I ran in yesterday's ultra marathon. It was a good route, just very hard going across the fields and alongside the Tweed, the climb over the 3 Eildon was actually one of the easiest parts of the course. Route finding was my greatest challenge (I managed to run off course 5 times) the organisers had done a good job marking the route but there were a few junctions that were a little unclear and this coupled with failing brain power in the latter stages cost me dear. I moved into 4th position just after the 3rd of the Eildon summits but then missed the left turning just after Bowden and ended running past Bowden Kirk, after realising my error I retraced my steps and managed to re-take 4th place just after Maxton. Just as 4th place was looking assured I missed the right turning on an estate road just 4 miles outside of Jedburgh and then quickly got lost again turning left rather right through the woods (just for good measure I jumped across a stream and ran around in a big circle in a farmer's field which was no where near the route!). While all this was going on the 4th, 5th and 6th place runners over took me, meaning I ended up finishing 7th in 6hrs 20(something). Definitely an event I'd do again, I just might stick to the conventional route next year.
Cheers James
(Confessions of a mad man ? [Ed])
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