Le Vertical KM de Fully

A race like no other. It's hard to know where to start describing this one.
Perhaps with the numbers: 1000m of climb in 1920m total distance. Average gradient of over 50%. Almost 600 starters.
Or maybe with a picture:

See that straight line up the middle? That's the race route.

But the truth is that numbers and pictures do little to convey just how steep this course is, just how much it looms over you, just how intimidating it is. The course follows an old railway line used for carrying the grape harvest down the hill from the vineyards on the south facing slope. As such, apart from one bend a third of the way up the hill, it is completely straight. This means no switchback bends or well designed hiking path here, just a bullet straight line perpendicular to the contours and no place to hide or recover.

Let's make this clear from the start: I'm pretty bad at climbing the steep stuff. I'm a hill-runner not a hill-power-strider or hill-walker. If I can run all the way I will and I'll probably do ok, limited only by my shape on any given day. But when the gradient gets above 30% I'm reduced to a plod, one step at a time onwards and upwards. And while some hill "runners" are also very good hill walkers and have little difference in pace while walking or running, I may as well put my reversing lights on and start making beeping noises as that's what happens to my race position on the steel stuff: backwards through the field.

Somehow I'd managed to convince myself it was going to be different in this race. I've done some specific steep reps in training recently, searching out the longest steepest climbs near Edinburgh to scale multiple times and working on powerwalking technique. The nature of this course, with the railway sleepers forming steps and no rough terrain to get in the way would surely help too. Because of the narrow nature of the course the Fully VK is run as a time trial so I'd both be able to run my own pace and try and chase down the guys starting in front of me.

Sadly in the event it didn't turn out so well. There are laws that have to be obeyed and gravity is one of them. The course was relentless. The sleepers did make useful steps but every five or so there was a big cable guide wheel in the middle of the track which required a detour to the side. The first couple of hundred metres climb were not too bad, at a gradient of 30-40% and with fresh legs I was able to tap out a nice rhythm and run all the way. At 400m though the railway goes through a tunnel and in the eery darkness it is impossible to see where to put your feet. Walking was the only sensible option here but once you stop running it's hard to start again.
From there on it gets a bit blurry. A succession of runners came past, all skipoles and lycra. I tried in vain to stick with them. At times I managed a jog but soon the gradient would increase. At first this meant hands pushing on quads but in the worst sections it was so steep that you could just reach forwards and touch the railway line. Climbing hand over hand like that was more akin to climbing a ladder than any mountain path I've ever been on!
Like a 10km race has markers every km this race had markers after every 100m of ascent. I took a split at each one of these which means I can now work out the gradient for each 10th of the course. The steepest was 800-900m, which was covered in just 131m. A quick bit of trigonometry tells me that means an angle of 50° to the horizontal, or put another way: 1.15m up for every 1m along!
Eventually it was over. That's about all I can say. It took me 38:58 which at the start of the day would have been 10s outside the women's world record however four girls smashed the old record in this race which was pretty humbling for me! The men's record was also beaten by the impressive Urban Zemmer in an astonishing 30:26. I just can't comprehend that sort of speed. It seems even further away from me than the speed of Bekele's world record for 5000m and 10000m. At least with those I could hope to hang on for a couple of laps, I fear against Senõr Zemmer I would be left from the gun! Still, if you ignore your weaknesses they will never improve so I hope to gain from this experience, however humbling it was at the time. I know one thing is for sure: steep has a new definition in my mind!

50m from the finish. Photo thanks to @tessahill.

Results (pdf)

UKCup and UKRL Finals

A couple of weeks ago the UK orienteering season came to a conclusion at the Lancashire Hotpot weekend with the first ever UK Relay League (UKRL) final and the mass-start UKCup final.

In previous years the UKRL has comprised just the four "classic" relays of the JK, British and Scottish Camps and the Harvester with a clubs best three results counting. Having demolished the opposition in the first three of these Interløpers would normally have had the series long since sown up. However times change and this year BOF added two more events to the series, extending it into the autumn with a sprint relay in Sheffield and a new final to round it off.
The three victories in the spring did set us up well and we went into the final at Tockholes knowing that a top 5 result would guarantee us the title no matter what else happened. However we also went into the final with only 2/3s of our spring team available. Due to a combination of field trips to Greece, family commitments and 25manna we had to call up club captain Rob Lee to complete the team - although he's one of the top M50s in the country, he is still an M50 and wasn't expecting to be able to hang with the pace of the leaders. Our tactic was to put him out first and then rely on Oleg and I to chase down the leader. I thought that if Rob could limit his losses to 3-4 minutes then we might even have a chance of fighting for the win and maintaining our unbeaten record for the year.

