A few weekends ago, I ran the Two Breweries hill race. Duncan had mentioned one night at the club that he was going to run it and I decided a little apprehensively that I would join him. 18 miles and 4900ft – how hard could it be? I had run 19-20 miles on the roads fairly recently and thought I would try and stick with Duncan, let him head off when I felt he was too fast, but figured I would be alright whatever happened. I clearly had no idea what this race was going to be like!
In the week running up to the race, Duncan got in touch to say that he wasn’t feeling well and so wasn’t going to run the race. Having already paid, and being too stingy to let my entry fee go to waste, I contacted Chris Upson (www.chrisupson.blogspot.com) whom I had met at the Tour of Clydeside series and he kindly agreed to give me a lift to the race. He was also giving a lift to Ellie and Tom. Tom appeared to be sponsored by Salomon, but insisted he was taking it easy today.
Duncan, Jim and a friend from work (Dave Calder, Westerlands) warned me against going off too fast and finding myself with nothing left for the last hill – the dreaded Trahenna! I started off slow sticking to the very back of the running group, but very quickly realised I was being over cautious and slowly let myself pass some folk. It was a glorious day and was actually pretty warm. I had opted for just a short sleeve t-shirt (Maryhill Harriers of course) and was never too cold. In fact on the way up the hills, the sweat was literally pouring off my head.
Before the race, in my complete ignorance, I had half thought about trying to run the whole thing – no matter how slow, it would be a good challenge to try and keep going!? By the time I started the first climb (Birkscairn), I just followed suit and walked up the unrunnably (is this a word?) steep path. I tend to find on road races that I am normally quite fast on the uphills thanks to a long stride, and this was no different when walking up the hills as I found I was able to fairly comfortably walk up most the hills faster than those around about me. It was then just a case of trying to match them on the downhill sections. And the downhills to Glensax and Glenrath were absolute thigh-busters. To be honest with you, I didn’t really notice at the time, and felt I was running quite well and just keeping up with those around me. But the next morning, and the morning after that, and even the morning after that, my thighs were agony – much sorer than after the marathon. I could hardly walk (like a human) – I found walking like a robot (with my leg locked straight on heel strike) much more to my satisfaction and Caroline’s amusement (as we were on Sauchiehall St on the bank holiday Monday). Every so often I would plant my foot wrong, my muscles would spasm and I would lose balance and nearly fall over backwards.
Anyway back to the race, I had passed half-way and had eaten a Mars bar, had a DextroseEnergy tablet and was constantly sipping lucozade. I found that the lucozade in my camelpack was warm due to it being in contact with my sweaty back, but the stuff in the tube was cooler. So I would drink till it got warm and then leave a new tube-full to cool down. I ran quite a bit through the forrest on the approach to Whitelaw and was feeling fine – tired but good. I knew that there was a small hill and then it was just Trahenna at the end. But then came that small hill – Whitelaw – and it was murder! I have never wanted to stop in a race more than I did during this climb. It was relatively short, compared to the other hills, and I was obviously walking right from the start, but it was so so steep. The closest I’ve encountered before is the section of the Turbo X where you turn up through a similar fire break in the trees and walk/crawl up the slope, but this time I had 10 miles already in my legs. I resolved just to trudge on, as even if I did drop out I was half way up a hill in the middle of a forest. One tiny step after another I slowly got closer to the top. Every so often a queue would form behind me, and I would step to the side of the rabbit trail path and give them right of way, like a car laboriously towing a caravan on a B-road. Eventually as I reached the summit, to the relief of my legs (and without any major stops), I asked the marshals posted there if Trahenna was as steep – they laughed and said it was “much worse”. I wished then that I hadn’t asked, and decided to retire at the Stobo Farm checkpoint (14-miles and at the bottom of the hill).
I drank some juice, had half a Mars bar and an energy tablet, and tried to run the downhill, although very slowly at first. As I did this I started to feel better and got a bit of a second wind. I was weighing up the pros and cons of trying to finish – there was no shame in running 14 miles in the hills, but I had never pulled out of a race before. By the time I got to Stobo, where Dave was posted, I was a good 45mins inside the cut off and had decided to keep going. I stopped at this station, ate and drank loads (few chocolate sweet, few fruit gums, few cups of water) and then jogged on up the path. There was quite a lot of runnable track on the approach to Trahenna, but worried a little that I wouldn’t have enough energy to get to the top, I walked most of it. I met a girl called Eilis from HBT, and we chatted most of the way to the hill and half way up (she had done this part as a training run and so kept me right navigation wise) until she had to stop for a bit as a result of cramp. I then latched on to another female runner (Joanne from Carnethy) as we walked up the final part of the climb, and she set a good pace off the summit so I just tucked in behind. Until, of course, the steep downhill section came, and she left me for dead. Getting down at pace was no longer a concern; reaching the bottom without my legs buckling and falling face first was my priority. There was then just a final stretch along the road to Broughton Ales Brewery where I felt like I was sprinting but people were walking alongside just as fast. But I made it, crossing the line in 4:17:30 and was pretty happy with that.
I hobbled along to the townhall for the prizegiving (after using the natural facilities behind the brewery) and the buffet made it all worthwhile – stodgy vegetable soup, rolls and butter, and home baking, who could ask for more? I met up with Chris and Ellie who had both done well (Ellie especially well as she had given blood 2 days previously) and Tom who had taken it nice and easy finishing 3rd (after a 6min wrong turn detour). Thanks again to Chris for the lift.
