Two Breweries Recce

Last Saturday a few keen Moorfooters took on a recce of the Two Breweries hill race route. Alex, Dorien and Mike who have signed up for the race in September were keen to familiarise themselves with the 18 mile route, while Ewan and myself (Gillian) went along for a fun day out and remind ourselves why we didn’t enter the race ;-)

This year sees the 40th anniversary of the iconic race which starts at the Traquair Brewery (Traquair House ) and finishes at Broughton Brewery. Covering 18 miles (30km) over the hills with 4900ft (1500m) ascent it’s not for the faint hearted! Add to that the pressure of a self navigated course with 8 time controlled checkpoints on the hill tops!

A recce is a must for this race with landscapes changing throughout the year with forests being felled, deer fences erected, roads built, and ferns, heather & bogs all adding their own challenges!

Alex had suggested a recce at a nice social pace, so 5 of us gathered at the Bear Gates at 9am smiling and full of enthusiasm as the weather looked good for the first part of the day at least! 

   

Checking the OS map and strava route from a previous recce we headed off the road from Traquair into the hills. A nice steep farm track to warm the calves up, we tackled tricky farm gates, squelchy cow fields & waist high ferns before our first main hilltop of Birkscairn hill. Sometimes the downhill is worse than going up and with the view of the valley of Glensax and Hundleshope Heights on the other side, we had to gingerly make our way down through the heather past the grouse buts to the river, then slog all the way back up to Hundleshope!

   

Carrying on to Stob Law, the view from here was fantastic, seeing the entire length of the Pentlands, Arthur’s Seat and even Fife!

After the descent to Glenrath Farm, and the Manor Valley Road we were then into an area of tree felling on a massive scale! The route up through the trees to the checkpoint on Whitelaw hill seemed totally inaccessible, so we followed the drovers road and a new forest road up to the gate at Dead Wife’s grave. We weren’t too sure where the race route would go, so maybe another wee recce of this bit will be needed!?

I normally look forward to a downhill, but the descent down towards Stobo was another tough one and by this time I think we were all beginning to flag.

We were well past the halfway point by now though and with time pressing on, we were encouraged that we just had one more big hill to come, albeit Trahenna - the biggest of them all! The other thing pushing us on was the thought that the cafe in Broughton shut at 5:00 giving us just 2 hours! (Thankfully I’d taken the car to Broughton the night before so didn’t have the added pressure of having to make the 5:00 bus! )

A steady slog up past Stobo castle and Loch you are then faced with the sight of Trahenna and the choice of routes up to the top. Perhaps we took the wrong choice, but bogs, ferns & deer fences made our ascent more difficult than it should have been. Another bit to revisit another day to perfect the right route :-)

But we made it to the top nonetheless and were rewarded with the welcome sight of Broughton village down below.
The chance of making the cafe now was getting slim as we hit 4:30pm, but with 4G signal at the top of the hill we made the emergency call to the cafe getting in our orders for drinks & scones!

Spurred on by this thought it was then just a case of tip-toing down the sheer face of Trahenna and sprinting along the long straight tarmac road to the Laurelbank cafe! As luck would have it, the cafe was catering for a function that night and let us sit in for our very well earned cuppas & scone & jam!

It  had been a long hard day, but a good one! The rain stayed away, we had no accidents (other than a cut finger on a gate and a bit of cramp), we never got lost, never gave up, and didn’t fall out with each other  All in all a great challenging day out in the local hills, and good chance to test out our stamina, willpower and navigational skills!

Good luck and greatest respect to Alex, Dorien, and Mike, and anyone else doing the race on 28 September, it’s one I’ll be happy to support from the sidelines ;-) 

Entries are still open on Entry Central if you fancy it?! More details on https://twobreweries.org.uk/

Thank you Alex for organising, and all for a lovely day :-)

Club Champs Update No 10 - Monday 22nd July

 

First up, many congratulations to Andy Cox and Colin Williams for great runs at Lee Pen. Both have been stalwarts of this demanding race over recent years. Andy finished 3rd (2nd vet) in 30:16 and Colin 5th (4th vet) in 32:04, to claim 10 points a piece plus bonus points for Andy. Well done gents. [I may need to up the points allocation to increase the representation for future years]. Nods of respect too, go to Scott Gourlay for marshalling and to the team who ran in memory of Craig Angus. Well done guys.

Beyond that, Coreen McGovern had a fine run at the Musselburgh 10k picking up points for that.

On the Park Run front Carol Moss, Jen Misak, Milan Misak and Scott Gourlay all logged points for running or volunteering. 

So at the end of Month 4 of the champs, with 18 events down and 11 still to go, it is VERY close at the top with just 5 points separating the top 3 of Gillian, Carol and Jen. Andrew Fish leads the group of chasers, who look poised to pass the 125 point Champs Medal Threshold soon.