As it happened Rob ran a strong first half but a miss in vague forest towards the end cost him a couple of minutes which sent Oleg out over 6 minutes down. He ran well to pull us up into that crucial top 5 position but we were still 4 minutes down on the leading teams of Aire, FVO and ShUOC.
I set off hard together with Duncan Archer who was running his second leg of the day. Unfortunately what had looked like nice fast terrain from the outside turned out to be completely waterlogged and really heavy going. That , combined with a lot of very steep sided river valleys, slowed my progress and zapped my motivation to chase for the win. I settled into defensive mode and orienteered carefully and cleanly, only making one miss where I overshot a boulder in some vague forest. Somewhere I must have passed Mike McIver of LOC because I came in in 4th place. Job done for Interløpers - only our second ever UKRL title. The last was 10 years ago and I only featured in the Harvester winning team back then so it was nice to run in all four this time.

The next day we were off to Hameldon for the mass start UKCup final. In last years final I knew that if I won I was guaranteed the title but in the end I finished second to Rich Robinson and the cup went down-under to Craney who had emigrated with an almost unassailable lead. This year it was a little more complex with 6 runners in with at least a mathematical chance of winning. From my point of view I had to win and hope that someone else could beat Dave Schorah and Ant Squire as 2nd was good enough for them to beat me overall. On the day Schorah was a DNS due to injury but I still had Squire to worry about.
Hameldon is a new area near Blackburn. It is 90% open with areas of very intricate old mine workings. The course made the most of this with 44 controls in 10.6km! The format of the mass start race was four short loops at the start, in full view on the slope above the assembly area then a long trip over the top of the hill and into some more butterfly loops in mine workings before a few controls in the forest to finish.

Mines. Crazy.

Because it was clearly going to be a tricky control pick at times I decided to orienteer cautiously, willing to sacrifice seconds here and there to avoid losing minutes unnecessarily. However I found myself alone on the early loops while everyone I crossed paths with seemed to be pushing hard with someone else. I guess this got my competitive juices flowing because after the second map exchange, at the start of the long final loop, I had a clear lead. The next leg was one of the longest of the course, steeply uphill into an intricate quarry area. I knew that I wasn't going to lose time climbing and when I spiked the control at the end of it I knew I was on my way. Aside from one scare on the final butterfly where I misread the layout of the quarries I was more or less clean all the way. When I returned to the common control of the final butterfly for the final time I saw Ant Squire just leaving so I was almost a whole loop ahead of him - and more importantly there were others ahead of him too. I had to keep my focus to the end though, especially with the change in terrain as we headed into the forest. I managed to do so and on a dog-leg saw I had at least a minutes lead over my nearest chasers. In the end I could cruise in for a safe victory and then properly celebrate when Chris Smithard outsprinted Jonny Crickmore and Nick Barrable to take 2nd and confirm my overall title.

Routegadget

View from the top of the hill down to Blackburn.

So I won the UKCup. In years gone by this would have been something to be hugely proud of however this year it just doesn't feel the same. Like the relay league the UKCup was extended this year, to be the best 9 races from 16 plus the final. However I managed to win the series despite only scoring in 8 races before the final (it would have been the requisite 9 if I hadn't mispunched at the WOC sprint selection race). If the UKCup truly was a title people wanted to win this would have been impossible: someone who was good enough to place top 5 in each race would have got to 9 events and comfortably beaten me. The truth is the very top orienteers in Britain are focussed on international competition and will choose the domestic races that will prepare them best for those events. In previous years that has largely coincided with the UKCup because the races in it were logically chosen and focussed on the spring and early summer. That can't be said for this year's drawn out season long series.

It looks even worse for next year with the introduction of the BO National O League - an all ages replacement for the UKCup with even more events and lasting even longer. Inspired by this I raised the possibility of a new "2015 cup" or "Scottish Cup" to give us athletes the competition we need to prepare optimally for our home Woc in three years time. My AP post and email to SEDS got a great response and I look forward to firming up these vague ideas with the key parties soon.

For now though, that is the 2012 "O" season over. Next up some hill and mountain races then the real fun - winter weekend up north laying down the foundations of the next 1000 days - until WOC2015!

Summer 2012 Flashback

Life has been too busy for blogging it seems but now that we are back in the routine of cranking out the winter training I hope to post more regularly. To get started a quick recap of the summer’s main adventures!

Checking out the original Olympic stadium in Athens

June – a month of mad long weekends.

