Johnny Hall's Travels and Travails

Last night was my second Bog and Burn race - Red Moss Revolution, organised by HBT. Red Moss is probably the fastest hill race in the calendar (given my limited knowledge, this probably isn't strictly true) since there's only about 200m of climbing and much of the course is on tracks and tarmac. Still, it seemed hard enough to me, with most of it runnable, with a couple of nice descents and almost all of the 200m climbing coming on a long runnable ascent up Hare Hill, which made it hard to pace I'd been down in Leek at my in-laws for a couple of days, so that Becky could go and scream at Barlow and Owen at Old Trafford on Tuesday, so much of the day leading up to the race was spent in a car on the motorway coming back to Scotland. Certainly, this wasn't ideal preparation but probably not much worse than sitting at a desk. I felt pretty good beforehand though, which was a nice change - I'm starting to feel fitter and less tired at the moment, maybe it's the weather. I warmed up with Westies Chris, Ellie and Owen and chatted to a few folks including Jon from Carnethy, Kate and Ian from HBT. I feel very at home at a hill race, in a few short months I've gotten to know a lot of friendly and welcoming people. A big crowd of runners assembled at the start and I took position behind the front group of speedsters. I kept up a fast pace along the road at the beginning, despite knowing I was likely to pay for it later (though I'm not sure that I did). The road rears up a bit and a few runners came past. As I get to know more runners, I'll be better placed to judge whether to follow them or not. We turned onto the trail and the climb up to Hare Hill. I kept a steady pace and tried to keep my breathing controlled. The hill passed quickly and then we started down a heather-covered slope. I got stuck behind someone here and made the mistake of not passing him early. Someone else came flying past and reminded me I was racing, so I got round my blocker too. Then, down a steep slope to Green Cleuch, where I passed another couple of hesitant non-hill runners. I walked all the way up the wee horrible path from there since running didn't seem to be any benefit at any point (and because I couldn't!) and then there was a long, rough descent, which I enjoyed. It needed a lot of concentration though. Then, we were on the long run-in alongside Threipmuir Reservoir and someone was breathing down my neck and then passed me. This turned out to be Davie Duncan again - he did the same thing to me at Stuc a'Chroin and Cort-ma Law. In retrospect, I could have stayed with him but I'd gone to sleep a bit. Another runner came up to me and I settled in behind him and then, when he faltered, I re-passed him and pulled away and gained on Davie again. I should have put the gas down earlier and stayed on his feet. I finished in 46:07, which was maybe a little slower than I was hoping. I did have 42 minutes in my head for some daft reason (I'd checked out last years results) but then I realised I'd meant 45 minutes (not sure where 42 came from). So, I hadn't executed particularly well, but I enjoyed running in the evening sunshine and felt my legs were quite strong.