Cort-ma Law

The Campsie Fells are a range of hills in central Scotland, popular with Glaswegians, less so with those of us (like me) from the East (who use the Pentlands instead). So, last night, I raced (again) over a hill called Cort-ma Law, and took my first trip to the Campsies.  The weather was good for running, dry, with a cool breeze.  I travelled up with Russell and James after work and it made a grand wee trip - decent car conversation, race in the middle, meet a few folks, chip supper on the way home. My right leg has been more or less seized since Yetholm with a tight calf and a wee tear in the quad.  I've also got a very unpleasant blister on my right heel (I believe the blister and the bad leg are related).  So, I probably shouldn't have raced but I'm not so sensible.  In the end, my leg was fine and it's even feeling better now, the day after. Cort-ma Law starts with a steep pull up onto an undulating ridge to the hilltop, before turning north and running over boggy ground to another hill, Lecket, then descending steep, tussocky ground to an awkward set of burn crossings, another steep pull, back onto the undulations and then back down the quick and potentially hazardous decent to the line. I decided to further my race experimentations by taking it fairly easy on the first climb and not to go off hard and pay for it later.  This was accomplished and I kept the pace low and managed not to get the debilitating feeling in my legs when I had to start running hard again.  However, after 15 minutes, I started to feel good, so i picked up the pace but it didn't last long and I started blowing all too soon. I felt heavy on the mid-section of the race over the boggy ground (which was fairly dry, it'd be hideous in the rain) and lost a couple of places.  However, I was determined to try to descend better and I feel that I managed that - I kept the group I was pursuing in my sights all the way down the first, tough descent, over the kind of tussocky, uneven ground that I would normally struggle over.  I even managed a very nice barrel roll when I put my left foot in a hole. Steep climbs aren't a problem for me, it's the only time I tend not to lose places, so I kept the pace up and then tried to stay strong on the drag back to the last descent.  I had someone breathing down my neck here and a couple of runners in my sights, so I tried manfully to keep the pace up here.  A final, mad rush to the line with 4 of us crossing more or less together - by this time, I was moving full pelt and I almost lost it 2 yards from the end when my leg buckled but I held it together. I missed my sub-hour target by a minute or so, which was a shame, but I don't really have the fitness right now.  I'm running fine, just not brilliantly.  Hopefully, in a month or so, I'll have picked up when I have a bit more hard running in my legs.