The Two Breweries

The Two Breweries was one of my target races this year.  It's local (the start is 3 mile from my house), which means I don't have to leave the house super early, or get up a stupid o'clock, or drive for hours.  Granted, the finish is a bit further away but that's part of the beauty of the race.  Because it's local, I also trained on the course a bit, so I knew (some) of what I was in for.

The race itself starts at the brewery at Traquair House and finishes at the brewery in Broughton, some 18 miles and 1600 metres of climbing later.  The terrain isn't mountainous but it is hard going, with heather, bog, steep ascents and decents, some road and track and some easier running.  It's particularly hard because most of the roughest terrain is early on and the steepest ascent is at the end, when you are sucking air.

I had a few weeks off in August because I was tired and because work had ramped up a bit and I needed to put some hours in.  Once that was out the way, I'd lost a fair amount of fitness but I was confident of getting strong enough to complete the race but maybe not to feel great doing it.  And this was the way it turned out.

I decided to start very conservatively, and to walk any sort of climb.  I placed myself firmly in the middle of the 115 or so runners and jogged the first mile to the farm track and then started walking as soon as we went uphill.  I knew the early terrain pretty well but not the best route.  I guess there are a couple of choices once you hit the heather but I kept with the majority and battered my way through.  Being tall has its advantages. 

I reached the first summit of Birkscairn on 56 minutes, bang on my target of 55.  I then followed the line of runners down the steep heathery descent to Glensax, which I managed pretty quickly, about twice as fast as I did it in training, mainly because of picking a much better, less direct line.  The track up Hundleshope looks intimidating but after some initial steepness, it's fairly easy.  I reached the next summit about a minute up on my target.

The next section over Stob Law and down to Glenrath has some route finding difficulties (indeed, I went wrong here in training, which cost me a lot of effort) but I managed to pick a perfect line without gaining too much height or losing any and found the contour track from the reentrant with no difficulties.  Harder in mist no doubt.  I started feeling good here and probably picked up the pace a bit too much.  Everyone in my group here bar one or two runners finished 5-15 minutes ahead of me at the end, so I was definitely punching above my weight.  If I'd had the endurance in my legs, I might have held them but...

Down the descent of Stob Law, I kept my place and then we hit the track to the farm and started running and I immediately drifted off the back, running 9 minute miles where my group was running 8s.  The sun was out here and I wilted a bit.  At the water stop, I probably lingered a bit too much.  Over the course of the race, I'm positive I didn't eat or drink enough, which I need to correct at the next one (Pentland).

Up Whitehope, I drifted further backwards, feeling horrible.  Another group caught me on the steep climb but I didn't have any push.  I managed to run off the hill down to Stobo ok, but I was definitely going backwards.  I was still on target at Stobo but only just.  The track from Stobo is hard going and any ascent had me grimacing.  I just didn't have the energy, though I was still running.  I took a bad line through the heather before Trahenna here and only corrected myself when I say Stewart (Barrie) and Ellie (Homewood) on the "path" and cut over to them.  They were going well here and I was not but miraculously, I kept with them, more or less, up the ascent of Trahenna.  Which.  Was.  Brutal.  I didn't really think it would be that hard, but it's very steep and my legs were gone.  I thought I was going badly here but the runners queued up behind me here were even slower, so I didn't get overtaken again before the finish.

Unfortunately, there is still a lot of hard work to do from the top of the hill and my left calf was cramping very badly.  I couldn't stay with Ellie and Stewart and they finished comfortably inside four hours and was over a minute out.  Once down to the road, there is still about a mile but I couldn't pick up the pace and shuffled to the finish in 4:01:22.  Not far off my 4 hour target but disappointing nevertheless.

I finished 61st of 114 starters, which is fairly standard for me.  I'll be wanting to be further up the field next year.

The race marked my fifth Long Classic hill race of the year and meant that I'd achieved my primary (race) goal for 2009.  At the beginning of the year, I had no hill running experience and now, I have quite a bit.

Next week is Manor Mouse.  Manor Hill on Saturday and Pentland Skyline on Sunday.  I should probably skip Manor but at the moment, I'm feeling masochistic, so weather and fitness permitting, I'll be attempting both.