Feel the Burns Hill Race Sunday 21st January

Colin Williams, Paul Nichol, and Alan Elder took part in an extremely snowy Feel the Burns Hill Race on Sunday. The course was shortened this year due to the recent heavy snow fall but still covered 7.6miles with an elevation gain of over 1,900 feet.

In addition Pete Hall was there marshalling as member of the Tweed Valley Mountain Rescue, in which the race profits were given to as a donation to support the fabulous and essential work the TVMR does. And later that night having spent hours on the hill they were called out to rescue on the Southern Upland Way that didn't finish til 5am. Hats off!

Race Organiser report:
Due to the extreme weather we have had over the last week, the decision was taken to shorten the route. Weather forecast was for more heavy snow and the course already had a huge amount of snow on it! All the feedback was that it was the correct decision and the shorter route still proved to be a cracker! the results reflect the amended, shorter route.
We had quite a few call offs due to the forecast and people not keen to travel but pleased to still get 197 turn up!

The race was won by HBT's Doug Tullie 1:09:21. The snow would have slowed the leaders down relatively speaking as they were breaking track for a lot of it. Results:
http://www.scottishhillracing.co.uk/RaceResults.aspx?RaceID=RA-0299&RaceYear=2018

21	Colin Williams	Moorfoot Runners	M40	01:18:39
93	Paul Nichol	Moorfoot Runners	M50	01:36:50
114	Alan Elder	Moorfoot Runners	M50	01:41:30

The Carnethy website summed the the race up perfectly - Conditions were very difficult. Slippery snow quite deep in places, and hard to keep on the barely beaten track. In the most drifted places the passage of runners did little to create a path and the deep foothills threw you all over the place.
The front runners must have had a very hard time. So the decision to shorten the course was absolutely right. It was still a hard 7.6 miles, though it looked much shorter on the map compared to the full route. The hideously calorific haggis pie after certainly went down well!


It was a lot whiter than that on Sunday!

Bring on next year! Photos being added here: https://www.facebook.com/pg/SelkirkFundRunners/photos/
At the moment this is the only Moorfoot action shot I can find


The snow was falling during the race - Colin lurking in the blizzard