2nd half.

In fact I didn't need to worry about sitting in 5th place for long since Stuart MacDougall reeled me in and passed me quicker than I could latch on. I was then just waiting for Crispin Walsh to catch me as well, which happened around the 3 -mile mark, as Cris, Colin Thomas and George Taylor all caught me at once.  I tried to slot in behind Cris and Colin, to match their pace, which was faster than I was comfortable with. I knew that Crispin had run 1:14:57 at the Glasgow Half last Sunday, so this felt like race suicide trying to stick with him from Mile 3 to 4, knowing that we weren't even half way.

After Mile 4 I backed off a fraction, since I didn't have the confidence to keep battering out 5:48 miles, plus as you turn around the top of the island you are then heading back into the wind, which just gets stronger and stronger as you run down the west side of the island. From mile 8 to 9, the headwind was getting pretty strong, combined with cyclists meandering around in the middle of the road, made this a tough section.

Turning onto Millport High Street for the final 400 metres

Just before Mile 9 I was suddenly caught by James Wales of Dumbarton. It was far too windy to have heard him coming, and also too windy to attempt to drop him again. So I ran along just behind for a few hundred metres, before with about a kilometre to go I made my move. I wondered if I'd gone too soon, but knew the run in from here, and thought it would be good training to push myself hard over this distance.

Millport 10-mile Road Race - the finishing straight

Over the slight crest, and relax and stride out down to the high street. Then it's just 400 metres to the finish, where if you put in the effort, there's no chance of being caught. So the end result was 58:54 for 8th position.

Ellie, Benjamin and I then jogged back to the ferry slip and arrived back at Largs just before the heavens opened.

Glasgow Parkrun #189

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Having just jogged the Ben Nevis Race last weekend in a personal worst of 1:56:09, and 3 weeks ago running my slowest ever time on the Glasgow Parkrun course with 18:02, I decided today to make a bit more of an effort.

The weather at Pollok Park was pretty much perfect for running. Dry, mild and no wind. Scanning the startline I saw that my main challenge would come from the ever-improving Stuart MacDougall. I knew that he'd finished first 3 weeks ago, but I still thought he might be beatable if I played my cards right.

Head to heads with Stuart

My main plan was not to overcook it at the start and then hopefully still have some strength left for the second lap. So we launched off at the start with Stuart taking an immediate lead. I started fast, but tried to hold back a fraction. After the first kilometre I still had Ross Mackenzie more or less alongside, so I surged a few times to open a gap.

Once over the hill at the end of the first lap, I tried to concentrate on catching Stuart, who appeared to be coming back a fraction, but I didn't quite have the resolve to fully commit to closing the gap. I tried to keep up the pressure, just in case Stuart slowed on the final hill, but as we caught our way through the crowds of tail-enders I lost sight of him, so for a few moments there was nobody to chase. It is quite stressful trying to get past the slower runners when they show no signs of keeping to the left, so I tend to find this section takes all my concentration just to avoid barreling into the back of people.

Once we were at the right turn down to the finish, Stuart was too far ahead to catch, but I thought I might as well keep the effort going to the line, especially seeing as Benjamin and his Grandmother Jennifer were waiting for us. I hadn't bothered looking at my watch once during the run, so was pretty surprised to find out I'd run a course PB of 17:11, finishing 6 seconds behind Stuart who had also recorded a PB.

Borrowdale Fell Race

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Borrowdale was my 3rd ever hill race back in 2000, after Glen Rosa and Maddy Moss. I'm pretty sure the race was cancelled in 2001 due to foot and mouth, but I ran the race in 2002, 2003 and 2004.

Summary of previous times:
2000 - 4:13:25
2002 - 4:04:47
2003 - 3:31:08
2004 - 3:59:51

A return visit was long overdue, so despite it being an English Championship counter, and having done no long hill runs this year, I decided to put in a speculative entry.

Ellie and Benjamin watched the field depart at 11am before disappearing off to Keswick for a couple of hours. I set out reasonably fast through Stonethwaite to the foot of Bessyboot, and then started sliding steadily backwards down through the field. Jasmin Paris caught me on the first climb, and then disappeared from view on the boggy run towards Allen Crags.

Approaching Bessyboot - Photo: Paul Dobson

I seemed to start holding position once I got to Esk Hause, and the flounder across the rocks to Scafell Pike. The descent to the Corridor Route was every bit as steep and rough as I remembered. Ross Litherland caught me on this section and dragged me along for a while, but had left me in his wake before we reached Sty Head.

I tried to gather myself for the climb up Great Gable by taking a good drink, and seemed to be passing a few folk as the temperature was rising. The descent to Windy Gap was a rather tortuous route choice to avoid a few rocks. Once over Green Gable I was aware of feeling pretty jaded, and not interested in running hard to Honister.

