What is it with all the hill races?!
On Thursday 21st May I ran my latest, Kinnoull Hill Race in Perth. It was an off the cuff decision made because Brian asked me if I fancied it. I had nothing else planned for Thursday evening so why not?
The discussion in the lead up to the race was what was the most appropriate footwear? Road, trail, or fell shoes? Conventional wisdom for a hill raise would be fell shoes, but the consensus amongst those that had taken part in this race before was that road shoes were best, so I lined up at the start (on a road) in my road shoes. The majority of the race was on trail and off road, and next time I run this race I will be wearing my trail shoes. You could even at one point (running steeply downhill on grass) have made an argument for fell shoes, but in the end road shoes were OK.
The race ascended up Kinnoull Hill sharply and quickly. I had no time to catch my breath or get into my rhythm before I was dragging myself up the side of a 600ft (183m) hill. I suppose that is a prominent characteristic of hill races. It was over relatively quickly though which I was glad about because I was struggling. It wasn’t as hard as Ben Lomond by any stretch of the imagination and I managed to run up pretty much the whole way, only power walking on two occasions when the path was narrow and I couldn’t get past the slower runner in front of me. Reaching the top the views were fantastic. I had seen the tower at the top of this cliff face many times before from the road and wondered about it. It was fascinating to be finally so close to it – it’s more ruined than it looks like from the bottom!
Actually quite ruined - spectacular view though
The race distance was about 6.5km and the summit was at 2km so it was mostly a winding and undulating downhill after the short sharp climb. I am terrible at running downhill and so I made a conscious effort to push on as hard as I could and to at least not LOSE any time on the descent. I did OK, I don’t expect to be suddenly brilliant at it, so it’s progress in the right direction. I was getting into my rhythm and even at the short uphill parts of the descent (if you know what I mean) I was passing more people than were passing me. I nearly ran right into the back of a girl from Central AC who I had been chasing for a while and who then stopped dead right in front of me. I suppose she was OK and just tired, it was a slight uphill section and I didn’t hang around to check.
The race was intense and I was focussed on pushing forward throughout. Notable events included the wee dog that ran along beside me for a bit, waiting for me to catch up, then running off again. If I had four legs I’d be awesome at hill running too! I nearly lost my number at one point but managed to grab it before it fell off completely and I crossed the line holding it in my hand. A final sharp decent, a sharp right hand turn, and I crossed the line to finish one of the rare races when I felt that I literally did the best I could and couldn’t have ran any faster.
Beautiful hill race in the centre of Perth
Results are in and I finished in 34:59, 79th out of 182.
The post race tea and cakes were the best I have ever seen. At the bargain race entry price of £2 we definitely had our money’s worth out of one of the best marshalled, nicest races, with the best hospitality. I can’t recommend this race enough and it will hopefully become a highlight of my racing calendar for years to come. The organisers should go visit XXX and show them how to mark out a race route using tape hanging from trees!
Thanks to Brian for driving us all there. On the journey home Carrie mentioned that she liked Thursday races because it felt like the weekend had arrived early. Nice. Everyone was in a good mood after The Kinnoull Hill race.
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