An update on a couple of races I have ran recently.
First of all, The Allermuir Gallop.
The Allermuir Gallop - Thursday 12th May 2016
This is a hill race in the Pentlands and is organised by one
of my club mates, Ian Campbell. Very low key, and entry is by donation to
Ian’s charity of choice, which this year helped to build a school in
Guatemala.
The weather was perfect, and the race was short, steep, and
challenging. As any reader of this blog knows, I am not a hill runner,
and so I struggled. Every single time I run a hill race, I swear to
myself that I am “never doing this again” but, inevitably, I do. My
Garmin tells me that I ran 4.34km in 6:46, but it’s worth mentioning that the
majority of that is uphill. The race route is about 2/3 uphill and 1/3
back down again. Elevation gain was 319m.
I was beaten to the top by most people, but managed to pass
a few again on the way back down (unusual for me). One incident worthy of
a mention is that in order to pass fellow HBT runner Amy, I had to go slightly
back uphill on a sort of mound, then back down again because the path was too
narrow to pass her otherwise. As I went by her she said something to me
that sounded a bit like, “You cheeky bar steward!”. I must ask her what
she meant.
Rigg Race
Brilliant race. Loved, loved, loved this race.
Loved it. Straight into my all time favourite races, and I am already
looking forward to next year’s.
Again, in the Pentlands, starting from Balerno, ostensibly
a road race, but extremely hilly. You might say “undulating”, but
you’d be stretching the definition of that word to it’s limit. I had no
idea about the race at all beforehand, only deciding to run it at the last
minute, and I couldn’t find any information about it on the website of the
organising club, Harmeny. I took with me my road, trail, and fell
shoes. What I forgot was my wallet, so thanks very much to Jon Rathjen
for paying my entry.
According to my Garmin, I ran 9.41km in 42:26 which I am
very please with given how “undulating” it was. Check out this graph
sowing how uphill then back down it was. Before the race, the
aforementioned Amy suggested ‘d probably beat her to the top of the hill
easily. I wasn’t so sure, and to be fair, although I did (just) reach the
top before her, it wasn’t easy. I think I passed her with about 200m to
go before the top, and as I passed I did mention to her that she had been
right. The downhill was like dropping off a cliff. I pegged it with
my maximum pegginess, trying to keep my balance as I ran the steep downhill at
pace. At the end, my right heel was BURNING – I had to take my shoes and
sock off and put my heel in the cool mud to let it recover.
The weather was great, the scenery was fantastic (great view
of the Pentlands), friendly race ran by mainly club runners with a few locals
thrown in, and cheap beer in the rugby club bar afterwards.
Here are the results, and the Garmin stats…
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