Cateran Ultra - Race report........Take 3

My first time running the Cateran Trail Ultra, and my 3rd attempt at writing a blog post about my experience.

Take 1 was just a disaster, I just couldn't get going 

Take 2 was so rigidly awful,in the "I did this, then I did that" genre, even I was bored reading it.

So here goes with Take 3......

The basic facts

Photo by Amanda Hamilton

55 miles through beautiful rolling Perthshire countryside, 7400 feet of climb and descent, race limit 120; 77 starters for the 55 miler, 69 finishers. Based at the Gulabin Lodge Outdoor centre at Spittal of Glenshee, the northernmost point of the clockwise circular route passing through Kirkton of Glenisla, Den of Alyth, Blairgowrie, Bridge of Cally and Enochdhu. I finished in 30th place in 10 hours 53 minutes.

There were an army of helpers and marshals from Sandra and Helen in charge of catering, Julie at registration (handing out poo sacks); checkpoints dressed as an 80s disco, yellow suited minions and the effervescent Noanie telling us to "get our arses out of the checkpoint" all capped with a unique finishers trophy.

I had a brilliant time, I'd do it again and I'd recommend it to anyone.

RD Karen Donaghue has built a smashing race with an intimate family feel about it.

I ran with John Duncan and John Kynaston in the first half, both of whom finished in excellent times, after mile 30 I bumped into Jo Wilson and Richard Dennis and pretty much ran to the finish with them.

So is that it?

Yes and no

People who had done this race before described it as "more runnable than The Fling", it's 55 off-road miles but I think in my mind I translated this to "easy", bit of a rookie error there.

My fitness was not at issue I was always confident of a decent finish, but my lack of route knowledge, a good, but hard Fling 3 weeks before coupled with the knowledge that I'd be running the Edinburgh Marathon two weeks later certainly played on my mind.

I deliberately ate more than I've ever done on an Ultra, I ran what I felt was a conservative first half but by mile 30 I wasn't particularly in my happy place. The weather was pretty good for Ultra running with only 1 notable shower of rain, but there was a corker of a headwind for most of the second half.

So the ingredients were in place for a rotten race? Wrong.........just as I was starting to wallow in my self pity, I found myself running alongside Jo Wilson. Jo was First Lady at this year's D33 so she's no slouch, but this was her first time running longer than 33 miles and when we met she was in an even less happy place than me.

Bridge of Cally -courtesy of Amanda Hamilton

It turned out we have a mutual friend in Dumfries so we got chatting pretty quickly, she conceded she was "feeling emotional" so I wheeled out both my MTFU speech and my best Scout leader motivational tricks. Having someone else to chivvy along completely took my mind off my own race. Richard Dennis had been yo-yo- ing around us for probably 10 miles and he eventually decided that he might as well join our little pace bus.

In truth, by the time we got to the last checkpoint at Enochdu and having covered a good few miles at a relatively leisurely pace I could have pushed on for a better finish time but I was enjoying the company and the day so much that doing so would have felt both wrong and like breaking an unwritten bond of shared experiences. In fact just before the top of the final big climb (An Lairig) we agreed we'd finish and cross the line together.

We bagged a joint 30th place in 10:53:21 comfortably under 11 hours and firmly in the top half of the field.

Jo - Photo by John Mill

Richard - photo by John Mill

Yours truly -photo by John Mill

Now I'm not saying i sacrificed my race for the good of others, because I certainly didn't. I spent a good part of my race running with two people I'd never met in my life, but who, within 10 minutes was comfortably discussing extreme chafing, crying, embarrassing running incidents, poo and what an incredibly stubborn breed we ultra runners are. I suppose we must share certain personality traits to put our bodies and minds through these self imposed extreme challenges and then come back for more. I got a huge amount of pleasure from crossing the finish line with these new friends.

If you want a blow by blow account of racing the Cateran, I'd point you in the direction of Andy Johns, Keith Mabbott or John Kynaston's excellent write ups. Perhaps next time, and yes there will be a next time with a better idea of the geography I'll conjure up something in a similar vein.