Loutraki Vertical KM – Greece.  Debut for Team Arc’teryx in the World Skyrunning Series. 5^th. Sightseeing run round Athens a highlight too.

Scottish Hill Running Championships – Durisdeer. Funny race, chatting with Prasad Prasad most of the way then he took off up the final climb when I wasn’t paying attention. My first defeat in a Scottish hill race for 2.5 years.

PostFinance Orienteering World Cup –Switzerland. Good sprint training round Zurich then good run in the “B-final” at the WorldCup. Shame to be relegated by not running EOC but made the most of the situation.

SkyGames & Arc’teryx Camp – Pyrenees: Another Vertical KM followed by a great camp with journalists, Arc’teryx team and staff and a run up my first 3000m summit.

Celebrating my Snowdon victory with Tessa - the trophy weighs 7kg!

July – Big Races

WOC – Switzerland. 11^th. An improvement on last year but not a great performance technically. Still hungry for more.

Snowdon International Mountain Race - Wales.  Win! Full write up on AttackPoint.

August & September – Long races

With WOC behind me it was time to look forwards and up. And up and up and up a bit higher. I like to go long after a spring and summer of sprint training.

First Sierre-Zinal –Switzerland. Write up here: 

The last km of the JungfrauMarathon is pretty spectacular.
It's also the only downhill in the race!

Then the Ochil 2000s – Scotland. 20 miles point to point across the home of “Highland Spring” taking in all the 2000 feet summits and Dumyat, one of my favourite hills. I ran strongly to break the record but with a couple better lines I could have gone even quicker.

Finally the Jungfrau Marathon – Switzerland. 21^st, team 4^th. A solid, safe run.  If I was running again I might take a risk and go out faster but I’m happy with how it went this time.  Blow-by-blow account here.

That’s it for now. The next few months will see winter training really kick off, two more Vertical Kilometres to complete the SkyRunning series and then an exciting trip to New Zealand for the start of the 2013 Orienteering World Cup Season! 

Marathon Debut - Wet and Wild in Snowdonia

Training for sprint orienteering is fun. It’s fast, furious and hard work. But it also involves a lot of short sharp track intervals, 2-mile and 5km races and, this year, hard blasts around the old towns of Scotland and Switzerland. While that is fun for a while it’s nice to have a change once the big summer orienteering races are over. Last year that meant long hill races like the Two Breweries and the Pentland Skyline as a prelude to the OMM. This year I decided it was time to have a crack at the marathon.

The idea of an Autumn marathon had been bouncing around my head since the start of the year. I wanted to find one that was long enough after WOC to prepare for it properly but not so far into the winter that it would compromise my cross country season and preparations for next year. So I settled for the end of October – 10 weeks after WOC but still 16 weeks before the National XC Champs. I found three alternatives for this weekend – Frankfurt, Dublin and Snowdonia – but didn’t think much more about it until I was watching the London Marathon on BBC in April. Suddenly I realised that I didn’t want my marathon to be a procession down anonymous streets linking the tourist traps of some metropolis. I wanted to be out in the wild, on a course that was designed to be tough rather than fast, in weather that could do anything, and even, dare I think it, in a race I could win?

So the Snowdonia Marathon, or Marathon Eryri in the local lingo, became the goal. Twenty-six miles of rural Welsh roads and tracks, including two significant climbs at the start and end, and the worst that the Welsh weather could throw at us were the main obstacles. The likely competition came in the form of last year’s winner and recent Commonwealth Ultramarathon champion Richie Gardiner; Andy Davies, a fell runner I’ve battled with on occasion in the past and who took silver behind Richie at the Commonwealths and local boy Rob Samuels who recently represented Britain at the World Mountain Running champs.

As I mentioned one of the main reasons for entering the marathon  was to enjoy a change of flavour in my training during the Autumn. Out were the track sessions and orienteering, replaced with a weekly long run and a “marathon-pace” tempo run on the canal towpath.  My other runs all lengthened slightly – while in sprint mode I rarely run more than 10 miles in one go, preferring a morning 6 miler and an evening of 7-9. During September though it became common for me to get out for 90 minutes or more in the evening and then enjoy an extra hour in bed the following morning!  The Sunday runs were generally at an easy pace and just about getting time on my feet and miles in my legs. The key session, insofar as I had one, was the tempo runs. I did them all out-and-back on the canal, starting with 30minutes each way and building up to 45 minutes each way. I had planned to finish off 10 days before the marathon with a 2 hour tempo like this, but unfortunately I got sick after my last long run (a three hour, 23 mile epic through the Pentland Hills in monsoon-like conditions in the dark after work with no torch!) so had to skip this final session.

