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Durisdeer Dawdle
14th June 2008
The British Championship cavalcade of superstar runners rolled into sleepy Durisdeer to hurtle round this circuit of rolling grassy hills at unbelievable speed.
The start was the maddest of all mad starts. A kamikaze descent of 250+ runners to a burn and bridge crossing, before hitting the first long uphill slog.
I plodded slowly upwards with David Riach, watching the close-packed gold and black WWW vests of Manny, Nige and Crawford pulling away.
On the steep descent to the first road crossing, I passed David and Elke, and soon moved up to one place behind Crawford, before my overheated brain suddenly decided to follow Alan Smith on a wild-goose chase up the hillside, foolishly thinking this might be a cunning short cut.
It wasnt't. And by the time I regained the main path, David, Elke and Crawford were all off in the distance, and I had to work hard to re-pass all the runners I had recently worked hard to pass!
I got a slight 2nd wind heading to the 2nd road crossing and passed a labouring Des Crowe and a few others, before the final hands on knees flog up Well Hill, and was almost within reach of Crawford again. But once descending, Des and Crawford flew away, whilst I bumbled down at my own pace, stopping to re-tie my flapping shoelaces, and letting Andy Spencely and Dave Scott get past.
On the final descent, I picked off Andy and one other, but couldn't quite reel in Dave Scott who seems on incredible form at the moment for an old man.
At the sharp end, Rob Jebb won by 7 seconds from Morgan Donnelly in a record time of 1:21:52, whilst Angela Mudge knocked exactly 20 minutes off the ladies record to finish in 1:34:42.
Posted by Chris Upson on Mon 16 Jun 2008 | 9 comments
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Comments
Val said...
A lesson in hill running, shoes & when you have you cake, eat it!
Loved the route & the weather (well if I had only been chair lifted down that first descent). The stuff above way was off my radar, but thought the big field experience was great. Had been unsure if I'd go the distance and had a shocking start - politely waited in line to get over the bridge so i didn't get my feet wet (lost a few places), took the 'high road' rather than the contour (lost about a dozen more), minced my way down the steep descent (approx. 15), reached the track wondering what was flapping around my ankles? Thankfully not my shorts, but an insole - shoe adjustments (5) and after one further shoelace re-tie (2) had quite a nice run! Certainly plenty of people to try and catch. Had great early vantage position to watch the scottish V50 tussle between Christine and Jocelyn Scott - well done Christine. Didn't see too many other W. Considered making an effort to retain the trousers but was having too nice a time, was greeted by Murdo just after the last summit with 'not you again!' - sorry Murdo.
The tea and cakes were as always a highlight, but my final miscalculation of the day when lounging chilled and chatting in the churchyard was to save my chocolate crispy to savour for last..... but some pesky scoundrel of a dog nipped between 2 gravestones and savoured it for me - bah!
Really fun day, well done westies.
Monday 16th June 2008 10.43pm
jd said...
Along with a few hundred other lucky souls and plenty of Westies I enjoyed a great day out in the hamlet of Durisdeer for the British/Scottish Championship Race. We were blessed with perfect weather in a lovely setting nestled in the rolling hills near Drumlanrig Castle. After a mad dash downhill for ten yards we all slogged up the long first hill with a couple of different route choices becoming apparent. I tracked Murdo for a bit until the crazy downhill to Dalveen. On the long runnable track that followed I laboured a bit, though the tremendous scenery eased the pain a bit. The descent down to the road crossing was great fun, and then there was the tedious slog up to Well Hill. However by then I started feeling good and managed to pull away from Murdo and close down a group ahead. From the summit I was feeling strong and enjoyed a good run over to Black Hill, where it was a great runnable descent down the up we had initially endured. I was chuffed to finish well under the 2 hour mark, a mere 30 mins behind winner Rob Jebb. Great tea and cakes afterwards in the graveyard!! That fuelled me up for a 40 mile cycle afterwards down some lovely country roads to Forest of Ae and back, narrowly avoiding getting ran over in the absolute middle of nowhere by a woman driving out of a farmhouse. back at Durisdeer at 7.30pm there was no sign of the madness that had taken place earlier in the day. Big thanks to Adam and his helpers who organised a wonderful event.
Monday 16th June 2008 11.08pm
Ellie said...
These Westie dogs really do take the biscuit! Well done Megan (and Val, and Brenda, Christine and Pat and any other WW that I've forgotten to mention).
Tuesday 17th June 2008 8.56am
Indignant Val said...
How could you even suggest it was Megan!
Tuesday 17th June 2008 9.35am
Adam Anderson said...
The dog stole the cakes out the tent in the finish field as well, big thanks to all the graveyard diners for leaving the entire area as if a race had never happened.results are nearly in electronic form and should be online soon, possibly tomorrow.
Tuesday 17th June 2008 2.58pm
Chris said...
Summary of Westie runners:Pos Name Time41 Manuel Gorman 1:36:4450 David Riach 1:38:3654 Nigel Scott 1:40:0161 Crawford Spence 1:41:2270 Chris Upson 1:43:2293 Don Reid 1:47:21118 John Donnelly 1:52:21131 Rob MacQuater 1:55:48134 Valerie Houston 1:56:31135 Murdo MacLeod 1:57:04182 Peter Baxter 2:13:44187 Elspeth Scott 2:16:22194 Brian Brennans 2:20:18211 Donald Smith 2:28:48215 Christine Menhennet 2:33:59222 Pauline McAdam 2:43:21223 Patricia McLaughlin 2:49:46225 Brenda Paul 2:52:18
Full results
Tuesday 17th June 2008 10.47pm
Christine said...
Please update results Chris!
Wednesday 18th June 2008 8.07pm
Chris said...
OK, OK, OK - the results have now been updated. Christine finished in 2:01, and not 2:33
Hit "refresh" or F5 to see latest results
Thursday 19th June 2008 9.20am
JasonLongSlow said...
Well done to all of you. Good to see a big gang out and great to see Manny out in the old gold and black. My summer in the Lakes means I am not out at club races as much at the moment so it is good to hear about you all.
Hope to see most of you at Arrochar next week one way or another (plug plug)
Thursday 19th June 2008 9.40am