Half Marathon a Month Challenge #35 - Glenntress Trail Half Marathon - November 2016

Glentress Trail Half Marathon - 20th November 2016

In both November 2014 and 2015 (half marathons #11 and #23), Chris and I travelled to Stratford-upon-Avon for the 'Shakespeare' events down there. You could can read about those in previous blog posts should you wish :-)

In 2016 we decided to try somewhere different, and a little closer to home. The Glentress Trail Half Marathon in the border town of Peebles was selected. We had participated in a couple of half marathons previously which had a 'trail' aspect to them (Hadrian's Wall & Perth), but this was the first time we would be running the entire 21.1km on a trail course. We were also to find out that there was even more to the challenge than that, and a big clue was that it was run by a group called High Terrain Events.

As there was a bit of travelling involved to get from Glasgow to Peebles, and because it was also close to Clare's birthday, she and I decided to head down to the Borders the day before the event and take in the town. Chris travelled down on the day of the race, and we were joined by his daughter Robyn, her fiance Alex, and their crazy dog Charlie.

On the day of the race we all met up at the Glentress Peel Visitor Centre in Glentress Forest. In the main this location is used by mountain bikers, and I later found out that two of my brother-in-laws, Neil and Liam, had separately been biking here in the past. The fact that it was a mountain bike course was another clue to what was in store.

The visitor centre was a well set up place and very cosy. Outside though it was very cold , but dry thank goodness. Chris and I were suitably dressed for the occasion.

As we were waiting for the start of the event Clare asked me how long I thought I would be running so she could plan a wee trip back into Peebles. Given the full trail nature of the course I said about 2.5 hours, which I thought was conservative. However, when I was grabbing some pre-race coffees for us all, Clare ended up chatting to another runner who had very recently run a marathon in the Lake District. This runner said that she expected to complete the course in about 3 hours! This turned out to be a wee bit pessimistic on her part, but it did lead to Chris and I re-evaluating our likely finishing times.

Race time finally arrived and although it was a lovely bright day, the temperature was exactly zero degrees C.

We immediately started climbing and then things levelled out a bit at the point in the course where we had to join the proper trail. This was also a major bottleneck and patience was required to file through the narrow gap.

From that point it was climb, climb, and climb again. I wasn't the only competitor to employ a walk run strategy as a result.

As you can see, given the combination of the cold weather and the height of the course, conditions were getting more and more wintry, and difficult. By the time we reached the top of the climb (about half way through the race) it was very snowy and icy.

Later when I checked the elevation details on my Strava app, it had recorded us running at almost 600 metres up. That explained a lot.

With great relief the top of the climb was reached and it was good to see a source of hydration and carbs had been set up for the runners. 

It was then on to the very fast and very steep downhill. In terms of difficulty this was even harder than the climb. Even if you want to take your time it's so steep that you can't help but speed up as you descend. On three occasions I went over on my ankle, although fortunately no major damage was done. 

To give you an idea of the descent I found this video taken by someone doing it on a mountain bike. (The weather was bit better for them I see!)

There was a photographer hanging around the course at various points and I managed to pick up these images which I must credit to Grand Day Out Photography.

It ended up that we both finished the course in under 3 hours, which was not too bad given initial expectations. 


Results:
Chris -  02:43:28
Frank - 02:51:31

Half Marathon a Month Challenge #34 - Great Scottish Run - October 2016

Great Scottish Run - 2nd October 2016

Another week another half marathon. This was my 3rd consecutive weekend of 21.1 kilometre races after the Scottish Half Marathon and Cheltenham's Half Marathon the previous 2 weekends. Because I had run fairly slow times in those events (circa 2 hours 20 minutes) it meant that I wasn't feeling overly tired going into this one. In fact I expected to run it in a similar time, and that's how it worked out.

This was the 4th year in a row that Chris and I had run this event and as usual we met up beside the Wellington Statue (with the famous traffic cone hat) at Royal Exchange square. We then dumped our bags in the baggage-bus and headed to the start line.

As you can see, although it was a lovely crisp day, I was still sporting the customary bin bag for protection against the weather. Well it's Glasgow, so you never know what will happen.

I really like the start of the Glasgow races in George Square. It's always a great atmosphere.

So, off we went up the famous St. Vincent Street steep hill and proceeded along the now familiar route which took us over the Kingston Bridge. Another highlight of this event.

