Gartmorn 6

Despite a punishing schedule of early starts and work for us both, young Peter was keen that we still go to do the Gartmorn 6 today so I wearily crawled to bed last night and set my alarm for 7am.

It dawned a nice, sunny day with just a bit of a cool breeze. The roads were virtually empty as we made our way to Alloa and got there in plenty of time.

We had done this one last year and been impressed with the off-road running through trees, over bridges, up banks and down steps. It is allegedly scenic but for the 2nd year running I didn't see anything except the path ahead, tree roots and demoralisingly, backs disappearing into the distance from time to time.

Last year I was tired as it was only 2 weeks after the Draycote water 35 miler which was an imaginative 7 times round a reservoir (round and round the reservoir the ragged runner ran.). This year I was tired because I was tired. Last year when I saw the reservoir I started having flashbacks of the damn Draycote water reservoir but this year I seem to be past that, suffering no ill-effects or mental distress when I saw the one at Gartmorn.

Last year it was very muddy and so this year we wore our mudclaws, which were traction overkill given the very good dry underfoot conditions but I like wearing mine anyway.

Keith Harper pitched up, beefing up the Portobello presence by 50%. (Have I got that right?). It was nice to see him.

The race went fine. I set off a bit too fast and slowed after the 1st 2 miles. I was looking forwards to the down hill greatly (it is roughly 2 miles up, 2 miles along and 2 miles down), but I didn't speed up on the way back just as much as I'd hoped.

Last year I ran it in 45mins 36 seconds but the organisers inexplicably gave me a time of over 46 minutes. This year I ran it in 45 mins 24 seconds. I should have been quicker really as the conditions were pretty much ideal but I did what I could.

The after run spread of cakes was beyond belief. I had three different kinds of chocolate cake. We also got mugs and bananas. Pretty good value for money all in all.

Peter was 6th and felt he put in a reasonable performance. If they'd stretched the vet prizes a bit we both would probably have come home with some bling but I suppose its greedy to always want more!

Tomorrow; some kind of long run. Where? What? I don't know. Having some thoughts about running the canal from Linlithgow but I think it might be a. too boring, b. too flat and c. no offence but running slowly through Broxburn seems like a bad idea.