I've just noticed how behind I am with my blog. Probably more happened in January than Feel the Burns Hill Race and the recent BBC production of Dracula, but those are the two things that spring immediately to mind.
According to my photos there were some runs on grey days, some runs on sunny days and some good sunrises.
Then there was the Feel The Burns Hill Race. I didn't really want this to happen but it did anyway. Nick, who was instrumental in getting us to sign up, looked likely to not turn up, having discovered he had a prior engagement to go and get bladdered the day before. Despite a massive hangover he decided on the day to come along anyway.
Peter and I had done some fair training in Tenerife in terms of doing quite a lot of ascent and descent, but then couldn't bring ourselves to get back out into the hills on gloomy January days.
I took the attitude that the race would be good training for the Carnethy 5 which helped me get round, but wasn't really true as I've done no hills since.
Unlike last year we arrived in plenty of time and had time for a warm up.
I went off enthusiastically uphill and was just behind Richard Hadfield at the big beehive cairn thing. I had over-cooked it though, being much more used to a gentle saunter than red-lining it these days. I was rewarded with a killer stitch that threatened to make me walk. I had to throttle right back after the 1st heathery descent. Was it my imagination or did every one of the many people who went past me then say silently "I told you so."? Eventually a burp bubbled its way to the surface and I felt better.
Last year the race had felt pretty desperate all the way through. Up at the heights it had been foggy and I had been focusing on keeping sights on the people ahead so I didn't get lost. This year once I'd 'let' the people go past me I didn't feel so much pressure and just tried to keep up a reasonable pace.
Not much time seemed to pass before I arrived at the turn and the long swoop downwards. It is just before 7 miles I think. This is a mixture of enjoyable elements and new challenges. Enjoyable - it's downhill all the way and gravity does most of the work. Challenging - it's single track and slippy and not much warning about what's going to be under your feet next. I'm not the most talented of down-hillers and I don't like holding other people up. Like last year, I collected a clump of people behind me - and I tried to create opportunities for them to pass when I could without actually having to stop and stand aside. They didn't take my opportunities. I tried not to let the pressure affect me. It seemed to be about 2 miles downhill. I've got it all on Strava so if I wasn't so lazy I could actually find out.
Great to see Alex Oliver at the start and apres-race. He made my day by telling me about being robbed when he was in Tenerife. Of course he was. Alex's luck is legendary.
Last year I quite enjoyed the stomp up Foulshiels hill. I think I had more steep climbing in my legs from doing long days out in the Pentlands. This year I had some jelly babies and water just before the hill. I think all the blood went to my stomach and I felt pathetic setting off up the hill. I started getting pain in my left foot so compensated by over-using my right one. I think I kind of stretched my right achilles tendon, and it is still a bit weird now. Normally, or in the old days, I could stomp past people on ground like this, but this year I had to 'let' a couple of girls go by me. Sad, grumpy face.
I think these 2 pictures were taken by Michael Philp Photograpy. I was in my own wee world at this point.
Finally it was time for the long run back down the hill to the finish. I was keeping up a good pace and looking forwards to finishing, but was unnerved to hear a number of female voices drawing nearer and nearer. Surely I wasn't going to have more girls going past me this late in the day? "It's not fair" I said to another runner making his way home. I think he turned out to be 1st M70. He looked a bit surprised. I raised my speed. Realising the finish was but a short field away I gave it everything I had - and just as well, as seconds after I'd finished what seemed like 6 or 7 women came piling in.....
A couple of elite runners.
I was 4 minutes slower than last year, but there were reasons. There might have been reasons. Maybe it was the course. I didn't care. Time for some haggis. Some young men had spoiled it for everyone else by setting a new record. Nick had had a horrible time with his hangover and was kind of woe-begone in the car on the way home, as was Peter. Jeezo. I'd hate to be a good runner. It seems kind of depressing.
Yeah, so Dracula. Someone at work was telling me the BBC had done a remake of the Dracula story in serial form. It was by the people who did the recent Sherlock. They said it was good.
"Why not?" I thought. Fast forwards a couple of nights. It's the middle of the night and I need a pee, but it's dark and I can't bring myself to even put an arm out from under the duvet. I can see flies walking about under people's eyelids when I shut my eyes. I am not cut out for this stuff.
I have never quite managed to put my finger on why I find Dracula and the whole vampire thing so horrifying but surely I do.
Yesterday I got a bit of it though. There is this long sequence where Jonathan Harker has ostensibly escaped from Dracula's Castle and is telling his story to a rather swash-buckling nun called Van-Helsing. (Nice twist Dracula writers!). Harker definitely looks like he's seen better days - he looks shit in fact - but we're carried along by his narrative and heartened by the fact that he has in fact survived. The writers drop some heavy hints that all is not well....a fly keeps landing on his face and he doesn't swat it away....the fly crawls inside his eyelid and he does nothing. The power of denial is strong though. Johnathan believes he survived and so do I. Somehow or other he over-threw or at least evaded the Count and got safely away from the castle. Then they show his last scene there - grappling with Dracula - Johnathan bathed in the last of the evening sunlight and Dracula reaching for him from the shadow. How is he going to beat Dracula? SPOILER ALERT He isn't. Dracula snaps his neck and throws him over the wall. Then how is he going to survive? SPOILER ALERT he isn't. He's dead stupid. He's dead and it's all over.
That was cruel. Even in the original Dracula, only really Lucy, Mina's sister, gets vampired - and she has questionable morals. She more than likely has it coming to her. Johnathan makes it out alive and makes it all the way back to Transylvania to eventually defeat Count D. Mina is a little bit soiled for a while after Dracula getting her to drink his blood, so soiled in fact that a communion wafer burns a mark on her forehead, but after Johnathan has taken care of Dracula that's all alright.
That is all I have to say about that. Looking forwards to the Carnethy 5 on Saturday NOT!!!!
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