When we finally reached Pollok Park I spotted the familiar figure of Kingsley the Partick Thistle mascot being interviewed on the BBC. (Does Kingsley actually speak?)

Same as the 2015 version, Pollok Park was also the place where my lack of fitness caught up with me. This is where we have to run up what is normally a welcoming downhill run in the Pollok Parkrun. I tried to capture its steepness in the photo below. Not sure I've managed this, but nevertheless I had to have a wee walk at that point.

After that particular trial was over I could relax a bit and make my towards the Bellahouston stage and ultimately the road back to Glasgow Green. En route there was the pleasant sight of a in-race shower. If you're running with a phone then the trick is to get through it without the water interfering with all your running apps.

At the end of race I met up with Chris, who finished in front of me as usual, and we headed to the Whistlin' Kirk for some much needed electrolytes.

Cheers!


Results:
Chris: 02:05:21
Frank: 02:19:32

Cheltenham's Half Marathon - 27th September 2016

Cheltenham's Half Marathon - 27th September 2016

Following closely on the heels of the Scottish Half Marathon on 20th September, this was to be the second of three half marathons I was to run on consecutive weekends.

Of course as Chris and I had already run Month #33 of the Half Marathon a Month Challenge the previous weekend, this was a 'bonus'. In fact I wasn't even in Cheltenham specifically for this event. As a family we had already arranged some time previously to visit our good friends Catherine, David and their kids who live in Cheltenham, and it just so happened that the Half M was on that same weekend. It was too good an opportunity to miss.

We arrived in Cheltenham on the Friday afternoon and had a good laugh catching up with our friends. We also enjoy running a parkrun on a Saturday morning and conveniently (but not surprisingly) there is a Cheltenham version, which allowed us to do some parkrun tourism. Four of us gave it a go. Monty, Scarlett, Antonia and me, who are pictured below after a good morning's run around the Cheltenham parkrun course.

The rest of Saturday was spent doing stuff in and around Cheltenham but by Sunday morning I was still in reasonable enough shape to get up early and get ready to run. David kindly gave me a lift to the start line at Cheltenham Race Course, and in hindsight his local knowledge proved to be very important as due to road closures and other issues I found out that many runners didn't make it to the event on time. This was a bone of much contention on social media in the days following the run.

Soon after arriving I spotted that this event was one with pacers. This is always a welcome addition to any running event. Even if you don't actually follow one of them to achieve a particular time, knowing that you are between two pacers means you can gauge your general performance. Given my 2:18 time the previous weekend, and the fact that it was only a week ago that I ran a half marathon, I decided I would be happy just keeping in front of this guy.

From the very start of the race there was a decent number of onlookers cheering the runners on, and this continued for most of 13.1 miles. Up until a recent event Chris and I ran at Freckleton (future blog) I would say that this was the one that had the most direct and indirect support from folk who had turned up to watch runners in action. (Glasgow is pretty good too).

Having run the 2016 Perth Half Marathon (Kilt Run) in a kilt without incident I decided to give it another go for this event. As you can imagine it got me extra attention from the watching crowds, including the wee boy who I heard say 'Mummy, why is that man wearing a skirt?".  I wasn't the only kilted participant. About halfway along the route a guy passed me wearing not only a kilt (in Royal Stuart tartan) but also a matching 'see you Jimmy' bunnet. It was a fairly warm day so he must have been melting.

Because it was quite warm the organisers had set up some devices en route that sprayed you with water. These were very similar to those used during the marathon at the Rio Olympics and, like those in Rio, their effectiveness was dependent on how they were positioned relative to the wind. Unfortunately a couple of them ended up spraying water in the opposite direction of the running but most of them did actually do their job.

An attractive feature of this event is that you run the final couple of kilometres around Cheltenham racecourse. Or 'following in the hoofsteps of Arkle' as my horserace following cousin Gerry said to me.

On the way around the racecourse the organisers had placed musicians in a couple of places for a bit of morale boosting support in the final stages. These included the Nailsworth Silver Band, who were excellent.

At the finish I was delighted to see Clare, Antonia and Scarlett who, along with David were there encourage me in my final strides towards the finish line. Soon after we got some excellent pictures in the environs of the racecourse.

Overall it was a fantastic weekend, and it was nice to get another half marathon under my belt, albeit separately from HMAMC.


Result:   02:20:33