7 Hills Challenge

Another year - another 7 hills. Looking back over the results I realise I've done this every year since 2004, except 2010. Don't know what happened that year.
I woke up at 5am this morning but managed to doze til 6am and then just had to get out of bed out of boredom.

I'm being stalked by Radiohead at the moment. This is difficult to prove but their songs are playing through my head all the time. Difficult to prove and difficult to police. I felt dubious about what kind of job I was going to make of the 7Hs under the circumstances. Still, I was looking forwards to getting involved in the Porty thing for once and being out and about running with others.

The first few miles went by fine and I was by no means flying but I was enjoying it. The sun beat down and by Craiglockhart I was looking forwards to the scramble up the bank just to get out of the sun and under the trees. I've got newish pair of Nike Pegasus trail shoes and they've got really quite good grips at the toes, so going up the bank was a cinch. (What is a cinch?) 2/3rds of the way up I passed a girl in pink who was really flailing. She'd got to the blankest part of the bank and then frozen I think. Her shoes were pedalling away on the surface but she didn't have her weight over them so they weren't helping her. I decided to effect a rescue. I was near a nice sturdy little sapling so I got a good hold of it and then got her to hold my hand. I thought that would be enough to help her get back on her feet but I think she'd lost it a bit by then. She was now on the slope backwards, with her feet skidding ineffectually under her. I had to be quite stern with her in the end and say "Come on, PUSH, I can't hold onto you forever." At that she shot to her feet and made it to the tree. I felt like Graham Henry.

The march to the top of Craiglockhart was taxing and I was ready for water and raisins by the time I got there. I had a minute and got my breath back and then really enjoyed the descent on pine needles through the trees down the other side. I continued feeling pretty good until after the scramble up the 2nd bank at the Hermitage my legs decided they were now empty. It was a strange feeling, usually something else gives up before my legs. I got them jogging again on the downhills and flats though. The pull up to Arthur's Seat was hard work and my ascent of Arthur's Seat was kind of laughable. I was deeply grateful for the scrambling bits because I could use my arms and give my legs a break.

I was wearing a heart-rate monitor which had been telling me that my heart-rate was pretty  high all the way round - usually 165-168. I was enjoying myself and not feeling rotten though, so I just ignored it. At Arthur's Seat however it dropped to 44 and then to 00. That was a bit alarming. I took a moment and took my pulse manually and it was fast but steady which was reassuring. Then I put the damn HRM off.

I enjoyed the descent of Arthur's Seat all the more because a bunch of people who were just ahead of me took the wrong path down. A better person would have called them back but I enjoyed my advantage. As I ran down the Dasses, Radiohead finally broke out of my mouth and I started singing "I'm a Creep!". But then I stopped when I saw a bunch of guys lying chatting on the grass.  Pity.
At the palace and the parliament the Race for Life was in full swing so the 7h runners had to dodge in amongst a sea of pink clad walksters.

Then just that last short bit up to the top of Calton Hill and it was all over. I was done in and could hardly face my quiche. The apres race chat was fun though and then we went for a quick drink with the Dundee Injury Twins Michael Geoghegan and Melanie Henderson.

Back at home I discover that not only was today's run a post-op pb. (We expected that) But it was not even a pw. I ran 7 seconds slower in 2005 when I'd run the marathon the weekend before and died a death half way through. So that's a new landmark. My first non pw of 2013. Hurray!

I should mention there was great support all the way round. And at Blackford Hill where there was a sea of HBTs their cries of HBT changed to "Keep going Mary!". I was very touched.

Oh and I should also mention that my excellent friend Amanda was 2nd lady, Porty Ladies won the team prize and Peter took home the prize for 1st older gent.

I don't know what the next race is. Nothing soon I don't think, but this one has left me with a nice warm glow.

7 Hills of Edinburgh

Isobel Knox's photos show what the HBTs were up to. 

Meanwhile in Porty land...

Oh how I love this race. I have to overcome this growing aversion for road-running though as I was hating it all the way to Corstorphine Hill and then cheered up once I got amongst the bushes. I came off Corstorphine Hill a new and unplanned way which happily came out alright - emerging from the woods just above the steep road that takes you down to the main Corstorphine Road. Again - not much pleasure to be had at Balgreen etc. or wherever it was. I was a little bit surprised to be passed at this point by Don Naylor. Gordon's training is working for me but maybe not that well.

At Craiglockhart I caught up to and passed Paul Eunson on the muddy scramble up the side of the hill. I only found out later he'd had a nasty knock from falling while coming down from the castle and had not recovered - and later dropped out.

I seemed to be catching up with the Challengers sooner than usual but this turned out to be because there had been less time between their start and the Race start than usual. All shortcuts worked well except one that we'd planned coming off Blackford Hill - I went further left than I intended and had to run back on myself. Probably only cost a couple of minutes but put a knock in my confidence and I spent the next mile thinking that I was going the wrong way. However it all worked out. Come Pollock Halls getting over the wall was easy and also very gratifying as as I landed I saw a bunch of people I'd been with at the gates of the Halls now probably 300m behind and I never saw them again.

Going over Arthur's Seat I snuck past Michael Nowicki and another Porty by going left over the climby stuff rather than the slower more sedate path and again never saw them again. Coming down the other side I was pleased to see Jim Ramsay still going strong and up for a bit of banter. Shortly after I could hear him talking to someone - who was it going to be? The fleet of foot Gillian MacKelvie floating downhill as she does. Eek! Luckily she floated a bit too far downhill and I veered off left taking a shorter line and then, reluctant as I was, kept moving as best I could. I was given extra incentive in the closing  moments of the race as 2 Edinburgh ACs who I'd swapped places with a couple of times came past me. As each time I'd got past them it had been on an uphill I felt I really had to fight this one out so went back ahead and stayed ahead.

Its a great race to finish. Much banter and chatting at the end. There were a good number of Porties set on going to the pub for some pints afterwards, which sounded pretty good. Let it be known, lest we become known as HBT2 however that what we were drinking was lager based drinks and white wine...

Talking of HBTs I thought Izzy Knox and Deborah MacDonald were just playing a cruel joke on me by pretending to finish after me but it turns out that, like Don Naylor, they were taking a thoroughly relaxed approach to the whole thing. Ian Campbell was likewise relaxed, telling me he's putting his energies into coaching rather than self-glorification these days. I saw Ivor. N. to say hello to but never got any of his chat.

Special mention should be made of Michael Geoghegan who also did Glen Rosa yesterday and took some kind of epic tumble today so he had a bruised forehead and a black eye by the time he got to the pub.

Good results for the Porties - I think Shery was 3rd lady in the race and Emily won the ladies' race in the challenge. Willie was 1st Vet (Vet begins at 50 in this race) and Portobello won the 2nd team prize.