On Saturday, the Mary Hillbillies were up bright and early for the start of the annual Clyde Stride Ultramarathon. Unfortunately, in jury had robbed us of any participants in the full Ultra, however we did manage to cobble together a relay team consisting of Davie, Linda, myself and Duncan to take part in the relay.
Despite some weather warnings forecasting heavy rain, the clouds managed to more or less hold up and we actually saw some warm sunshine in parts. Davie took on the 1st leg from Partick to Cambuslang and put in a strong performance despite a lack of training, pulling us into 6th place out of the 17 teams competing. Linda took over in Cambuslang just as the sun began to shine and excellently navigated the tricky 2nd leg up to Strathclyde Park, thankfully no giant hogweed incidents!
I took over at Strathclyde Park with the aim of catching the immediate two teams that were marginally in front. I managed to pass both along the side of Strathclyde Loch, where I got a bit carried away and went off too fast (think I thought I was at Parkrun!). From there the route joins back on to the banks of the Clyde for a relatively straight forward section to Mauldslie Bridge. I managed to haul back a few more relay teams along the section, as well as passing a good few Ultra runners who by this point were starting to toil slightly. Not that I blame them!
I finished my 10 mile section in 1 hour 14 mins, which was about what I was expecting, and left the team in 5th place. I then passed the baton onto Duncan for the 4th and final leg into New Lanark. The 4th leg is notoriously difficult, being slightly longer than the preceding 3 with the addition of some challenging hills and stairs. Duncan predicted a time of 1 hour 40 for his leg, which turned out to be pessimistic in the extreme, as he powered through a good 20 minutes faster than this, reaching the finish line even before the rest of us in the car!
Overall, the Hillbillies came 6th out of the 17 relay teams in around 5 and a half hours. A great result from the team to get round in what was our initial target time, and an even greater triumph that no one got lost this year! On a personal level, it was one of my favourite days of running so far and has definitely wet the appetite for potentially doing the full distance next year.
Big thanks to Linda for the transport, Chris for coming along and supporting on the day and to my fellow 3 runners for putting in such a great shift.