It was getting really warm by this stage, and I messed up by not grabbing enough water at Honister. The climb to Dalehead was a bit frustrating having run out of drink, and struggling with dehydration.

Final Descent off Dalehead - Photo: Paul Dobson

River Derwent

I was getting a bit worried by this stage that I might not get under 4 hours, so tried to keep up the pressure on the descent and run back to Rosthwaite. It was good to see Ellie and Benjamin just as I ran through the River Derwent with only about 500 metres to go. Given my lack of any sort of preparation for the race I was pleased in finish in 3:52:50, albeit way down in 77th place.

Borrowdale Fell Race Route

Kilmaurs Gala 5k

Garmin track

My first 5k race since 7th January, 2 days before Benjamin arrived, when I posted my slowest ever 5k with 18:00 at Pollok Parkrun.

Since I hadn't been doing any fast running (or any running) lately, my main aim was to enjoy the race and hopefully sneak in under 18 minutes.

Kilmaurs 5k Startline - last minute instructions from Dave Mitchell

There weren't too many speedy looking runners on the startline, but even so I quickly find myself back in about 7th place once the race started. Iain Connell leapt into the lead as the whistle went, as we had 2 laps of the greasy muddy track of Morton Park before launching off around some parkland with some hilly trail and sharp corners.

I made up 3 places before leaving the track, and was soon passed by Keith Haining, also of Kilmarnock Harriers.  Once we headed out onto the A735 Kilmaurs Road, the order was Robert Gilroy in the lead being closely chased by Iain Connell, then gaps to Roger Naughton, Keith Haining and myself in 5th.

I thought I was fairly comfortable plodding along in 5th place, but just as we passed the 3km marker I could hear a mixture of breathing on my shoulder. We were climbing uphill at this stage, and I didn't want to suddenly make any extra effort. As the road levelled off, we had a sharp left turn where Kara Tait and Ian Hughes went past.  I thought I could easily just track them, and didn't respond just yet.

Following Kara Tait, Ian Hughes and George Irving

Just before turning back onto the track

 Just as we turned back towards Morton Park, George Irving of Irvine also went past, so as we turned onto the track for the final 400 metres, I had 3 runners just in front. I wasn't quite sure how much effort to make in getting past, but with 300 metres to go I made a move and jumped past George, which also carried me past Kara, and I only had Ian to chase down, who I didn't quite catch.

My time was around 17:48, so was pleased to comfortably scrape inside my target time of 18:00, on a reasonably hilly twisty course.

Kentmere Horseshoe

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This was my first attempt at running or racing for just over 6 weeks, what with various things like hiking across the Alps and helping to look after Benjamin.

The route follows a clockwise loop of Kentmere, and has 3 checkpoints: Ill Bell, High Street and Kentmere Pike.

Kentmere Horseshoe Route

I'd only run this race once before, and that was way back in 2003 when I managed 1:45:02 for 10th place.

I didn't have much idea what to expect this time, so set off pretty slowly and steadily.

Kentmere start

Once up on the ridge towards Ill Bell it was pretty windy and grey, and just before Thornwaite Crag we were into the mist and I lost sight of the runners ahead, or at least I thought I saw them disappearing off in the wrong direction.  I hesitated for a moment which was enough for Ross Litherland to catch me, who I'd last see in Nepal nearly 3 years ago on the hike out to Jiri.  Anyhow, Ross seemed confident of the route so we ran more or less together to High Street.

Once descending to Nan Bield Pass it started getting ridiculously windy, making it really difficult to balance and remain upright. Somehow Ross and Richard Snowden of Totley suddenly seemed to have made a gap on me, and I was struggling to keep them in my sights. I tried to track them along to Kentmere Pike, but once I reached the final summit they were long gone, and I had nobody to chase.

I had no recollection of the final descent, but had a vague idea you needed to branch off rightwards, however I branched far too soon when I should have been running down the obvious path alongside the wall. However I still reached the stile at the fell wall before anyone caught me, despite faffing around and looking over my shoulder.  Shortly afterwards the track became horribly rocky, and groups of runners came swarming past, including Dave Armstrong and Chris Reade who must have got lost in the mist, since they had been in front earlier.

Anyhow, I somehow seemed to entirely run out of strength and coordination on the final bit of descent, and managed to lose 10 places in the space of about a minute which was slightly annoying, but I couldn't make my feet move any faster.  The only place I regained was by passing Chris Reade again in the final few metres just before dropping back into the finishing field.

My time was 1:53:18 for 25th place.

Mark Roberts of Borrowdale, now a V50, won the race in 1:39:00 which was pretty impressive given that it was quite possibly the windiest race I've ever done.