All in all I was happy with my training. Having hit the magic 100-mile week a good number of times in the couple of months before the race, even maxing out at 119 for one crazy seven day spell, I was comfortable with the distance. A target time or pace was harder to estimate. On a flat marathon with proper preparation I would aim for sub 2:30 I think but on this course it was hard to know what that translates to. My canal runs told me that six-minute-miling (3:45/km) felt comfortable enough so I decided that I would aim for around that pace on the flat sections of the race and let the ups and downs work themselves out. Aim number one was to enjoy the experience! After struggling to maintain a target pace in the Bristol Half Marathon recently I didn’t want to be a slave to my watch so my tactics were nothing more complicated than to take the first climb as easy as I wanted and then let it roll from there. I’d been assured that “the race starts at 21 miles” so I wanted to get to that point feeling good and then give everything over the final climb and descent.

I found it rather amusing in the week before the race when a couple of articles appeared online suggesting I might be in contention for the win. What did they know? I was making my debut over the distance and just aiming to run at a pace conducive to enjoyment rather than success!

The Race

Marathon day dawned wet and windy. Perfect. This wasn’t meant to be easy.

Part One: Llanberis – Pen Y Pas (4.5miles)

After a brief speech from Matt Ward (of MudSweatandTears fame) the race got underway on the winding roads south east from Llanberis past Nant Peris. These early miles were very much about conserving energy, sheltering from the ferocious headwind and sizing up the opposition. Gradually the gradient picked up and the lead pack was whittled down, first from 20 to 12, then 8 and finally 5 as the road opened up and we could see the top of the col. Everyone took a turn at the front but some guy in an Army vest was keen to push it on. I took one look at him and decided he was trying too hard so when he opened a gap before the summit I was happy to let him go: plenty miles still to go. He crossed the top with around a 30m lead on my group of four, which consisted of the main protagonists I named above.

Part Two: Pen Y Pas – Beddgelert (7.5miles)

Once we got over the col the pace really picked up as we hurtled down the other side. I have to say, I wasn’t too comfortable with the high tempo so it was a relief when we swung off the road and onto a rougher Land Rover track which would lead us down to the valley floor. The Army chap had opened up a good lead but I was able to move to the front of our group of four, my off road roots showing through on the rougher surface. Once we were back on the flat tarmac I just concentrated on a steady rhythm, trying not to get carried away and counting down to the 10mile/1 hour point and the first gel that would come then. At about 8.5 miles a curious thing happened – the Army guy stopped to tie his shoelace, which roughly halved his lead from 100m to 50m. This seemed to spur Richie and Rob on to close the gap further and our foursome became a twosome as they bridged the gap leaving Andy and I in 4^th and 5^th. I could have worried about this and picked the pace up but the feedback from my Garmin was that I was going fine – 60 minutes exactly for the first 10 miles was bang on my 6min/mile target, and that was with the climb up to Pen-y-pas.

About this time Andy started chatting to me. This took me a bit by surprise initially but the conversation came easily and the pace didn’t drop. This was Andy’s ninth marathon in nine different countries so he had plenty stories to tell and we both have a history in fell running so there was plenty overlap.

The half way point comes on a long drag out of the village of Beddgelert. We passed through here in around 79 minutes.

Part 3: Beddgelert – Waunfawr (9miles)

The next notable event was just after 14 miles when the road straightened out and we could see Mr Army ahead of us, clearly dropped by the others who were nowhere to be seen. Shortly after, on a very moderate gradient, he started walking and we quickly caught and passed him. Game over for him and a definite “I told you so” moment. From there on I just rolled along steadily, shoulder to shoulder with Andy. The passing of Army boy did mean that we were now in 3^rd and 4^th, which gave the battle between us a little more interest. From time to time the TV bike came back to see us but it must have been quite boring for them. I had no plans to accelerate, sticking instead to my original plan of getting to 21miles in as good shape as possible.

That largely held true. Around 19 miles I noticed my left ITB tightened up. That didn’t slow me at all, but it was a timely reminded of the fine balance between speed and patience. As we approached the final drinks station before the turn off the main road I moved ahead just to make sure I could grab a bottle unobstructed but this time Andy didn’t move back onto my shoulder. I was quite happy with this as it meant I could focus on my own pace as we came to the foot of the climb.

Part 4: Waunfawr – Llanberis (4.2miles)

Now the race begins. Turn off the main road and the hill kicks up straightaway. Not steep by hill running standards but after 22miles nothing should be taken for granted.  The first section was wind assisted but we quickly turned to have a fierce cross wind. By now the gap between Andy and I had grown significantly and I was in a comfortable 3^rd position.

