Thought I would do a wee write up of the Wednesday night hill races which form the Bog and Burn Series.
There are now 11 races in the series and your place in the series is based upon your best 5 finishes
RACE………….FINISHING POSITION
Kaim
Whangie……..Duncan 49
Dumyat
Kilpatricks
Cort-ma Law….Duncan 23…Sarah 70
Ben Sheann…..Duncan 19…Sarah 39
Red Moss…………………………..Sarah 81
Law Breaker……………………….Sarah 65
Maddy Moss
Turnhouse……..Duncan 30…Sarah 69
Caerketton……..Duncan 24…Sarah 58
TOTAL……………Duncan 145…Sarah 301
None of the races are extremely long or high and with 2 exceptions do not require a bum bag of kit, hence most people can turn up and pay a small fee, £2 to £5 normally and have a go at them.
I really enjoy doing them as you quickly get a feel for where you should finish and hence have targets to aim at for the next race. All of the races are in central Scotland and do not require much more than a hour of travel by car, some you could easily cycle to, I cycled to the Wangie this year, the rest of the races Sarah and I generally took turns at driving. It has been great to have another member of the club, Sarah, at the races, as you then do not look like you have no mates, although as with all series you get to meet loads of people. This is especially true if you go to the pub after the race, Sarah and I have decided to do more pub visiting next year.
My favourite race this year was Cort Ma Law because of the huge bogs we had to negotiate and the challenge that provided, which was great fun, and good heroic tales of swamp monsters etc afterwards.
In doing the races you get to run over a good variety of surfaces, climbs, bogs, obstacles etc, Ben Sheann has particularly rough ground and loads of midges.
The winner of the series this year was Al Anthony, Ochil Hill Runners, and the female was Christina Rankin, Kilbarchan.
I finished 17th and Sarah was 37th, 50 people completed the series, with 2 people David Duncan and Julia Connor completing all 11 races.
I would recommend the series to any one in the club, and I fully intend to have another go next year.
Finally, a thank you to Chris Upson, from Westerlands, who puts a lot of work into the series to make it a success.
