Stuc a' Chroin hill race

1st May 2010

Results | Photos

It was 3 years since I'd last run the Stuc a' Chroin. In 2007, I ran 2:26 during my stint of running every day for the first 6 months of the year. By contrast in 2010, I've run about 6 times in total, so it was wishful thinking to imagine I could bluff my way round the course. But I was interested to learn whether I had any residual fitness after 6 months with virtually no running. It became clear pretty early on that my legs weren't up to the job. I got cramp for most of the race, and stopped about 20 times on the way back to stretch my legs and let people past.

There isn't really any option of dropping out of these hill races, so I kind of walked and half-jogged the return route just to get back to the car. No amount of gels or powders made the slightest difference to the cramp, which was purely down to lack of conditioning with this being my first long run in 7 months.

I did manage to complete the course, albeit 35 minutes slower than last time in 2007.

I can't say it was much fun at the time, but I'll need to reflect on the experience and see if there's anything useful I can learn from shuffling along for 3 hours with cramp.