Halfway up the climb though, I caught a glimpse of another runner ahead of me. The black and gold colours of Richie came into view. “Surely just the climb foreshortening the gap” I thought, long since having ruled out seeing him or Rob again. But no, as steadily the gap fell and eventually I cruised past him on a flatter section close to the top of the col.

At the top of the hill we passed the 24mile marker. I was now well into the realm of “longest run ever” but taking comfort from the fact that the last two miles were all downhill. Easier said than done! Yes they were downhill, but the hill was so steep, wet and slippery that they were probably the hardest miles of the course. At first it was just a grassy path across the hill side – fine in a fell race, but less than ideal in road racing flats! At least I was wearing inov8 f-lites which gave some semblance of grip but I will admit to being slightly cautious in places. Once on the road it wasn’t much better as the roads were so steep your quads took a real pounding.

Eventually we got spat out onto a flat backstreet of the town, and past the 26 mile marker. From here it was a simple case of “head up, shoulders back and try to look relaxed”. With no one near me and no particular time or PB to beat it was just a case of getting to the line quickly and happily, satisfied with a good long run. Mission accomplished! And as for the online pundits… what do they know anyway?

Epilogue and Analysis

Rob Samuels was a worthy winner. From the TV coverage it looks like he had a three minute lead on me before the final climb, which I managed to squeeze a minute out of. That is still some pretty damn good running to build up that margin in the space of about 12 miles and I’m not sure I wouldn’t have been able to keep up with that all the way had I tried to stick with them.  Later I discovered Rob was the first local winner of the race for 20 years and he also coaches the juniors at Eryri track training (I met one of his protégés who apparently is the fastest U13 800m runner in GB this year!) so he was a very popular and emotional victor. Congratulations to him!

An obvious question is what would I have done on a flat course, in, say, Frankfurt or Dublin. It’s hard to say. Attackpoint says 2:28 which I think is over generous – that doesn’t allow for the benefit of the downhill sections. Looking at my split times, on the flat kilometres I am running at around 3:35/km which is 2:31 pace. That sounds more realistic, but I think that I might have run a flat marathon quite differently: more focus on pace, negative splits and heart rate than running by feeling and enjoyment. Finally there was the impact of the howling gale and torrential rain – even I can’t come up with a calculation to allow for that!

So, what next?  Short term: a few days off to recharge the batteries and let the legs recover. Medium term the focus is on a strong orienteering season next year up to WOC in Lausanne in July. Beyond that though? Definitely some more “full distance” racing.  A flat one, at some point, has to happen but for now the Jungfraumarathon, which next year incorporates the World Long Distance Mountain Running Champs (at which Scotland are current champions) has definitely captured my interest!

Edinburgh International Cross Country 2011

Every January some of the World’s greatest distance runners descend on my home terrain for the BUPA Great Edinburgh International Cross Country in Holyrood park, one of the highest regarded cross country races outside of the World Champs. Indeed, in 2008 Edinburgh hosted the World Championships on this very course and the great Kenenisa Bekele triumphed despite losing his shoe in the muddy stampede for the first corner. The great thing about the International race is that for the last six years it has also incorporated the Scottish Inter-District Championships, so most years I’ve got to pull on my black East of Scotland Vest and toe the same line as my heroes.

The first time I raced the focus was on not getting lapped on the 6 lap course and I made it, just. Since then I’ve progressed a bit and I am closer to the front of the race than the back. It’s still a strange race though, with all the excitement of the TV cameras and superstars giving an adrenaline rush at the start, but after about half a lap it settles down to a normal Scottish cross country race with the usual familiar faces. The course is not much fun either, with the first half on flat playing fields with only occasional embankments – or hay bales this year – to break the rhythm before the first of three steep climbs up Haggis Knowe once the longer laps start.

This year the pre-Christmas snow meant that all the races in December were cancelled so I was missing a bit of race sharpness in the early stages.  The pace from the gun is usually insane as the leading elites sprint for position and the rest of us get dragged along, and this year was no exception. We covered the first kilometre, across snow covered grass, in under 3 minutes, and I was at the back of the pack hanging on for dear life! Good racing tactics would clearly be to go out steady and move through later on but that is much easier to say than do. I had to trust that I was fitter than the others, and they would suffer more than me later on. Sure enough, by the third of the three short laps I started to feel strong again and able to start passing people.