Club Champs Spreadsheet

Next up in the champs we have the 10k Time Trial on 1st August & Cademuir Rollercoaster on Sunday 11th August. Volunteers being sought for both of those please. 

Also on Sunday 18th august is the Scottish Half. Places still available (price increase a week today) for this very fast course (first 5.5 miles downhill then flat).

As always, any omissions, errors, park runs or whatever => MoorfootRunnersSecretary@gmail.com  

Club Champs Update No 9 - Sat 13th July

 

A fairly busy week so updates on events, latest standings, date changes, next events & the eliminator!

Kelso 10k - A strong Moorfoot turnout this morning with the team narrowly pipped to the team prize by Gala [Note to selves - we can beat them next year!] Carol Moss was first Moorfoot home, second lady and 1st FV60. Colin Sandie was next home completing his first 10k in several years with a very strong run. Martin Holt, Mike Goddard, Kerry Law, Scott Gourlay, Ian Munro and Andrew Fish were the other Moorfoots with some fine runs all round on the a very varied course. A fine buffet followed thanks to the efforts of the local ladies fundraising for Cancer Research. Carol picks up bonus points for FV60 win and other podium points may be awarded as and when I can find a full set of results. 😉

Moffat Gala Race - Dorien Kimenai, Ewan Gibson, Sam Layton, Tim Warner & Fee Hodgkiss all braved the weather for the traditional 9 mile Tuesday night run. Well done all. Top marks also to Pete Caddick for providing excellent away support on an inclement evening. 

Eildon Black Hill Race - This has already been reported on BUT the results on the Scottish Hill Runners website have now been updated to include age categories (although not necessarily the correct ones - a view shared by others). I've awarded podium points retrospectively based on those results, adjusted for known errors. Half of the 12 Moorfoots participating have thus picked up podium points. 

Overall Standings

It is now very tight at the top with Gillian still top, Carol second, having closed to within just 10 points of Gillian and Jen in third. Andrew Fish is fourth leading a group of folk who are into three figures and closing in on the 125 point threshold.

Full Spreadsheet

Date Changes

(1) The 5km Time Trial that was originally scheduled for this Tuesday has been moved to 10th September. 

(2) Lilliesleaf 10k has moved back a week to 20th October and is back once again clashing with Devil's Foot Half and 10k so there are 3 races to choose from that day.

Next Events

- Lee Pen is next up on Saturday 20th July. A generous 10 points on offer for a 3 mile race! 😉

- The Northumberland Coastal Half is Sunday 21st but entries closed without any Moorfoot representation.

- Age graded 10k Time Trial on Thursday 1st August.

The Eliminator!

- "What's this?" they cried, "Is this new?" Nope. This is the Club Champs which means you need to be in the club. The spreadsheet elves have sent out many reminders (which gets a bit boring tbh), and so from 1st August only club members who have renewed their membership will be included in the champs. Thankfully most folk have diligently done this, but for anyone who recognises 29/4/83, 7/10/85 or 28/9/77 as a significant date, please check your email or that of your significant other & renew if you intend to remain in the club (champs).

Club Champs Update No 8 - Wednesday

 

The main action of the last week has been at two events:

At the Lairig Ghru Race on Sunday Andy Cox, Dorien Kimenai and Heather Young all completed this classic Cairngorm route in excellent conditions. At fractionally over marathon distance they all picked up 20 bonus points.

Last night the Earlston Black Hill Race had a very strong Moorfoot representation making up over 20% of the field. The dozen strong contingent comprising David Carter-Brown, Carol Moss (2nd Female), Alex Campbell (3rd Female), Mike Goddard, Coreen McGovern, Jen Misak, Neil Jackson, Vicky Morrison, Ian Munro, Sarah Burthe, Andrew Fish & Scott Gourlay. Bonus podium points to Carol and Alex for 2nd and 3rd Female respectively. I am not seeing any age category classifications for this modest sized field but if anyone can evidence results with these on we can re-evaluate bonus podium points! ;-)

So the position at the top of the table is Gillian still in the lead with Jen in 2nd and Carol in 3rd, with all 3 reaching the Champs Medal Threshold. It is then very tight with just 20 points separating 4th to 11th place.

Full Club Champs Spreadsheet

Next up we have the Moffat Gale Race next Tuesday and the Kelso 10k on Saturday 13th July. Both cracking events.

Also worth flagging that as yet no one has claimed any "Team Player" points for a Moorfoot Relay Team. So, just a wee plug for Run The Borders should anyone fancy pulling together a team to do the Borders Abbey Way on 24th August as a relay team?  

Run The Borders

As always, any errors, omissions, Park Runs or whatever => MoorfootRunnersSecretary@gmail.com