I was surprised to receive a call from the Ben Nevis Race secretary offering me a place just three weeks before the race. Assuming I wouldn’t get a place, I had entered to run in the Glasgow half marathon on the following day. In spite of my decision never to race the Ben again after
For the first race in the club’s autumn league, a grand total of seven Westies gathered in Strathmiglo for the Lomonds of Fife hill race. As the lead runners dragged the peleton up West Lomond from the starting field, it became apparent that the heat of the day was going to take its toll. The
Caerketton hill race is the last in the Bog and Burn series, and was my first Bog and Burn outing of 2010. It’s a super-short race which simply runs steeply up alongside the Hillend Ski slope along tracks, through the foilage to the summit cairn of Caerketton and back down the same way. The route
Ouf! A smattering of 9 yellow vests were amongst those gathered on the start line at Glenshee ski centre on Sunday morning for the long and demanding Glenshee 9 hill race. The car had scraped the underside of a low lying cloud base on the drive into the glen prompting a certain amount of map
The 10K finale to the Tour of Clydeside is hosted by Bellahouston Harriers in Pollok Park on the Friday evening. This year, the ‘tourers’, now feeling properly warmed up by the three (or four) races of the week, were joined by a good crowd of random runners. This route, running anticlockwise this year, follows two
With legs well and truly gubbed from Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday’s races, Chris and I jogged up to Thursday’s 5K trail race around the familiar stomping ground of Garscube woods behind Dawsholm Park. The route is reassuringly undulating and takes in three loops along the paths which meander through the woods. With six minutes to
Tuesday night saw another healthy Westie turnout of 6 for the second Tour of Clydeside race hosted on the towpath at Clydebank. With nostrils full of fish and chip scent wafting from the nearby McMonagles, we set off eastbound along the canal on another delightful out and back route. For the second night running I
Monday evening saw five Westie women and two Westie men don their trainers for the first of the four Tour of Clydeside 2010 races which run throughout this week. This course is arguably the hardest and least appealing of the races, as it involves a simple out and back route along the almost entirely flat
As anyone who has been out of running action for any length of time will know, the return to racing can feel effortful at best and an impossible bodily feat at worst. So, three or so weeks since the pain in my ankle tendon mysteriously vanished, I awakened to the realisation that I had to
What a long drive for a piddly short race! However, temptation was too great and the journey was sort of justified by a pre-race cycle around to Loch Tay. With ear plugs in place to dampen the furious Bagpipe noise, I set off within a field of 20 odd runners around the track and out