When we reached the first of the three climbs up Haggis Knowe I saw the captain of HBT waving our club flag at the side of the track course and I heard him shout “This is your terrain!” and I knew exactly what he meant. Not only was this the hill which should favour me as a orienteer and hill runner, but the path we were on leads to Hunters Bog, probably the greatest bit of bog in the world, and makes up the first 100m of our club race, the Bog Trot. At this point I was leading a pack of runners including a couple of GB U20s and some of my East teammates while there was a group of three West team runners about 30m ahead. I don’t know if it was the snow, the hill or the prospect of encountering Hunters Bog, but half way up one of the Westies stepped off the course with his hand in the air. I still wasn’t feeling particularly good, but this was a reassuring moment – I wasn’t the only one suffering. Over the next lap the two Westies split up, with Andrew Douglas pulling away while Callum Hawkins dropped back towards us, eventually settling in behind me.

On the second climb Callum tried to get ahead of me but his attack didn’t last long, as I relaxed up the hill and rolled down the other side to hear the bell at the start of the final lap. Meanwhile at the front Mo Farah had put in a decisive surge to leave Galen Rupp and the rest of us behind – but I wouldn’t know much about that until I was back on the sofa watching the recording in the evening!

Looking back, most of the last lap was a bit of a blur. I was aware that Andrew was well clear of us but I wasn’t particularly thinking about how I was going to hold off the guys breathing down my neck – just keep running hard was the plan, I think. We got to the hill in much the same positions as we left it a lap previously, but this time there were far fewer spectators as most had moved to get a view of the finish. Half way up Callum made his move and tried to cut my line off. This was the wake up call I needed and I charged back in front of him and literally sprinted the rest of the climb – gone was the cyclical tap tap tap rhythm of the hill runner, I was more like a sprinter exploding from the blocks, leaping up the hill. There is a downside to such an aggressive climb: the burn you get when you try to run fast downhill afterwards. Fortunately I got away with it and I was aware that I’d got a gap to the pack behind me – I just needed to keep the speed up down the hill to maintain it.  The 200m to go banner was just after the start of the descent and at this point I realised Andrew wasn’t as far ahead as I’d thought.

Surely not? I can’t catch him? He’s been ahead since lap 1. But he’s definitely getting closer! As long as he doesn’t look round, or hear the Trotters cheering me on. We cross the road, less than 100m to go. There are footsteps behind me too but there is nothing I can do about them. 50m to go and I pull up to Andrew’s back, he still doesn’t realise I’m coming. Past him and going quicker, there’s no way he can react. Last steps, keep pushing, and across the line! General chaos ensues as the chasing pack pile in behind me but there is Ginger Jackson, chief blazer for Scottish Cross Country, telling me I’ve taken bronze in the Inter District Competition. Result! My first national level individual medal on the flat. 

All photos with thanks to Tessa Hill.

PWT China

Flying half way round the world, to a strange foreign land, for a week of sprint orienteering? Oh, go on then!

When the opportunity to visit Beijing for a series of PWT races including the Chinese Championships arose I grabbed it with both hands. These are the opportunities that serve as small rewards for the hard work of the last year, and hopefully act as an inspirational springboard for the winter of training ahead.

Having never been outside Europe I was excited by the prospect of my first proper jetlag to deal with. Once we arrived at our hotel I dealt with it the only way I know how – by going for a run. A short 30minute jog to explore the local area. We were staying on the campus of the “Beijing Sport University” which featured 3 outdoor athletics tracks, 12 basketball courts, beach volleyball, tennis, climbing walls plus loads of indoor facilities. The whole place was buzzing with people and energy with impromptu rollerblading classes happening in car parks. A little later Scott and BJ arrived and we went out for another run, this time to a park a mile down the road where we could do some orienteering training.

The next day was the Chinese Relay championships. Us Westerners were not allowed to take part, but as the area was the same as for the following days sprint race we were allowed to run a training course along side them. It was a strange park area built as part of the Olympics (but not used for any events as far as I’m aware). It was mostly flat with more lakes and bridges and lots of big tarmac paths. The strangest thing was that every lamppost on the bigger paths had a loudspeaker broadcasting from it! It varied from classical music to a disembodied voice telling you about the park but you could easily imagine it spouting communist propaganda. Very surreal!

Before the race the next day was a lavish opening ceremony for the championships. This involved lots of speeches and a flag ceremony.  The race itself was on the flatter part of the park and involved mostly running straight through mixed parkland. I started well and was in 3^rd place at the control before the spectator control but I rushed out of this one in the wrong direction and lost 15s and a bit of speed, eventually finishing 6^th, 40s behind Mattias Muller – very similar to WOC. Another promising result and a good experience to build on.

