pentlands skyline

thought i would get this one in early before chris got wind of the results.

the race officials recorded me as finishing in 76th place over 1 hour fifteen minutes behind the winner, but this paints a picture of an ill prepared runner, low on fitness, not fit to wear the covetted sunflower yellow ‘w’ vest, which i may add caused a few problems on such a scalding day, with a burning ‘w’ etched into my back on the 2 hour home straight.

I entered this race on the back of some serious training/preparation, having spent 2 hours the previous night folding my inkjet printed map to fit into my small sandwich bag and so appointed myself as the unofficial pentlands team manager. my plan/goal was to secure our 3 man/ 1 woman team of chris, 8th/2:49 ellen 29th/ 3:11, JD 57th/3:32 and myself top 100/sub 4 hours into the spot prizes. unfortunately my pre race plan to run the race hand in hand went out the window as chris somehow managed to make 4 minutes on me in the first 2 minutes before i could relay my plan. after i allowed ellen to pass me at speed, before i could suggest the hand in hand bit, on the climb to turnhouse and monitored her progress into the distance i comfortably set into my shuffle walk inviting most of the runners to reel me in and pass me… but where was JD! fuelled by the free portions of dried fruit, by black hill he was on his 2nd or 3rd wind and it was here we ran together for a few seconds, again not hand in hand before i decided he was ready to kick on and so i eased off the pace/ slowed my walk down further and gifted him 13 minutes or so. all i had to do now was finish the race to be in with a chance of the spot prizes. this was easier said than done as by now my burning ‘w’ was causing me major discomfort and with no first aiders in sight, i found myself slipping even further down the pack and right out the prizes. well done to chris and ellen for a fine run and thanks to JD for not laughing aloud at my feeble descending. maybe the mcandrews next year…