A good group of Westies made the journey for the first of this season’s East Coast Bog n Burn races on Wednesday. It was a nice cool evening for running and there was one of those ‘strong fields’ in attendance. Fair midgey at the start – it was a relief to get going. My legs
Jura has many fine attractions and the Craighouse Parkrun is no exception. One of the loveliest 5k stretches of road in Scotland, with a wonderful welcome and fantastic feed at the end. So popular has this even become that the organisers decided that they needed to stagger the runner start times to avoid congestion. They
“It’s a Blizzard Bag – a bright, orange brick covered in plastic – it’s very obvious,” said Ruth on the phone in Connel on Thursday night. “Well if it’s very obvious, how did they leave it on the bloody train?” snorted the Oban station-meister on the other end of the line before bursting out laughing.
A rough chronology of my thoughts this morning: Walking to Pasos De Las Delicias: OK, a bit of sniffle, a slight temperature, that’s fine, that’s fine, this is going to be good, this is going to be good. Start Line: [Excited Now.] Let’s have it! Mile 3: That felt a bit hard, but you’re just
It’s the race that I didn’t run that I think about the most. Should I have followed those guys when they made a break? Maybe I could’ve picked up the ‘final effort’ pace a little bit earlier? I was surely being too conservative for the first few miles? I decided I wanted a
I ran this race. It went well. Thought I might be able to win for the first five miles, then realised I probably couldn’t. I slowed down a bit in the second-half. Because I went too fast at first? Or did I get lazy once the top-spot was out of reach? Or was
As much as the thought of busting a gut legging it up the track under the gondola at Aonach Mor following the excesses of a Hogmany in Glen Nevis appealed, I decided I was going to be spectating and snapping for this one. Not enough inclines in my training recently and doing three races in
I was cheering in the Falkland Village Hall when it was announced that the Westies Men had won the Devils Burdens for the first time, that cheer was pretty good and then so was the cheer for the V60 Men repeating the feat a few minutes later…I got trashed on the prize keg on the
What makes the brand-new Tilli 10k an excellent race? The course is a fast, flat out-and-back with a long loop turn-around; one for a good time. The course is also an idyllic meander through the woods by the river if you’re in to that sort of thing. The start is 20ft away from the
Unlike the hills, for a road race I reckon you want an unremarkable course – flat, minimal changes in direction, laps maybe and just enough scenery to avoid tedium. ‘Unremarkable’ because ‘boring’ is the wrong word. With nothing else to distract, you can focus on the important task of running as fast as you can