Jura Fell race

Garmin details
race website

Paps of Jura

With the kids packed off to the in-laws for a fun packed weekend in Blackpool, Sarah and I set off for the Isle of Jura for the annual Jura fell race. We were it must be noted the only Helensburgh athletes in attendance this year. However undeterred we made our plans and once Sarah had finished work on the Friday we made tracks for the Kennacraig ferry over to Islay. One of the great things about this race is it attracts a mainly English field of runners who have some amazing travel plans for getting to the race involving all manner of permutations of island hopping and cycling. Our own journey involved getting to Islay then hopping over to Jura followed by an hilly 8 mile cycle to Craighouse. This sounds like a small journey when compared with most but the 8 mile cycle was not very pleasant in the high winds and heavy rain. By the time we reached Craighouse we were thoroughly soaked. Luckily all our camping gear had remained dry in the trailer.

Our orange vango !

The first task was to quickly get the tent up in the windy conditions before it blew away and then head over to the pub for a pint. As we headed over to the pub I glanced over to the paps but couldn't see them as they were surrounded by thick cloud and the rain had reduced the visibility to a few hundred yards. Sarah was in mild panic at the prospect of navigating round the paps and needed a good drink to steady her nerves! A wet and windy night in the tent ensued and I managed to sleep through the worst of it, but I don't think Sarah fared as well.

Had the weather improved any over night ? The talk in the pub had been of bad weather routes and navigational difficulties, but we were relieved to find that although a stiff wind was still blowing the paps were slowly shrugging their blanket of cloud and showing how impressive they actually are. I had run the race the last year but in thick clag and was really hoping the paps would be clear to admire the fantastic island views. After a hearty breakfast and copious amounts of tea we headed over to register and prepare for the ordeal ahead. Good news ! The paps were now clear and the wind hadn't eased at all but the full race route had been given the all clear.

The race organiser had stationed himself just outside the Jura distillery and was clearly enjoying his first time as race organiser as he directed the runners to the start line. He gave us instructions on the tags we had been given at registration that were to be handed in at the eight checkpoints plus the start and finish. We were to deposit the tags in a box by the start as we funnelled through from the car park to the start line, however he clearly got carried away and suddenly announced that it was five seconds to the start and began counting down to everyone's amazement. The horn sounded and the race began with tags being launched in all directions towards a marshal or just thrown on the ground as people vied for position before the narrow marshy section leading to the first three peaks.

The race was on! and I wasn't too fussed that I hadn't got the best start as it is a long one and there is plenty of time to make up lost ground. The first climb takes the runners over very marshy ground with heather and tussocks to negotiate. With all the rain we had the bogs were very deep and needed careful foot work to avoid a deep dip in one. I stumbled over a few and slipped in up to the waist in another. The bogs make running a hard effort and I found the climb to the first checkpoint hard going. Just ahead of me at this point was Alan Smith who I was trying to hang on to as we weaved our way along the ridges of the first three hills. On the way to the third peak and incidentally just after one of the adventure show camera crew Craig Love came flying past going like the wind. I decided to jump on his heels and lift the pace also. As Craig and I descended down towards the first pap I caught sight of Sarah Ridgeway's pink top just ahead and made an effort to catch her. I got past Craig at this point and managed to pass Sarah and could see Jonny Knox, Alan Smith and Fiona Maxwell a little further on, putting Sarah in second place going up the first pap. I felt good at this point and had thoughts about going sub four.

Runners descending to pap no. 2

The first pap is a long one, some call it the 'equaliser'. It is extremely steep and the climb seems to go on forever. I handed in my tag to the marshals, thanked them for doing a great job and cruised along the ridge having now opened a little gap. I was trying to keep Jonny Knox in sight as we descended down over rough scree towards the second pap. I could clearly see the error of my ways the previous year where I had descended down to the right and up to the wrong peak, and was glad the conditions were good. The climb up the second pap came too soon and this one seemed more exposed and the wind was really slowing my progress. My legs felt heavy fighting against the constant buffeting and I was forced to hold on to the boulders with my hands to brace myself. By this point Sarah had caught me up and I could also see Craig a bit further down. We climbed steadily higher but the top never seemed to get closer and I was feeling a little hungry. Eating and climbing can be tricky but is the safest place to do it. Simultaneously trying to breathe from every orifice and also eat a snickers proved very difficult and most of it seemed to be blown from my mouth and whipped away in the wind. After inadvertently inhaling some chewed up peanuts from the snickers that was stuffed in my cheek I had to stand aside a let Sarah go on past while I coughed them up.

