Pentland Skyline 2013

I enjoy a good Pentland Skyline race. Mostly anyway. This year was a little unusual. I'd let Louise shoot off with my car so was reliant on public transport to get there. Unfortunately I missed my bus so ended up in a taxi. Doh. Anyway, arrived on time and registered with minimal fuss. I didn't do any warm up this year, planning instead to use the first hill as a warm up. It worked ok actually. I started really gently but fairly high up the field and just cruised through the first couple of hills. I took my usual interesting straight lines off Allermuir and Castlelaw. I thought I heard someone grumbling about this from behind me but never really heard anything more about it. I did worry briefly though as I thought I'd either p*ssed some other runners off or could potentially get disqualified. I rehearsed in my head my responses in case I was challenged! :-) Thankfully nothing came of these minor grumbles. Up Turnhouse and I ran much of the climb, saving my legs on the steeper sections. I was keeping up with Chris Upson so knew I was moving well and on for a PB even at this stage. I slowly pulled away from him and a few others from the Turnhouse descent onwards. The weather wasn't dreadful at this stage but the vest and thin Montane jacket I was wearing clearly wasn't enough - a tshirt or long sleeved top in addition was mandatory. I'd have had this had I taken my car... never mind though, I survived. The organisers had specified a slightly different descent off Hare hill and the route was pretty challenging. Heather and steeper than the usual descent at the end. But thankfully there was no requirement to go through the knee deep bog :-) Up Black hill was where it started to get tough going. I couldn't see anyone ahead or behind and the weather took a turn for the worst. The rain wasn't heavy but it was freezing cold and I was soaked through. I tried and failed to get my gloves on, only half covering my bitterly cold hands. I found the top ok this week (failed the week before!) and made sure to thank the marshalls for what was a pretty tough day at the office. My line on the descent was pretty slow and dreadful. I couldn't see anyone at all and there was no obvious line. The gorse and heather was thick in places and slowed me immensely. Up Bells hill I was really starting to suffer. Amazingly I didn't lose any places and started running well once I reached the top. But I was low on energy and knew the rest of the run was going to be tough. I struggled up Harbour hill and even more so on Capelaw losing a handful of places. Allermuir was a welcome sight and I could see a few runners ahead but none immediately behind. Never mind, I struggled on and was even suffering on the descents from sore quads and low energy. I had a small celebration at the top of Caerketton, knowing there was no more climbing to be had. Good news. The descent was fairly slow and painful though and I almost twisted an ankle passing a walker. But the finish came soon enough and I was relieved to be done. The trip home was long and cold on the bus and train but the shower was very welcome when it did come. Ate loads of food at night and spoke to Chloe.