Visit Scotland Great Trail Run Loch Lomond 10k 9/9/06
“Buchanan Rides Alone” is the name of a 1958 film starring Randolph Scott who, somewhat controversially doesn't ride alone throughout it. Afternoon fare, I've never seen it and can't say I care much for the title.
Today was such a day though, as I appeared to be the sole PRC representative over at Loch Lomond doing the catchily titled Visit Scotland Great Trail Run Loch Lomond 10k. I like trails and there are not many on the running calendar so this appealed. Mary had work commitments so I was on my own. No problem surely - trains go to Balloch right beside the event and it starts later in the day so plenty time to get there. Actually it starts at 5.10pm which is strange, but as things transpired, turned out to be about the best time on a sunny day to have a run.
Not without problems though. Let me say I did enjoy the day and it was a good race and perfect weather for it - bright and not too warm - but the day was so full of incident that I have quite a lot to say that won't be complimentary, and so I repeat, it was, in general, a good race. But......
First of all I have become too accustomed to being chauffeured to races and so public transport turned out to be a bit of a wake-up call. I set off with plenty of time to miss a connection and still make the race but Scotrail or whoever runs the trains had found some sunlight on the rails and cancelled all trains to Queen St. Eventually this was sorted but not before a machine had taken my ticket leaving the original platform at Waverley and refused to give it back. It looked for a while like I might get to the race just after it started, but the West Coast system was running more smoothly than the East and I arrived with maybe 20 mins to run from Balloch station which was just across the road from the 9km marker, to the race start which was at the romantically named Loch Lomond Shores retail crescent. “Loch Lomond” says the entry form, “is an area of outstanding natural beauty.” It may well have been before the retail crescent, the speedboats, the jet-skis, the concrete walkways, and, let's face it, the visitors.
However I was still in a caffeine frenzy (my racing drug of choice) and after getting directions to the start from a Helensburgh runner I knew, I changed and left my bag in the information tent (no changing rooms, no proper showers, no baggage dump) where the cheery girls said it would be fine. I did a couple of strides and visited the least busy portaloos I've ever seen at a race, then joined the deepening crowd at the start line. 5.03pm - made it. Then I realised I wasn't wearing my Championchip. Holy Crap. Back to the Info tent (crossing and re-crossing the race route) then back to the back of the start which by now is hundreds deep and it is impossible to push to the front. Oh well, its not a serious race, is it? The fun runners outnumber the club runners - seems to be the way at Great Runs - like word has got out that its mainly for joggers? First the Elite Women were set off then the Elite Men (at 5.09 bang on time) - they have both been swimming and cycling today and this race is the third discipline of their triathlon, which goes some way to explaining the late start, though not why everyone is starting at the same time - and not, as is more usual, in the order they came off their bikes. A helicopter hovers overhead and there are TV crews round the course. After the elite men leave I realise there are hundreds ahead of me still and as we leave the retail crescent on a road too narrow to facilitate overtaking I am jogging slower than on a recovery run. The coffee makes me feel like I am driving a car with the accelerator and brake both full on. I try not to zig zag round folk too much but after a while we hit a wider road and I overtake 300 joggers in 100 yards. During the second km I have moved through the field and past the lead woman. We are running through the trees but still on tarmac and hard pack trails. The entry info recommended trail shoes, (saying the course had “challenging sections”) and if we had had normal West coast weather for a few weeks that might have been good advice, however you could have worn racing flats. My trail shoes came home cleaner than they left. I would have been cursing if I'd worn Walshes. All the grass was nicely mown (in case anyone went over on an ankle?) And you'd have had to have chosen to get mud on your feet. There were some bark chippings like you get in garden centres but most of the natural beauty had been cleared up. I was still overtaking folk as we pulled up a tarmac slope. I overtook 2 guys (actually walking - on tarmac!) and thought this strange until I realised they were probably triathletes who'd been for a swim and a cycle and had run out of steam. The course was well marshalled - it needed to be as instead of following a natural route round Balloch Castle estate and doing a couple of laps it wove back and forth looking for unnecessary lines to add up to one circuit of 10kms. So you would turn off for a 75 yrd detour before joining the main path again. Then after going past the castle you turned back and did a big contour down some grassy slope before following the perimeter of the walled garden then rejoining the path you left after the castle. All very confusing, but well signposted. I thought I was going to join up with the earlier triathletes at this stage but it was, however, the main pack way behind.
Did I mention it was really pleasant surroundings? Lots of scenic water (Loch Lomond) and hills in the background, and lovely (allbeit manicured) paths. Sunshine and even a water station. I spent the whole race looking to the man ahead, overtaking, then moving up to the next. Got a few of the triathletes as well. And since there was a good sized crowd and a loudspeaker, even made a bit of a sprint to the line
. Someone shouted my name in the last couple of hundred but didn't see who. Thanks. Under 38 mins - quicker than the (flat) Gas 10K. Spoke to a couple of Julia's pals from Helensburgh, then after getting one of the info girls to take my photo headed towards the train station. I stopped to change clothes al fresco then cheered on the remaining runners along the route to the train. The info girls had said there were showers of a sort along the jetty but it sounded more like a place to wash the sand off your jet-ski. (Not a metaphor.) I was anxious to return to Edinburgh - prolonged exposure to the West - but mainly the exertion of the run, was taking its toll.
While I don't subscribe to the acrimonious East/West thing per se, the differences, on top of a long day travelling, (1.45pm ~ 8.45pm with only 38mins running,) can mount up. It would be churlish to point out that this is the second race I've been to West of Stirling, to feature no showers, but a deodorant in the goody bag. And although it confirms rumours about the locals and soap and water, maybe we should move on and focus on that goody bag. Whereas the Edinburgh 5.2k Great Winter
Run had cost a small mortgage and there was no medal, here there was (for a more modest price) a t-shirt and a medal and some raisins and some massage gel, Lucozades and a foil blanket (to add to the foil blanket collection.) I do like a medal to hang on the medal pole. What do you mean you just throw yours in the back of a drawer? However this is one of the ugliest medals I think I've seen. Not cheap looking but just a kind of nasty colour of copper. Sort of like bronze but about 25 elements lower in status. Now I can hear you say “overtired” but I showed it to Mary who agreed it was pretty hideous. Thing is, I scanned it and it looks terrific. I took a photo and it still looks pretty impressive. Take my word for it; its not. And while we're at it, what is the point of offering small, medium and large t-shirts if the medium would fit a medium-sized darts player? Nice design though. But who thought “Trail it” was a good dynamic phrase? You are the weakest link.
I'm not going to go on about the appearance of my fellow passengers on the return journey. You can hardly blame the West for that. The deep-pan slap.
The crop-top shop-tan spare tyre over the low cut hipsters, with, if your luck is out, a glimpse of a well clenched thong. But that's a global pandemic you say, and sadly it is, but I was led to believe the West was so far ahead of the East re couture. Apparently not.
In summary, the good outweighed the bad, but not by a Great deal.
Report Peter Buchanan
Photos Info Girl, Peter + Mary
Never mind the Ballochs....Results just in and they say I did 38.07 which must be gun time as I recorded my (chip) time from passing over the mat at the start to beyond the finish as 37.52. (It took about 15secs to get over the start line.) In the past (Great Runs) the first 100 have been given gun times rather than chip times. I still managed 11th place and 3rd vet40, so I'm not complaining. Much.
