Tour of Fife, Day3, Up Hell Time Trial 1.4miles 31/07/09
Gorillas in the mist.
Day 3 and the cracks are beginning to show. I fell asleep in the car again - the weariness of racing combined with a lively week of working outdoors between showers. Today's treat was (after a registration I still don't understand in the car park of Falkland Village Hall) a mile and a bit up one of the most relentlessly steep tarmac hills in Scotland.
We were set off in pairs at intervals of 30secs in a not quite non specific order. The organisation was once again spot on. All the more impressive as it was a steady drizzle all evening and really quite unpleasant to be out in. We arrived in plenty of time to run about 50 laps of the road end where everyone gathered at the start of the hill. Folk were dressed in bin bags and waterproofs trying to keep warm and limber while awaiting the call to the front where you would stand for a moment before being 3,2,1ed and off you went.
This process was like a drum roll, cranking you up until it was your go. I was feeling sick with anticipation by the time I lined up with my partner for the run Stevie Ogg, who, being local, got dogs abuse from the starter. We bode each other good luck then it was off and I legged the first 100yards until the I shook the adrenaline out the system. From there on, it was heart attack central.
Lets get this over with.Andrew Henderson had (like most who knew the format) parked at the top of the hill and run down the course. He informed us of the markers for 800, Half Way, 1600 etc. These were really helpful in letting you know roughly how much longer the pain was to continue. 800 seemed to come up pretty quickly. However it was too misty / rainy to see far ahead and just a matter of keeping on going until you expired / had a seizure / reached the top.
There was no way I was catching either of the pair ahead so I tried to use Stevie as a pacer. Who was (judging from the sounds coming from him) a short way behind. I knew today was going to be a bad one. For all the hills I run I am not much use at the ups and if I do well, it is more on account of the descents. I would have done much better had the route included a return to the start. To Hell and Back might be a handy title if they want to try that next year though it would be a real quad destroyer as the gradient is quite intense the whole way.
That bridge again11.23 might not sound like much, but jam your fingers in the car door or put your head in a bucket of water for that long and pretty soon you'll be ready to call it quits. I was making involuntary noises for the last 250 metres and took quite a time to regain composure at the top. Mary (having set off 14 minutes earlier and run a stormer) was in the crowd gathered there, where there was much shouting and ringing cowbells like some european bike race. Also did I really see Crooky in bright red lycra with horns on cheering and scampering about like a maniac. Or was that just the red mist?
Tomorrow, and the rumours of a pancake flat trail run in the woods are very welcome. And I don't have to do a day's hard labour beforehand. Hope its nicer weather. Just time to launder the kit and pin the number back on.
Report and photos pb
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