The climb was taking it out of me and I watched as a small gap appeared between me and the group ahead, meanwhile Craig was closing the gap to me. I couldn't do anything about it and decided to plod on and hopefully recover in a bit once the fuel kicked in. The hail hit us as we moved along the ridge having just handed the sixth tag in. It was suddenly very cold and the hail was not pleasant. Craig was just behind me as we headed down and tried to escape the hail. My hands had become very cold now and I decided to put my gloves on before my hands became too cold to manipulate the zip of my bum bag. This gave Craig the chance to blast past and out of sight. I continued down the track we were on but became aware the third pap was over to the left and the track was taking me further to the right. I was on my own now and suddenly a little unsure of the way. Craig must have left the track further up and headed over in the direction of the third pap so I made my way left of the track and down some scree. I think I made a mistake here as further over to my left the ground looked more runnable than the boulder field I found myself picking my way over. It was here that I tripped, obviously I was not paying full attention and had been scanning the bealach below for signs of runners and not looking at the boulders under my feet. Luckily there was a boulder each side of me as I flew forwards and managed to get a hand on each to stop my face smashing against the rocks below. As I crossed the bealach I caught sight of Craig and chased after him but I felt truly horrific at this point. The thought of the next climb at this point was not a good one and I could feel the beginnings of cramp in my adductor’s.

The climb was horrific, my legs were slow to respond and felt heavy. The wind threw me about and I couldn't wait to get to the summit and see the back of the paps. Finally the summit came and with just one more summit to do, gladly not as big as the paps, I perked up a little and concentrated on getting a good line off the last pap. Running down the scree is actually exhilarating if you get the line right and avoid the bigger boulder fields. On the way down I spotted an adventure show cameraman in my line of descent and tried desperately to slow down and avoid sending stones towards his camera which he was holding down at ground level filming my feet I think!

Paps of Jura from Islay.

Once of the pap it is a flat run over past some water and up the final climb. Legs now cramping and wishing I had more electrolyte I filled up my bottle from a stream and got some fluids in before the three miles of road that take you back to Craighouse and the finish. The descent from the last hill is easy to forget about but is actually a long taxing descent over bogs and tussocks and a challenging river crossing. Up ahead I could see Craig making his way over the river and he seemed to be taking a while to do it. Once waist deep in the river I realised why as I held firmly on to the rocks for purchase against the swift current.

Both Craig and I followed the wrong track here and I'm glad I glanced to my left and saw the bridge otherwise we would have missed it by about 300 yards. I shouted over to Craig and luckily he heard me over the wind. Finally on the road to the finish and the section of the race almost everyone dreads. 3 miles of tarmac after your legs have climbed around 7900 ft is not nice. I tried my best to maintain around 7:30 - 8:00 min/miles but it was tortuous. After about a mile Craig made his move and sped away towards the finish. I remember passing one or two others struggling along the road before reaching Craighouse and more adventure show cameras to record my pained expression that must have been clearly evident. I finished in 4:24 ish and was actually pleased with that as it is a brute of a race.

Craighouse and Paps of Jura

The post race tea and stickies is great and sitting in the sun outside the Jura distillery I slowly recovered and cheered on the rest of the runners as they came across the line. Everyone was in high spirits and the talk was of beer and the evening ceilidh. There are not many events on the calendar where runners stay and socialise post race but this is one of them and the atmosphere is superb. Great race, a definite annual event for us.

Dunren Open Graded - Linwood

Garmin record

In order to prepare for a Naval athletics champs that I have been talked into doing I entered a 5000m track event over at Linwood. I have never run on the track and so didn't really know what to expect but I was pleasantly surprised at how uncomplicated the whole thing turned out to be. 

The 5K was the first event of the night and was combined with the 3K. However the race numbers weren't distinguishable from one another so there was no way to tell who was running which event. The gun went and I slotted into 3rd place and immediately found the pace very quick. I am not used to this kind of pace and have only really experienced it at cross-country. A few laps went by and I was trying to keep count of the remaining laps to go. As I passed the finish line the marshals were shouting out the laps to go however this was for the 3K runners and I found myself wishing that I had opted for the 3K instead.

