Tour of Fife, Day 6, Twisted Chicken Run, Strathmiglo, 31/07/10
The end of the Tour, and a great run around the lower foothills of the Lomonds for this 5 ½ mile multi terrain trail and road run. We were familiar with the route from various Devil's Burden / Falkland Santa Runs and I hoped there would be enough tree cover to disrupt the breeze.
As we set off I got the feeling Baza and Gareth had done such a good job last night they were maybe feeling the strain today. Baza was slow to capitalise on the ascent up through the trees and Gareth, although he did go past, stayed within sight up with Iain Taylor. Now Iain would be fully aware I had 30 secs over him and would be trying to finish at least that much ahead today, while I would be trying to keep the margin to a minimum. I checked him at about 15 to 20 as we turned left at the top of the trail to run for a bit on the undulating forestry tracks. I was really enjoying this and knew it didn't have to be eyeballs out all the way today. Baza was still behind. Davy Burgess marshalled us down a smaller trail of lovely running between the trees and I think I narrowed the margin between myself and Iain at this point.
Amanda finished as race leader having run brilliantly all week.
Good to see Julia "back from the dead" and taking part although not really back to her usual form.Out onto the road and a section I remembered without much love along a straight and slightly rising section of tarmac with a headwind. I clocked the time as Iain and Gareth turned right back onto the trail and it was about 23 seconds. Oh oh Iain is slowly making up the 30 seconds he needs. However I relished the downhill after the long windy road and felt sufficiently fresh to keep him in sight. A couple of nice fast descents was enough to rally the troops for a short blast up the last hill and along to where we ducked back into the field from which we had started. I saw Iain had gained a good bit so gave it everything down the dirt paths taking an optimal line across the corner and along the straight to the line. Just in case.
Ruth finished a great week with a strong performance today.
Mary hot on her heels.
4 seconds to spare! Iain was quick to shake my hand and although everyone was bent over with the effort there was a feeling of celebration and “whew, we got there” in the air. A crowd gathered and applauded as everyone romped down the last yards of their Tour.
Craig had a great week battling with Gareth. What he sometimes lacks in sartorial elegance he was more than making up for in va va voom.
Its been a brilliant experience and far greater than the sum of its parts. A real feeling of camaraderie and competition growing throughout the week, with brilliant organisation, event variety and so many folk helping to make it all run smoothly. The daily pilgrimage across the bridge to venues, some familiar and some new, to go and run like a thing possessed day after day through the aches and pains and then the facebook analysis and results posted nightly. What a superb week.
Big big thanks to all the caterers, marshals, sponsors and whoever packed the bag of goodies I won for first o/45. Its been fab and we'll be back. Brian Crooky for King of Fife!
Report pb
Photos pb, Catriona McEwan, Mary
Mary's Blog
Race results
Overall results
Roadrunpics
Baza's Blog
Well worth a trip to Helensburgh website to read Andrew's account of the Tour.
Refuelling!
WINNER! (Trophy, Chocs and Twisted Chicken.)
My age group prize!
