Johnny Hall's Travels and Travails

Another weekend, another hill race - the last major hill race for me before Jura in a couple of weeks. I'm very conscious that so far, I've had pretty poor results in the Scottish hill races I've competed in this year. I did reasonably at the Moelwyns race but that was sandwiched by Clachnaben, where I was ill, and Stuc a' Chroin, which I screwed up by running too hard too early.

So, my pre-race target for Ben Lomond, of 1:30, was wildly out of line with those results. At Clachnaben and Stuc, I've been around 150% of the winning time, which had something to do with the fact that those races were championship races, and a lot to do with my poor running. A 1:30 run at Lomond would be closer to 125% of the winner, which seemed a bit optimistic. Still, I was confident of doing better - my running has improved steadily again since I've gotten over my illness.

The weather was a bit miserable - cold (for May) and wet. The top of the Ben was in the clouds and it had been snowing steadily higher up. This suited me, since I prefer the cold and don't mind bad weather - I put a long sleeved top on under my vest but a lot of runners were in waterproofs. I would be soaked wet through after 10 minutes. The weather obviously didn't suit a lot of people since around a third of the field either didn't start or didn't finish. I kept my speed in check early on to avoid blowing up later and once out of the trees, I started to move up the field, simply by keeping my pace steady and closing gaps when others let them go.

The course is straightforward, more or less straight up and then straight down. We detoured off the path in a few places, which I found harder going but where we were on the track, I managed to keep running rather than walking. Towards the top, the track eases off a bit and I ran this hard - I had to put my hat on here since it had started to snow and the wind was driving it into my freshly shaved head. Soon enough, I was on the tough uphill section to the summit, which avoided the zig zag path. There was a lot of snow on the summit but I had my Mudclaws on and it wasn't slippy. I started down after less than a hour, which I hoped gave me a chance of hitting my target. I seemed to be quite far up the field.

Downhill running isn't a strength of mine, with my weak right ankle but I can run down a track fairly quickly and I managed to overtake a few runners and hold others at bay. Before the race, I'd been warned that the track is treacherous and I kept telling myself to be careful, even as I was careering down the slope. Sure enough, I still fell twice - once I tripped on a rock and just managed to save myself and I slipped on a muddy section and did a very well executed barrel roll down the slope.

There were a couple of sections off the path that I couldn't run hard because they were too uneven but my legs still felt good and I didn't slow too much. Soon, I was back in the trees and had only been overtaken by a couple of runners all the way down, whilst overtaking several myself. Just the rocky steps to negotiate. Unfortunately, I turned my left ankle (my good one) on one of those steps - I've no idea why - which slowed me down due to the pain. At this point, another couple of runners came past and I was powerless to keep with them with my ankle screaming at me.

Then, i was onto the last section of road, a smile for the camera, and through the finishing line. A look at my watch - 1:30:53. Amazing, considering the conditions. Finally, I had had a strong race. This would be good enough for 34th place, of 120 finishers, a lot better than previous races and it gives me confidence for Jura. I finished in front of many people who had been well ahead of me before and I was much closer to the fast guys.

My ankle swelled to be 4 times its normal size and now, a day later, it still hurts. Hopefully, it'll be fine by Gypsy Glen.