Glentress (Peebles) Hill Running Championships, Open Race 6/8/05
Willie Jarvie and I travelled to Peebles on Saturday, 6 August for a 11.5km hill race, reports Gerry Scullion.
For me this was my first real experience of hill racing. For Willie, it was his first hill race of the year. Both of us hoped that the club training, which often covers hills would stand us in good stead. I think I can say it did. Willie had an excellent race finishing 5th overall (in a small field of runners) in a time of 53 mins 49 secs and I finshed nearly 1.5 mins behind, one place behind Willie.
The course was tough. The first 20 mins was a continuous uphill stretch, on a gravel path to start with, then onto a more difficult, and at times boggy, path through a forest. This was a real test of endurance and I suffered towards the end of the hill stretch. Following this we completed a high level circuit, again for the last 3 or 4 mins returning back up the final part of the hill we had previously run up. For me, although tough, I felt I could do it and though I could see Willie in front I could not catch him.
What you go up you must come back down. The final 15 mins was spent decending back to the starting point. This seemed easy in comparison and I began to wonder what my complaints were about earlier.
Still, overall a good day out and a very good training run. Good practice too for the cross country season ahead. Hill running really does feel quite different from road race, or that's my excuse. Long uphill stretches do test you to the limit and a bit of care needs to be taken on the downward sections when you're pretty tired.Report Gerry Scullion