The three sombreros 1 and 2.
The Tour of Fife kicked off today (if I can mix my sporting metaphors). No 1 was a hilly trail race on a beautiful sunlit evening. The Porty Bus contained 4 Portobellos, Peter, Willie, Ruth and I. Amanda had a note from her mum saying she had to take the tour off as she lost her appendix in New York...she hopes to come along as a witness for some of the races with her cute little doggy Horatio.
We were very pleased to see Julia H and her brother Adam. Pleased also to see so many familiar faces of Fifers, tourists and race junkies. It seemed normal enough lining up for a series of 5 races this evening. A simple thing but difficult to explain to others outwith the running fraternity..."You're doing WHAT? On a bike? Running? Everyday? Is that good for you?".
I was feeling very dry-mouthed and quiet before the race, a bit frozen in fear. Soon enough we were towing the line and we were off. I didn't feel great but I felt alright and I hoped that the hilliness might play to my strengths once I got into the race. This seemed to be panning out fairly well and I was catching people on the ups but when we set off down again I got the feeling that the delicious Double Decker and cup of coffee I'd had at 4pm maybe hadn't been the best idea and I spent the rest of the race with a more and more pressing need to get to a toilet. I don't think it particularly slowed me down but it was a shame because its a really nice run down hill through the green trees on good paths but I was preoccupied throughout. There was a Fife Lady (Innes - I heard lots of people cheering her on) hot on my heels and I was doing my best just to maintain my position. Almost immediately I finished I set off to get to the toilets at the Village Hall but it all got a bit too pressing so I burrowed into some tall nettles and thistles and went al fresco...Well it must happen to most runners at least once. My legs are still burning with the nettle stings. Once that was over I felt quite loose and relaxed and jogged back easily to the hall!
I caught up with the race news a bit later. Peter's going well. We knew that! The results show him to be sitting at 10th and 1st V45. Willie is 1st V50 - he doesn't have the 5 minute cushion he was hoping for but he's got well over a minute working in his favour. Ruth is in a very competitive category so despite running an absolute stormer she has a few senior ladies to catch up on. To my surprise the lady vets ahead of me are all FV45s and FV50s so I look to be leading the FV40 category! Huzzah! I suppose its possible the categories will collapse and the F45s might in fairness get the FV40 positions...We shall see. I at least have an aim now. I can battle to stay top of that category.
Julia flew in, Ist Lady in 33 minutes, just pipped by her brother Adam.
I also got a nice spot prize of a tour of fife t-shirt, a lucky number 70 to run under for the rest of the week and some nice cheers from the Fife Ladies who were not participating because of injury and up-coming hill races.
Photos - Peter
Results here
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