Johnny Hall’s Travels and Travails

I thought I'd throw fortune to the wind and attempt both of them. I wanted to do the Skyline and it would have been a shame not to have run Manor, which is one of our local races. I feel in reasonable shape at the moment and the weather was kind, today at least.

I got there in good time and caught up with a few of my hill running friends - the sport is very friendly. I decided to take it fairly easy to start with and not get caught up in a mad dash up the hill, so I kept my breathing easy and my strides short. Once we got onto the hillside, I found my position and concentrated on keeping a steady pace, trying to bear in mind that I had to race again tomorrow.

I didn't feel too great for the first 30 minutes but then my breathing seemed to settle down and I felt better for the last push up The Scrape. I re-passed some folks who had run by me earlier and kept a strong walking pace up the last steep hill. At the turnaround, I noted that I wasn't too far behind my Moorfoot compatriots, Colin, Steve and Kenny. I hit the top in about 52 minutes which was a bit quicker than I had expected.

I tried to keep my position running back down the hill and tried to reel in a few runners in front, which helped me to run strongly. On the way back there are a couple of short hills to run back up and the absence of wind here meant I felt a bit overheated but they didn't last long and I kept running up them, rather than resorting to walking.

Dave Mitchell and Stewart Barrie, both stronger descenders than I am, caught me near the end and there was nothing I could do to stay with them but I crossed the line in about 1.28:30 which was well under my expectations, though, if I'm honest, the conditions were quite quick with good runnable ground.

Now, a few hours after the event, I've crashed a bit but my legs are feeling ok and I'm confident I won't embarrass myself at the Skyline.