My 9th Pentland Skyline in a row, and very much a case of making up the numbers. The weather was cold, grey, windy and thick clag sat over all the hills the whole day.
I set off as slowly as possible, trying to inflict minimal damage to my legs on the first climb up Caerketton. Once on the ridge towards Allermuir I sped up a bit, but in the thick mist I couldn't see any runners in front to chase. After Castlelaw I found myself with Jonny Knox and Steven Best, both doing their first Skyline, so I acted as tour guide and paced them round to Black Hill. They both got slightly ahead of my going up Bell's Hill, and I almost gave up chasing until I realised at Capelaw that I was dangerously close to going over 3 hours. So suddenly I needed to increase the effort.
I gutted myself climbing the last bit of Allermuir to pass Steven Best, and ran along the ridge to Caerketton as fast as I could, now completely panicking that my leisurely dawdle round had tripped me over the 3 hour mark. I caught and passed Konrad Rawlik and Gareth Marshall at the summit of Caerketton, but then dithered slightly over the descent and they got back in front. I could have passed them both just before the stile, but thought I could outrun them down the steep grass. However on the grass I was also caught and passed by Steven Best, and then all 4 of us hurtled towards the finishing funnel passing Johnny Lawson of Portobello en masse.
To my considerable relief my time was 2:59:09, but this was too close for comfort, so next time I'll need to treat it more like a race, and perhaps not stay up until 2pm the night before, if I want to get to 10 sub 3 hour times in a row.
2 comments:
Well done. I went for my usual Sunday morning wander along the tops above the ski slope at about 9am and wondered how you lot would cope with the mist.
Thanks Chris. It was a bit grey and grim up there, but it didn't stop Murray Strain from running the 2nd fastest ever time on the course.
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