It's unique in that starts in the town of Kinghorn in Fife, and runs into the Firth of Forth (almost the North Sea), runs around a....black rock...and then back to Kinghorn. The really confusing part is the '5'. The race is 4.3 miles or almost 7km. Go figure.
What have we just done?!
Fortunately the tide was out so no need to swap our trainers and shorts for flippers and a wetsuit, and the race looked more like this...
Phew! Also, the famous Forth Rail Bridge in the background.
The race was a lot of fun. It was hilly, and the beach section was a slog. A fun slog, but a slog. The first time we had to run through the freezing sea water (see the above photo), there was trepedation and reluctance, but every time after that was no problem. Once your feet are cold and wet, they can't really get any more cold and wet. The town of Kinghorn was out to laugh at support us, and it was much appreciated. It really felt like an event.
The start was a bit chaotic. It reminded me of the Grand National horse race. Once the race organisers had herded the >1000 cats behind the start line in a narrow street, they pretty much grasped the opportunity and just raised the figurative starting tape. I was quite near the front and didn't know we had started until the people in front of me started running off.
It was uphill to the town centre, downhill onto the beach, around the rock, and then back again. The rock was great and about as Scottish as it comes. There was a piper standing on top, playing us a tune against the grey Scottish sky and grey Scottish sea. I could hear him from about 1km away and it was brilliant. After turning around the rock and heading back along the beach to Kinghorn, I thought I could hear above the splashing of feet and wail of the pipes, a wee small voice calling to me. The wee voice went, "STEEEEEEEVE! STEEEEEEEEEEEEVE!!!" Slightly confused I lifted my head and looked around. It was great to see Kata, our Hungarian guest for the week Roli, and Blonde Rachel shouting at me from the other side of the beach on their way out. Here they are waving (not at me, I was about 200m away unfortunately)...
STEEEEEVE!!!! KAAAAATA!!!! ROOOOOLI! RAAAACHEL!
They are enjoying this way too much. :-)
After a tough, short run up powdery sand to get off the beach, it was good to get some tarmac and some traction under my feet. My relief was short lived however as the hardest and cruelest part of the race was still to come.
The race finished about 400m further on from where it started. I can only imagine that the purpose of this was to make us run up the side of a cliff face. I exaggerate, but only a little. Turning a sharp corner at the point where the race had started, I was faced with a very steep incline of about 100m. I dragged myself up out, lungs empty, when I saw some of the HBT guys who had already finished cheering me on. Shouts of "Go Steve!" etc were welcome and pushed me on to greater efforts, but what really helped was James Rogers (see Alloa Half Marathon update) yelling, "Behind you!" at me. I panicked, broke into what qualified for a sprint by this stage, and as I neared the line glanced over my shoulder. There was no one there! Sneaky, but it worked. The little white lie probably shaved 5 seconds off my time.
Tide was well out but we still got wet. I'll be finding sand everywhere for weeks.
Looks like some people are trying to avoid getting wet. Futile.
On the left hand rock in the crevice, you can just see the piper.
Results are in and I finished in 32:24. Not great but not bad - 235th out of 1025.
Everyone who finished got a free beer. Brilliant! We all met in the pub afterwards and the sponsors who had been handing out the free beer had a tent outside and were now selling the beer for £2.50. Awesome! That's about half the price of a beer in some places in Edinburgh. Great race, great beer, and I'm told the burgers from the outdoor barbeque were nice too. Everyone who had taken part in this race before was very excited about it and now I know why.
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