Trail/terrain running race 2:49:00 32.0 km (5:17 / km)
Two Breweries (plus a brief warm up). Tough race! Went off controlled hard, and already had a gap on the first climb which kept on growing and growing. Felt great all the way until Whitelaw (after about 90 mins), first signs of fatigue there and had to alternate walking and running. Good again all the way until the foot of Trahenna, but as soon as I got in the terrain (i.e. bog) I was floundering. Found it hard to keep moving, let alone in a straight line! Could see Joe Symonds off to one side a bit further down the hill, and Coombsie said he took my line and could see that I was hardly moving, although he was in camouflage and I never saw him.
Thought I was never going to make it to the top, and even when I did it was hard to get the legs moving again. Gratefully took some jelly babies from the marshals, and started down - running scared from Joe at that point. Fell over twice almost immediately - cramping up in the hamstrings, and when on the ground my calves cramped up too. Very painful descent trying to keep my legs as straight as possible and not lift them up too high - tricky in the heather! Once I got down to the last checkpoint I couldn't see anybody behind me, and obviously I wasn't going sub 2:40 (which had been in my sights earlier), so I cruised in. Joe suffered even more, and Coombsie passed him to take 2nd, with Murray 4th.
Very tough race which I never want to do again ... until next year maybe.