Across the Alps in 15 Days

I am recently back from hiking across the French Alps in 15 days. My route followed the GR5 most of the way, starting at St Gingolph at Lac Leman (Lake Geneva). I did however use 3 variants which took in some wilder, more rugged landscape. These were the GR55 through the Vanoise, the GR5B variant between Col de l'Echelle and Briancon, and the GR52 through the Mercantour national park, to finish at Menton.

When I get round to it, I'll blog the trip in more detail here: http://gr5blog.blogspot.co.uk/

The approx. stats were 630km with 33,000 metres of ascent, making this trip the most ground I've covered in a 2-week period on foot, generally managing around 45km and 2,400m ascent each day.


View GR5 in a larger map

Glen Rosa Horseshoe

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Glen Rosa was my first hill race back in 2000.  In the past 12 years I've managed about 690 more races.

Glen Rosa Route 2012

I set out along the first 4 km of trail chatting with Russell Small at first, and then just settling in behind him, trying deliberately to take it easy. On the first steep climb up Beinn a' Chliabhain we caught up with Michael Reid, with Konrad Rawlik not that far in front. I tried not to trash my legs by working too hard. Just as the ridge eased off Alan Smith suddenly appeared on our left, perhaps 20 metres ahead, having taken a different line.

The summit ridge was misty, so I didn't recognise the descent into Coire Daingean, and perhaps strayed too far to the left. Although that line took me down pretty smooth ground. I could see Alan Smith ahead taking a high line through the heather, but I decided to drop low onto more runnable ground, and managed to overtake Russell, Michael and Scott Umpleby who were all thrashing through deeper heather above me.

I decided to contour straight across to reach the decent path on the other side of the burn, and then ran up the path to the steep steps to stay ahead of Michael, Russell and Scott. They did however all catch me by the summit of Cir Mhor and we all turned more or less at the same moment.

Once we had dropped back down the steep steps, Scott and Russell took a lower path, whilst I lead Michael across towards the Glen Rosa Slabs, only to chicken out when we got nearer, and we ended up dropping steeply through heather and rocks to flank underneath them.  This wasn't too bad since it took us to a good trod which lead to the Saddle. I'm sure there is a quicker higher line across the slabs, if I could just manage to recce it one day.

After the Saddle, I set about closing down and passing Russell and trying to make some ground on Scott, but he simply disappeared before the summit of Goatfell, so I wasn't quite sure if he was still ahead.  The descent down the Goatfell never gets any easier and requires constant concentration to avoid tripping and shredding yourself on the rough granite. Once I'd reached the new wooden bridge, I was fairly sure nobody would catch me.  I ramped it up to a reasonable pace, but then realised Adam Anderson was only about 20 metres behind me, so I suddenly had to find a couple of extra gears for the last kilometre of forest track.  Plus the last couple of fields seemed more lumpy than usual, and we had a couple of extra gate crossings just to help bring on the cramp!

I was pleased enough to finish 9th in 2:54:03, given that this was my first long hill run of the year.

Finlay Wild was the race winner by more than 16 minutes, in a new course record of 2:18:20.

Austwick Amble

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3rd race in 5 days, after Dumbarton 10k and Dallam Dash 10k on Thursday and Saturday.

Route map for Austwick Amble

The event started in the centre of Austwick as part of the village's annual Street Fair and Cuckoo Festival.

The route followed a tarmac road for the first 800 metres before branching off to climb across fields to reach a flat shelf on the side of Ingleborough. Just around the halfway point we turned and descended through a tricky section of limestone which I should have recognised as part of the Yorkshire Three Peaks route.

I was briefly caught by a Settle runner around this section but managed to find enough on the run back to hold off any further challenges. I finished the 12.4 km route in about 56:51, for about 6th place.

Ellie completed her longest run since London Marathon 2011, to finish in just under 70 minutes.

Dallam Dash 10k

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Looking at the depleted startline of 48 runners, I thought I might be in with a shout at winning this one. Especially after running 35:25 at Dumbarton on Thursday night.

I set off reasonably quickly, leading for the first 800 metres or so, and going through the first couple of kilometres in 3:33 and 3:34. However I then started to feel pretty tired and jaded in the heat, and fell back into 3rd place as Dave Wilby of Ilkley Harriers drifted past. Not wishing to drop any more places, I tracked Dave until the 5 mile marker, before making a move on a short uphill section to nip past and started racing the last mile, knowing there was a good final downhill section.  My time of 37:24 for 2nd place was nothing special for 10k, but it was a pretty hilly course, and quite warm conditions for running.

Ellie completed her first 10k since the arrival of Benjamin, posting a respectable time of 45:54.

Ellie at Dallam 10k