Inside the "Water Cube"

Before the second race of the trip we had some serious sightseeing to attend to. The “Summer Palace” was fairly unimpressive due to the thick smog (a theme of the first few days of the trip) but a trip to the Olympic venues of the Birds Nest stadium and the Water Cube was very nice. The atmosphere in the Water Cube was awesome, very relaxed with lots of video footage of the Olympics playing in the background. One of the highlights of the trip for me has to be going for a run on the Great Wall. It was snowing at the time so there were less tourists than there might have been at other times but we still got at least one “Run Forrest, Run” comment – no escaping them!

Race 2 was the Chinese middle distance championships in a forest park to the west of the city. My middle distance results have been fairly unspectacular this year, so I was just aiming for a clean run with this one. The area felt a bit like Spain, with lots of semi-open spur gully terrain and old farming terraces. I ran very cautiously, never pushing the pace which seemed to pay off – I only made one wobble in the circle and despite finishing 5 minutes behind Kvaal I finished in 7^th place as a lot of people made mistakes. This gained me 1 more WRE point than the sprint race so I guess it was an OK result!

The next day we spectated at the Chinese “100m orienteering” champs in the shadow of the Birds Nest stadium. The finals were 800m long, with a couple of butterflys and a 12 person mass start which made for some exciting racing. After the Chinese races we were asked to take part in a special “Elite” race which none of us were prepared for – we thought we were spending the day sightseeing so that was all the kit we had with us! However we quickly rolled up our jeans and stripped off the fleeces hats and gloves for the race. Nobody was taking it that seriously, but I’m going to forget that little detail as I beat Mattias, Kvaal and Scott to win my race!

The final race was a “PWT special” back at the Summer Palace we visited earlier in the week. This was a great little area of temples, rocky outcrops, hills and paths. My race didn’t go that well as I didn’t adapt to the non-ISSOM map very well, and I rushed some of the important route choices. It was the first “difficult” sprint race I’ve done for a while and it served me a lesson which I’ll have to learn this winter. Rasmus Djurhuus had a great race here to take the 500EURO prize from the big favourites. Ida Bobach completed a clean sweep of all the races in the womens tour.

After a final trip to the famous “Silk Market” and a great meal at a Thai restaurant owned by one of our hosts from Nordic Ways it was time for us each to head back West: inspired, enlightened and with more friends than we arrived with. We really were treated amazingly, from our hosts taking us to great restaurants to the endless stream of photos we posed for and autographs we gave to the Chinese juniors. Thanks to PWT, Nordic Ways and the Orienteering Association of China for giving us this wonderful opportunity!

More Photos.

XC Season kicks off & Pentland Skyline Record Attempt

For me the start of October means two things: the start of the Scottish Cross Country Season and the end of the hill running season. After a tough exam on Friday morning I was keen for some hard running to clear my mind, and I definitely got it with two very contrasting races over the weekend.

Saturday meant a trip back to my home terrain for the East of Scotland XC Relays. I really enjoy cross country racing and the relays are a great way to start the season. The course at Meadowmill isn’t the most inspiring with around two thirds of each 4km leg being on flat playing fields with the rest on a hard packed ploughed field but they are playing fields I know well as they are five minutes jog from my parent’s house. I’ve no idea how many laps of them I have run in my life but I doubt many people have run more!

I took on the second leg for HBT. Stevie Cairns ran well to come in 5^th and send me out about 100m down but only a couple of metres ahead of John Newsom of Central. I didn’t want to let John get on terms with me so I started pretty hard to try and build a gap. I glanced at my Garmin after 500m and saw I’d averaged 2:45/km so far! With a start that fast it was always going to hurt at some point but I managed to stay strong and pull us up a couple of places. My time of 12:11 for the 4.1km was the second fastest of the day but 20s down on Iain Donnan who flew round on last leg. A good start to the season though as last year I only ran 12:42 for the same course and still went on to win a couple of league races. The team finished well to come in 7^th: a decent result since we didn’t have a full strength squad out.

After the race it was back to a pasta feast to get fuelled up for the main target of the weekend: a crack at a fast time for the Pentland Skyline. The Skyline is an iconic race in these parts as it visits 14 of the Pentland Hills which we train on regularly. At 27km & nearly 1900m climb it’s also a real physical test.

Link to race map

Last year I ran the race as a hard training run and came 2^nd behind Oleg, who ran very well to get within 3 minutes of the record. The record is held by Andy Kitchin who has at various times in the past been my role model, rival, team mate, coach, team manager, landlord and even business partner. After we failed to beat his record for the highest place British team at Jukola I decided I wanted to have a serious crack at taking this record away for him and my surprise win at the Two Breweries a fortnight ago told me I was in decent shape and I had a chance of doing just that.

