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Two Breweries 2006

I've run this three times now, and each time I've had a shocker. This year delivered a personal worst by something like half an hour, and the funny thing is, I thought I was in pretty good nick going into the race. It was unreasonably warm for almost October, which I think slowed times in general, but I don't think I can blame the heat for such a miserable performance. It all started well enough, and for the first 40 minutes was more-or-less in touch with the lead group of Whitlie, Donnelly (Colin - not John!) and a couple of Boggies. Tis was, of course, once we'd passed neutralised Upson's now traditional 2-mile initial sprint, which saw him a good 200m ahead of the field at one point. After the first real climb up to the first checkpoint, which I reached feeling relaxed and pretty chipper in 5th place came the long tussocky descent into Glen Sax. This took probably about ten minutes, but in these ten minutes I went from feeling sprightly and optimistic to knackered and resigned to a depressing plod over more hills than I cared to think about to the finish.

On the haul out of Glen Sax, which is a bugger at the best of times, I lost a few places, to Andy Kitchen and some old codger from Moorfoot who usually does 'the half-marathon circuit'. I told him he had my pity, but I don't think he knew what I was on about, and he skipped off ahead with his beard and grey hair. Next to appear behind me, after that nasty long contour towards Stob Law, were David Riach and the lumbering hulk of Phil Mowbray - clearly in one of the periodic "pies and beer" phases of his training programme. I'm not sure what alarmed me more, the though of losing my "firsy Westie" berth, of the prospect of being passed by someone tubby enough to be my father.

Phil Caught me first on the descent to Manor Water. I was descending like a complete nancy, and he wasn't much better. We both stumbled repeatedly, but when I suggested it might help if we held hands, he didn't take me up on the offer. We ran chatting to the feed station, where a very chipper David caught us and announced cheerfully that we were half way. I'd already been struggling for an hour, so I'm afraid I had to kill him. Well - I would have if I could have caught him, but he pranced off into the distance with Phil chugging along behind, both of them leaving me to sulk on my own.

I was carrying two full-sized Mars Bars, a Twix , 3 pork pies and half a bag of jelly babies, and over the next few miles I scoffed the lot, in a desperate attempt to put some bounce back into my completely lifeless legs. It didn't work, of course, and I trudged on, walking the climbs and shuffling and cursing on the descents. Lost yet more places on the way down to Stobo, and another couple on the track through the woods, which was a hell of a lot longer than I'd remembered. Chris appeared in the distance behind me, which galvanised me briefly. He almost caught me on the boggy tussocky crap on the way to the foot of Trahenna, but it was obvious that he was toiling as much as I was, and when I hooked up with a nice bloke called Olly from Carnethy and chatted my way up the hill, Chris dropped away again.

Managed to regain a modicum of oomph on the descent from Trahenna, and stayed with Olly until we hit the run-in on the road. Here he took off like a startled hare, and after a glance over my shoulder confirmed that no-one (i.e. Chris) was within striking distance, I plodded gently to the finish in something like 20th place, somewhere between 3:35 and 3:40, I think. David had run a strong second half, and seemed pretty happy with 9th place. Steward retained his title in 2:52, a couple of minutes ahead of Colin. Chris finished a place or two behind me in a bit of a sorry state, and lay on the grass twitching and grunting for a while. Quite a while, in fact. Might still be there, for all I know...

Dave Calder and Graham Kelly completed the Westies team, which may have secured third spot. Not sure, as I couldn't be arsed staying for the prize-giving - I'd already wasted enough brownie points. Instead, after 2 cups of soup served at the temperature of molten lava, I clutched my complementary bottle of Greenmantle to my breast and made my way ignominiously home.

Two Breweries 2006 2006Two Breweries 2006 2006Two Breweries 2006 2006Two Breweries 2006 2006Two Breweries 2006 2006Two Breweries 2006 2006Two Breweries 2006 2006Two Breweries 2006 2006Two Breweries 2006 2006Two Breweries 2006 2006

Posted by Damon Rodwell on Sat 23 Sep 2006 | 9 comments

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  1. 5 in a row said...

    so what youre saying is that you didnt run well then ?

    Sunday 24th September 2006 12.34pm

  2. Damon said...

    something like that! Why are you hiding your smart-arsed remarks behind a pseudonym?

    Sunday 24th September 2006 2.35pm

  3. Dave said...

    I'd run the 2 Breweries three times before, the last time 15 years ago. The familiar recollections of helplessness and utter despondency came back to me whilst shuffling up the path from Stobo and over to Trahenna and a barrowload of runners wheeched past me. To see what helplessness and utter despondency look like, just look at the photo of me posted along with this report. Co-incidentally, I also ran a pw by half-an-hour, although middlish age and a big belly are my excuse. The big belly was evident as I loaned my bumbag to Damon, who had to pull the belt in by about 4 foot 6 inches before it fitted around his stick-like torso.Still, it's as great an event as I remembered, even if the field was smaller than usual. By the time I got to the village hall, the soup had cooled from molton lava to something quite acceptable. As well as the Westies mentioned by Damon, Hamilton and Pauline also competed. Hamilton and I were more or less together until Stobo, after which I had some small satisfaction in realising that he was suffering even more than I was. Pauline had a fine run ; her husband Craig ( an ex-Westie) was there being in a possibly unique position of having been at every race ( doing results) but never competing. Wise man?Westies were third team overall, coming away with a case of raspberry flavoured cider. Is there a message there?