Looking at my Garmin and trying to keep the pace around 5:30 min/miles I kept slowing on one side which led up to the finish line and seemed to be able to pick the pace up going down the far side as is reflected on the garmin. I think it must have been the wind. As we approached the last couple of laps for the 3K I could feel them speed up and a few came past me on there way to the finish. With still another 5 or so laps to go I had to really dig in to try and hold the pace below 6:00 min/miles. I would look at the garmin and see 6 something and think COME ON! Of course all this is taking place on a track with spectators giving encouragement and marshals shouting lap times it is quite intimidating, as there is no where you can't be seen. It turned out that only 2 other runners were doing the 5K and I found myself in 3rd place and last! I finished the race in 18:16 slightly disappointed with that. I had hoped to be under 18.

Sarah and Holly had come along too with Sarah doing the 3K and Holly in for the U11 100m and 1500m. Having not done the 1500m before she was quite nervous but I think the whole experience was good for her. All in all a good night was had on a cold and rainy night. I might do more of this type of thing to try and improve my pace.

Vibram Five Fingers - Bikila

I have been running in Vibram Five Fingers for a while now, mainly using them on the forest trails. I decided that the track would be excellent for them so wore them tonight. I am not completely used to running in them yet and when pushing the pace I can feel my calves on fire. A good stretch afterwards helps. My feet feel stronger and after hill races now I don't get quad pain like I used to. I think this must be connected with running on the mid foot compared with heel striking. I also think I have quickened up and put that down to the new running style. I must admit it felt great to run on the track with the  slightly spongy feel to it, quite liberating. 

Arrochar alps recce!

Garmin route | Arrochar Alps race details

The plan for today's outing was to recce the route for the Arrochar alps hill race on 25th June as it has been a while since I've done Ben Vane and Ben Vorlich. I aslo wanted to get a long run in with lots of climb as Jura is coming up next weekend too. The weather forecast was not particularly good reading however I set off this morning kitted up and met Chris Moses at the Cobbler car park.


The race starts from the road next to the path for Glen Loin so we headed in that direction and set a good pace up the glen out of the wind and were soon overheating and removing jackets. The track gets your heart going as the whole way to sloy dam is very runnable at a good pace, but also very undulating. I think for the race I'll make good use of this section and try and make good time to the bottom of Ben Vorlich.

The climb up Ben Vorlich was hideously steep and the wind and driving rain started again so jackets and gloves were swiftly back on. It seemed an age to make any real progress so was a case of digging in for the long haul. I saw what looked like the descent route as we were heading for the summit and made a mental note. Really getting blasted by wind and horizontal hail now and we swiftly hit the summit cairn and retreated back towards the very steep descent to the dam.

The slope down is scarily steep and takes a bit of bottle to let yourself go on it. As we were going down I spotted a better route with less rocks and slightly easier going so will take that on race day. It was not ideal conditions for a recce as the clag was thick and we could only get glimpses of the hill when it cleared for a second or too. The slope finishes at the head of Loch Sloy dam and over and up towards the summit of Ben Vane.

The route up Ben Vane is complicated with crags to wind your way round and try and hold your line up. Once on the plateau before the final peak it is very easy to get lost and wander up the wrong gully. I hope I have this bit weighed off now as I have done it a few times in the clag and seem to hit the correct gully but always have doubts when on the plateau. The wind was unpleasant once on the summit and we had to make tracks for the Lag Uaine, a nice fast descent once the streams have been picked up and a nice zig zag down.

The rest of the race route is straight forward from here, just a matter of getting up Ben Ime and over Narnain but even in clag it's not difficult to find your way here. The weather was getting steadily worse however and once over the summit of Ben Ime the hail really hit us. I was very glad that I had chosen to wear a peaked cap as the hail was driving in to our faces as we descended and really stinging. I could feel it through the hat. Chris had one hit him in the eye ball and could see out of it for a few minutes. After this experience we decided to quit here and miss out Narnain and head back to the cars via the Narnain boulders / cobbler tourist track.

