I drove over to Tillicoultry on Tuesday to run in the Kirk Craigs Christmas Cracker hill race. This was the second time the race has been held and the weather was glorious considering the past few days, dry with bright blue skies, much reduced wind speed and not too cold.
The route takes a route up to the top of the Ochil hills, which I had not used before, but once up there we followed a familiar trod/path which is used for a number of hill races. The race route was 4 miles long with 1758ft of climbing. Given the rain over the festive period the downhill sections were very slippy indeed and I found this quite difficult when combined the bright low sun in my eyes, you could also say I was just slow! It was, however, good fun trying to keep up with those in front without falling, and I quite enjoy the climbing sections.
The race was won by Sam Alexander (Westies) 39:24 and first female was Catriona Buchanan (Ochils) 47:01. I finished 35th in 54:17, there were 67 runners in total.
The proceeds from the race were donated to a local children’s charity in Alloa and £312 were raised for it.
