Deer Stalking

March 4, 2008 on 10:58 pm | In Uncategorized |

I have returned from running with the deer and ohh how I ache.

I flew away on Thursday and we had a business meeting in Edinburgh, this gave me a chance to nip into the Edinburgh Bike Coop for some bits for the new fleet of bikes we have for Bike Hebrides

Saturday found Jez and I wandering round Glasgow looking for braces and shirts, we also had to pop into Laura Ashley to pick up our waist coats and shorts. After meeting Jamie the team was complete and we laughed our way to the race start.

This is where the organisation of the race started to show a few limitations. We were standing in the queue and getting closer to the desk when they said they were closing until quarter past two. This was because of the 5k race but it would have been nice to tell us so we didn’t spend 30 minutes standing around. It was worth going out to watch the start of the 5k it was hilarious. The start line with the backdrop of Traquair House. Then on the start there was a mad dash up to the first hurdle a line of bales of straw. There was carnage when they all arrived.

We checked in and then off to the pub for lunch. Jez and Jamie found the new food of the elite sports person The Sports Burger. Jamie did resist the chips in the name of training.

We doned our tailormade tweeds courtesy of Breanish Tweed suitably refreshed we made our way to the start.

At the start as we walked though to the start line we caused a bit of a stir, one of the comments ‘You have already won the award for satorial elegance’

At the race start we were joined by Dave Wiseman and we decided the best start was to be over the bales as fast as possible and then accept we were going to get over hauled and settle into our own races. The start saw us perfectly positioned and then we were off. Over the bales and then into the corner at which point I discovered I was in serious oxygen debt and I needed to slow down. So, I settled back into my own pace and accepted I was going to get overhauled.

The first obstacle was a muddy ditch and then the start of the accent, the lung busting hill. We just seemed to keep going up. My lungs were bursting and my legs screaming it was time to stop. Finally though, we topped out and there was a fantastic downhill tear through the forest. Into the river and then another up hill, it wasn’t to bad until we rounded the corner and faced the ’stone shoot’. It seemed to go up into the clouds. As I climbed I started to pass people, I decided there was no way I could stop or I would never get started again. Reaching the top I realised it was so dark I had to get out the head torch another down hill and into the forest, slippery and a little less exciting and more scarey. There was an amusing interlude here with flashing lights and dark music a sureal experience in the middle of a 10k mountain run?

It was here the organisation of the race started to see a few more problems. At some of the junctions on the way up the route marking hadn’t been great but as the dark fell the lack of marking made finding our way more difficult. At the junctions there was a distinct lack of waymarking and at one stream we came out and there was no markers on the exit and we had to ask some local kids for directions. Then we went over the river Tweed and again there confusion over where the route went eventually we found it and ran for the finish.

There was a little disapointment when we also discovered there was no free beer as promised on the web site if you came in tweeds.

It was a good run but the niggles, which talking to competitors from last year were the same, let the event down. A little thought and it would have been not just good but fantastic.

Next there was a suggestion of doing the Jura Fell run I will need to see what my legs are saying about it at the end of the week - 16 miles and 2500 feet of accent …

Tim Pickering
http://www.canoehebrides.com
Living in the world's biggest adventure playground - The Outer Hebrides CanoeHebrides.com - Sea kayaking Expeditions BikeHebrides.com -Quality Mountain Bike Hire