Finish Line - photo by Muriel Downie

So now my inadvertent experiment in subjecting myself to 5 races in 5 weeks is drawing to its conclusion with this Sunday's Edinburgh Marathon. I did an unplanned 6 mile tempo run round Perth last night, well it was sunny so it would have been a waste not to. I'll probably run tomorrow then rest up before Sunday.

I've absolutely no idea how I'll get on, I'm certainly not going out for a PB, I'd like to think I could maintain 8 minute miles which should give me around 3:30, but I'll be happy with a finish.

Wish me luck

Cheers

Troon Tortoises 10K road race 2015

I suppose one of the potential benefits of shorter races should be shorter blog posts so here goes.

It's quite a while since my running club sent a large group to participate in a race and despite initial enthusiasm and sign ups when entries opened in February, this number was whittled down by injury, work and other distractions from 15  to 7 Harriers toeing the line on the night.

I'd managed to wangle my work schedule to be in Ayrshire and I narrowly made it on time, turning up a mere two and a half hours before the race started! The upside being I had no trouble finding a parking place, no queue to collect my number, no queue for the bogs and I was able to rest my eyes in the car for an hour.

This race is one of a diminishing number of midweek races, but remains incredibly popular being both a sell-out and attracting over 900 runners this year persuaded by the excellent value, chip timing and fast and flat route it offers.

The start and finish is on the Troon seafront with a brisk and blustery wind on the night promising a tailwind on the first kilometre and a challenging headwind for the final 1000 metres.

A few minutes before 7pm Andy, Emma, Lesley and myself positioned ourselves close to the 42 minutes sign. I felt this was realistic, but had a slight confidence quiver when I looked back and saw that this put us very close to the sharp end. Eight hundred people behind you on a 10 K is an awful lot of people, too late to change now, we're off.

Much to my surprise I wasn't immediately trampled and overwhelmed by a rampaging horde of skinny road runners, in the first kilometre I was probably overtaken by 10 people and in turn overtook about 10 people myself, so perhaps, for once most runners had put themselves in the correct "starting pen".

The route is flat other than two spots where the road crosses the railway line, and is on footpaths, quiet residential roads and a couple of very short bits on Tarmac track, a definite PB potential race. It's incredibly well marshalled with a reasonable smattering of support, particularly on the second half.

I've got no tales of interesting conversations or musings about the magnificence of the scenery as its a 10K so I was working too hard to talk and you're mostly running through housing estates and around the perimeter of Troon Municipal golf course.

 

Troon 10 K route

From the off Andy disappeared into the distance and although I overtook Emma around 1K, she promptly repaid the favour and that was the last I saw of her till the finish!

I was acutely aware that this race fell a mere 10 days after the Highland Fling and 10 days before my first crack at the 55 mile Cateran Ultra so my race plan was to aim for sub 7 minute miles, ease off if things hurt and hold on if I could.

My mile splits were 6:43 6:56 6:51 6:56 6:53 6:51 and although I was working hard, I didn't feel I was majorly "in the red" at any point. The last kilometre is back along the seafront into a noticeable headwind which allowed me to pass a couple of people and my usual sprint in the final 100 metres gave me another couple of scalps, I finished in 42 minutes dead, knocking 42 seconds of my PB. I'm pretty chuffed with that given the complete absence of any speed work in my training this year.

The slick organisation continued after the finish with runners being funnelled to collect your technical t-shirt, commemorative buff, water and a Tunnocks Caramel wafer, incredible value race for £10 especially for a chip timed event.

Carol, Emma, Doug, Lesley, me, Carolyn & Andy

For the record the Dumfries contingent finished as follows

Andy Beattie     40:37     49th

Emma Knowles  41:09     64th (and 8th lady overall).  PB

Keith Ainslie      42:00    74th.   PB

Lesley Jeffrey    43:30    111th

Douglas Kerr      47:11    218th.   PB

Carol Graham    55:01     547th.    PB

Carolyn Davies   1:10:22  897th

Well done to Troon Tortoises RC who organise the event, it's a race I'd thoroughly recommend.

Cheers