Scottish National Cross Country

Garmin Track | Results

Scottish National Cross Country, Callendar Park, Falkirk

This was a bit of joke turning up to the Scottish National Cross Country off the back of no running, training or racing. I decided before starting that my only target was to complete the course at even pace, i.e. attempting to complete each of the 3 laps in close to 16 minutes.

I felt like I was running ridiculously slowly on the first lap, barely raising my heart rate, to complete the lap in 16:10.  I thought for the 2nd lap I was start trying to speed up a bit, but funnily enough the watch said 32:28, meaning I'd run 16:18 for Lap 2.  I thought for Lap 3, I would really start trying and would start passing lots of people, but when I attempted to find another gear it wasn't there, and I just carried on shuffling along at the same pace.  For the final kilometre I must have speeded up a bit to pass a few folk, but still got pipped by Bill Breckenridge and a couple of other runners in the finishing straight.

Pottering around Callendar Park

My final time was 48:50 for 220th place, so just over 4 minutes slower than I've run in the past.  My final lap, despite trying to speed up, was 16:22.  I didn't feel too disappointed afterwards, given that I had no expectations, and just wanted to get out for a run.

Kirkintilloch 12.5k

Results | Garmin Track | Photos

Before the start, I was feeling quite daunted to be running such a tough course, and felt like dropping out after about 1km.  I couldn't quite contemplate how I would last the remaining 11 and a bit kilometres at this kind of pace, but focussed on running at a steady comfortable pace, and counting down the kilometres and minutes.

Kirkintilloch 12.5km route and elevation profile

Quite early on I gave up trying to race anybody, and instead concentrated on the split times and keeping an eye on making sure I scraped in under 50 minutes. Once we got into the final couple of km, I managed to reel in Gary Mitchell, but also got jumped by a couple of runners right before the end, and couldn't find any sort of response.

On the way out

On the way back

Devil's Burdens Relay

Activity on Garmin Connect | Results

My 13th year in a row at the Devil's Burdens Relay.

For 2013, the race was being run in an anticlockwise direction, and with a new changeover location at Kinnesswood.

My route on Leg 3 had a steep opening kilometre to reach the summit of White Craigs, followed by 4km of steady downhill on tracks largely covered with snow. I was quite pleased to maintain around 3:40 per km pace for the last 3km, having done virtually no running so far this year.  I finished the Leg in an official time of 27:21, but it took a few moments to hand over the paper baton to Luke and Cameron, since I was so focused on keeping up the pace to the line, I'd completely forgotten I was in a relay and needed to hand anything over.

Devil's Burdens - Leg 3