'Run of the Mill' Hill Race.

'Run of the Mill' Hill Race. 24th Oct 2010.

We very nearly missed this new race, organised by Chris Upson, and have to say sorry to everyone held up at the start. Many thanks to the marshals and Chris for holding the start for us. I was still doing my laces as everyone ran off. A very quick sprint was required to catch the back markers and Eve. Not a good start to an excellent race, next year I'm going to give myself at least 2hrs to get through to Alva.

The race route is an absolute cracker with a good warm up over a couple of km of track followed by a straight up onto the hill and a fairly steep climb. Fortunately, being the Ochils it levels out and become more gentle as height is gained. The only problem was the wind picked up instead the higher we got. The first checkpoint was manned by Cammy Scott, who was fully layer and with tent (he still looked damned cold).

The plod continued after seeing Cammy and the general cursing and swearing increased as the weather grew colder, there was snow up top. I vaguely remember seeing JD taking pictures at one point, Chris was also seen, however, he sickeningly jogged past me. I told him to trip Eve up when he saw her, by this point she was out of sight. Eve had been running with Alison West and we're a good 100m in front until the half way point. My effort to catch failed

My plod continued, as did the swearing. I've got to say it stepped up a level when I saw the track we'd to follow down the last hill.......there was a slight easing when I found a short cut at the hairpins, but was short lived as I fell on my backside when my baldy shoes gave up grip. A bum slide proceeded in the direction of some nasty jaggy rocks. I only just managed to regain my footing in time.


The rest of the race was fairly uneventful. Apparently I was awarded the grumpiest run of the day prize !

Great race though, and a big thanks to everyone involved.