    Results:1 Stewart Whitlie 2:52:322 Colin Donnelly 2:55:303 Alastair Hubbard 3:02:589 David Riach 3:16:5319 Damon Rodwell 3:40:5122 Chris Sprintstart Upson 3:43:2629 Grahan Kelly 3:55:1242 Dave Calder 4:17:0046 Hamilton Semple 4:38:4253 Pauline McAdam 5:00:0855 finished, 63 started.Teams; 1st HBT, 2nd Carnethy, 3rd Westies.

    Sunday 24th September 2006 7.08pm

  4. Graham K said...

    My 2nd shot at the 2 Brews day out. Smaller turnout than last year which is a shame ...it is a fantastic course !

    The road started well for Westies with Capn Chris leading off into the distance. I stayed a repectable distance behind him under the guise of "warming up" for the first hill. The track leading off Orchard Rig is one of those just wide enough to continually trip kinda things. Running on the left made the right look better and when you swapped to the right ...the left looked better etc ...

    It was on the climb up to Birkscairn I first met Peter Duggan of Lochaber - we were to spend much of the rest of the race passing by each other. The descent down to Glensax was a killer on the quads - medium to short heather. Peter took a more direct line up Hundleshope whilst I stuck to the gully and burn. I popped up at the summit "just" in front - whether this was because it was a better route or whether I was trying harder (Hamilton and Dave C were close on my heals) I don't know.

    The traverse over towards the col below Stob Law seemed easier than last year which was good (legs were suffering a bit already). Over Stob and disengage brain to simply follow the orange arrows for a while. Water at the farm was well appreciated.

    Other than Peter the next section was fairly empty of fellow racers ...a fact confirmed by the marshalls. It seemed that folks were fairly spread out by now. The descent from Whitelaw past Dead Wife's Grave was brutal. I had an energy gel and some jelly beans in the hope of a wee sugar rush - if not to help the legs ...help the head a bit at least. It was about here I saw Peter for the last time (until after the finish anyway).

    Despite taking on more water at the entrance to Stobo, I could barely keep a slow trot going along the trails. For some reason, I expected to be able to make some time up here but no such luck. I tried walking to see if that was any less sore ...but it was worse. Might seem a little wierd but I was actually happy to be climbing Trehanna and I even managed to catch a Carnethy vest coming off the summit. Thought about trying an alternative descent line (just off the ridge) but opted for what I knew from last year and stuck to the ridge line as long as possible. Onto the road with about 15 minutes to spare (under 4 hours was the target) and passed under the finish line in 3:55:12 - well happy.

    It was hot for sure but what a fantastic race the 2 Breweries is. Can't help but feel if we had more longer races like this in Scotland then the turnouts might be bigger - any thoughts anyone ?

    Sunday 24th September 2006 7.11pm

  5. Damon said...

    Well done all. It is a cracking race. Wish I could get it right! Apologies for omitting Hamilton from my report. It was written through a fog of fatigue on Saturday night. The typos in were caused my my head dropping onto the keyboard at regular intervals. Quads stiffer than they have been for years - more so than after any stages of the recent 6-stage race in the alps, even the 34-mile, 12,000 ft killer-day. Strange, eh?

    Thanks for the bumbag, Dave. If for any reason you can't adjust the strap back to where it was, you could always wear it around a thigh!

    Monday 25th September 2006 10.14am

  6. dt said...

    my goodness Dave you take a good photo ps WHAT is GK doing wjth that fence post

    Monday 25th September 2006 11.17am

  7. Graham K said...

    Not exactly sure what I was doin ....well that is my excuse anyway !

    Monday 25th September 2006 12.50pm

  8. Hamilton said...

    Suffering is it! Suffering. Yes,Dave, you're right there. You were slightly ahead at Stobo,and there was utterlyno hope of catching you as I drank the water & realised I had crashed (terminal meltdown).Finish,but finish,had to be the mantra. In the first part of the race it was going fairly well,as Graham said, Dave & I were just behind him,but then Graham must have sprinted for the meal & beer at the Hall. Oh,sorry , no ,that was me,without the sprint part. Great race,superbly organised,actually enjoyed the top of Trahenna in best of sunny day with the breeze now. THought it would be warm,but it was baking hot. Damon,don't worry about that, but don't forget to mention Pauline. Remember she was racing too !

    Monday 25th September 2006 3.27pm

  9. Pauline said...

    Thank you to all those who noticed me. I reckon I enjoyed most of the run - I didn't actually think of it as a race. It was a pretty lonely experience as I was on my own for most of the way, making occasional contact with a group of 4. I seemed to catch up with them on uphill sections but then they would disappear. I saw nobody, apart from marshalls and one very exhausted runner whom I passed, between the top of Whitelaw and the final bit up Trahenna. Talk about the loneliness of the long distance runner!

    Tuesday 26th September 2006 10.07pm

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