The day was not quite what we had in mind when planning it but we managed to see some of the route that is unfamiliar and hopefully come race day will help the sub 4hr attempt. The last time I ran this race was in poor conditions in a time of 4:13:23 so realistically sub 4 is achievable.

Ben Lomond hill race

Spirits were high as the HAAC runners awaited the starting horn, Chris Upson of Westies sprang to the front of the race pack as the horn sounded and led the race along the road through Rowardennan car park and onwards up to the long hard slog to the summit of Ben Lomond. I decided a good race tactic would be to try and keep Paul Thompson in sight as he had set a pace that was pushing me to my limits so there would be no chance of passing him on the climb. The track up Ben Lomond is rocky but actually quite runnable apart from a few steep sections(although Sarah McCormack of Moorfoot proved me wrong here as she sprinted up a section of grass, past Paul and I, that can only be described as thigh mashing and lung busting). It is this section of the race that one questions ones reasoning for running such a race in the first place or even being a runner at all. With Paul still in sight as we climbed higher Alan smith of Deeside crept past with a small group as we grew tired from the relentless climb towards the distant mist that obscured the summit.

The section from the top of the first steep grass bank gently inclines towards the next steep grass slog and this section can be used to pick up the pace and make good time, however my legs thought otherwise and I could only watch as Paul increased the pace and opened the gap between us. After a few walk breaks and a bit of a self bollocking I crept towards the final climb to the summit. Once on the summit ridge and in the mist I couldn't see how far Paul was in front of me until he appeared in front of speeding down the hill towards the finish. I had to make a move now if I stood any chance of catching him before he reached the gentler slopes at the bottom of the hill, so I raced to the summit grabbed an all important jelly baby and sped down through the thick mist trying to avoid colliding with runners making there way up on the narrow summit ridge.

In the back of my mind I knew that I could make up some ground on the steep grassy section with a bit of reckless descending. As I reached the shoulder and out of the mist I could see Paul away off in the distance and had really force myself to push the pace springing over boulders and jumping down steep grass banks to try and close the gap. I could see the gap was closing, this spurred me on. On reaching the top of the grassy slope I looked down and could see Paul and a few others strung out about half way down so threw myself down the slope and just hoped for the best. It was a good strategy and paid off as I caught and passed Paul and the others at the bottom of the slope.

The big worry now was that the rest of the route was not so steep and I would lose my advantage and Paul would catch and pass me before the finish, so with lungs screaming and legs resisting I kept up the relentless descent and hoped for the best. As we approached Rowardennan and the tarmac section along to the finish I was aware that two runners were on my heels, but I could do no more to hold them off and one by one they both passed me before the finish. I crossed the finish line in a time of 1:23:18 followed by Sarah McCormack(Moorfoot), who passed me on the ascent , 1:23:39 and Paul Thompson 1:23:43. Finished to the applause of thunder and refreshing downpour.

Results

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Goat Fell Hill Race.

Goat Fell Hill Race

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Good conditions for a run on the isle of Arran, my first time on Arran also. A good turn out of four runners from Helensburgh AAC were on the start line for this excellent race up and down Arrans peak, Goat Fell. This was to be Jan Fellowes first fell run ever and a nice one to if somewhat tricky to descend on the rough granite boulders strewn everywhere.
In the usual Chris Upson style the race started with Chris leading the race out and along the tarmac for a few miles before the bottom slopes of Goat Fell were reached. I had decided to stay with Alan Smith(Deeside), as he tends to start off quite slowly then pick people off as he goes and usually finishes well in front of me. However adrenalin got the better off me as I could see Paul Thompson and Chris Moses opening a gap along the road in front of me and I left Alan to try and close the gap.
Once on the slopes however after stopping in a stream for a drink, Alan soon caught and passed both Chris and myself and was seen to be rapidly closing the gap on Paul who I could see making his way the summit on the last steep section. As I neared the summit top I was slightly surprised to see Alan Smith coming back down from the cairn ahead of Paul Thompson, having thought that Paul may not have been caught until the decsent.
I was planning on a fast descent to try and close the gap with Paul but the rough granite boulder threw a spanner in the works and stopped any attempts I made to pick the pace up. I could only try and maintain my position and save some strength in the legs for the two miles of tarmac at the bottom back to Brodick.
I finished in 13th place in a time of 1:33:05.