Bashing heather on Black Hill in glorious conditions last year. (c) ScottishHillRunners

Short version: well I won the race (just) with the second fastest time ever but almost 2 minutes behind Andy’s record.

Long version: unlike the Two Breweries I started hard. Within five minutes of the start I was up in the clouds and that continued for the next two hours – only a couple of times did we drop below the cloud line and be able to see more than 50m. This made the course a bit trickier and without significant local knowledge it would have been easy to go wrong – it seems several runners missed out some hills, hopefully accidentally! There was an unusual E/NE wind blowing down the course which was an assistance in the first half and may have helped my rapid opening pace. I’d plotted a rough schedule to get me inside the record and I reckoned I needed to pass the ‘half way’ checkpoint at the Drove Road in 77-78minutes. I got there in 74!

			Target	Actual	Even
1	Start
2	Caerketton	Hill	9.16	8.57	9.51
3	Allermuir	Hill	6.18	5.40	6.31
4	Castlelaw	Hill	7.30	7.10	7.43
5	Footbridge		9.36	8.35	9.36
6	Turnhouse	Hill	14.32	14.13	15.18
7	Carnethy	Hill	8.54	8.06	9.16
8	Scald	Law	9.30	9.06	9.52
9	South	Black	3.06	2.55	3.10
10	East	Kip	4.60	5.09	5.09
11	West	Kip	2.58	3.15	3.05
12	Drove	Road	1.48	1.42	1.48
13	Hare	Hill	9.48	9.06	9.57
14	Black	Hill	11.24	15.11	11.50
15	Bell's	Hill	12.30	14.12	12.52
16	Maiden’s	Cleugh	1.48	1.49	1.48
17	Harbour	Hill	3.41	3.33	3.53
18	Capelaw	Hill	7.08	7.54	7.22
19	Allermuir	Hill	6.18	7.59	6.31
20	Caerketton	Hill	5.22	6.01	5.29
21	Finish		3.36	4.01	3.36

(Formatting seems to be a bit out of line: red = slower than target pace (2:20), green = quicker than even pace.)

I met Oleg on the Drove Road and said “This could get messy”, meaning that either my legs were going to fall off or I was going to keep it up and obliterate the record. Unfortunately the former came to pass! I ran Hare Hill with Oleg and then followed him down towards the Green Cleugh but got a bit lost here and had to double back through some bracken – probably 20s lost. He turned back towards his bike down at the Howe and left me to battle on up Black Hill with the comforting advice of “Fight on the next two hills then you’re on the home straight!”. Unfortunately at this point someone stole my quads and replaced them with lumps of wood. It wasn’t obvious I was going slower but the hill seemed to take a long time – not helped by the 10m visibility – and by the top I had lost all the advantage I had on the Drove Road. After that though the climb up Bell’s Hill definitely felt slow though and I had to stop and walk for the first time on the steepest bit. I could still run quickly on the descents but on the climbs my legs, and quads in particular, were very fatigued and couldn’t pick the pace up at all.

Struggling out of the mist up Capelaw. All form gone. (c) ScottishHillRunners 

I was pretty sure the record was beyond me but I fought on regardless. Capelaw seemed to have got steeper than any time I’ve run up it before but I told myself “I’ve never needed to walk up it in training so I didn’t need to walk up it in the race”. That logic didn’t work on Allermuir though and I was reduced to power walking past Oleg, Morag and Pete and Jase, Janine and little Matthew (top support though!). From there it really was the home straight and I still had half an eye on the watch... still under 2:20 approaching the final summit... where is the summit? There’s a cairn here somewhere... finally, there it is. 2:20:40, can I drop to the bottom in 2 minutes? Let’s try!

Sadly (and unsurprisingly) I failed. Kitch’s time passed just as I reached the top of the ski slope. I felt OK running down the last grassy slope but spectators later told me I was clearly pretty exhausted. I collapsed in a heap until Al Anthony appeared less than a minute and a half down, well inside his previous PB. I hadn’t seen him since half way up the first hill, so he’d obviously run a far more evenly paced race than me!

In the end it was pretty satisfying to get so close to the record. Conditions were far from perfect and there were a couple of navigational wobbles. Andy ran a 2:24 before he ran 2:22 so I’ll definitely be back for another crack at it in the future. The great man himself finished not long after me, two seconds outside his target of 2:45. He really is the beast of the Pentlands.