Dechmont Law in Livingston. Not the easiest place to find and we drove 3 sides of Livingston - not so much a place as a motorway with shops - before we found signs for the Deans and knew where we were.
Having run the Pentland Skyline quite slowly the previous Sunday and still having a lingering cold I wasn't quite sure why I'd turned out for this race, expecially as I was in a team of 1. Still we ran the Dechmont Law 10K c. 2001 and really enjoyed it. Peter said this was the best cross-country course he'd been to.
Portobello men had 5 men which gave them a vet team but not a senior team (6 to count). I had held some hope that there might be some other Portobello ladies there but it was not to be. Shame.
Having only been running long hilly stuff the intensity of the cross-country was a shock to the system and I had a kind of whimpering notion that I would like to drop out when I realised at one point that although my lungs were burning and my legs were folding I was less than half way through.
Some good points were that I was overtaking on the uphills and the downhills, surely down to a summer of hilly stuff. On the flat I could be passed!
Checking my %age of max heart rate on my Garmin to see if I was working hard enough I was surprised to see I was giving it 106%! My American cousins would be proud. After a while it settled down to 93% - a more likely proposition.
As soon as my race was over a camera was pressed into my hand and it was my turn to get out on the course and photograph the men. The sun came out for a while so it was a bit warmer and I enjoyed shouting on all the people I've got to know over a few years hill and cross-country running. Its much friendlier than road running.
Peter still had enough energy for some showboating towards the end of his race when he realised I was there with the camera, as pictured.
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