Training Log Archive: Ollie

Event: Park Race 11: Battersea Park
 

In to the station, then from Montrose to Invermark, then later the return to Montrose. Very tired for the last 10km, felt every hill (was rushing slightly, to allow time for chippy.) More than half of the total route was on the lovely, quiet, dead-end Glenesk Road.

Mount Keen via Queen's Well, from Invermark. My 200th Munro and possibly my first Munro done in trainers. Thankfully there was as very well-built path right the way to the summit, and the weather was excellent - warm, sunny.

Coulmony and Belivat. At last, proper Scottish style orienteering with beautiful open and very technical woodlands, followed by a more physical section. Ran out of energy 500m from the finish, for the first time this holiday, and had to walk up the last hill. I wasn't impressed with a section near the end that was in green, marshy ground. It was mapped very vaguely and was difficult to move around (and very wet). I dropped around 6 minutes here and plenty of people dropped more time. Despite this, it was a lovely area to run in - a close second to Roseisle as my favourite race of the week. Cool, sunny, windy day.

12th/38, ? points.

Roseisle. Beautiful runnable forested dunes, just like I remembered on the OUOC training tour back in Spring 2003. The sort of course you just want to go on and on forever. Did three legs on the beach just for the hell of it - fine going out (although tricky to find the end point, I overshot the first and undershot the second) - but strong headwind coming back. In no way was this a mistake-free run - unmarked paths proved to be an unwelcome distraction, but it was still a lovely run to do.

N.B. There was no way the course had the quoted 395m of climb, it didn't really feel any hillier than Culbin, so I've put a nominal 100m. Sunny, windy day.

9th/41, 1236 points - best result of the week.

Loch of Boath. On for a great run, but two big mistakes near the end blew it. Raining steadily throughout the race. Noticed after the race two large holes had appeared in my shoes, the inside sole at the widest part of the foot. The shoes are on their way out, just glad they made it through the final two days too.

12th/38. 1216 points.