Pentlands 7 Reservoirs Multi Terrain Half Marathon Report

Mike McGovern, Andy Cox and I (Colin) headed to Balerno on Sunday morning for the Pentlands 7 Reservoirs Multi Terrain Half Marathon.  Following a discussion earlier in the week I suggested we did the race with the intention of doing a 'hard' training run. It's a well organised race and you get a goodie bag including Tunnock's wafer, pot of instant porridge, a Pentlands calendar, a packet of pearl barley and lentils to make Scotch Broth and a completion certificate just for turning up at registration!It's a scenic route and does what it says on the tin as you visit 7 reservoirs in the eastern Pentlands.

The weather was a chilly but bright with a cutting wind but a total contrast after the storms of Friday and Saturday. The ground was completely sodden and surface water everywhere.

The start of the race is on hard tracks and tarmac so the pace was pretty quick to begin with and we found ourselves running in a chasing group fairly soon. It wasn't long before the field started to stretch out and the leaders were away. Mike and I were running a similar pace with Mike starting to build a lead. Sections of the route were on paths poorly disguised as rivers and you spent a lot of time concentrating on where your feet were going. The steep descent down to Bonaly at mile 8 allowed me to catch and pass Mike and two other runners and then we regrouped for the last few miles. We  managed to keep to pace ticking along and drop the other two and were running side by side until the last half mile where I managed to up the pace a bit and a gap formed. Thinking I had it in the bag I was cruising in the last 200m until I heard a foot splash in the puddle just behind as Mike had closed right up and sprinted for home.

The course was exactly 13.1 miles but with 380m of climb https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/976676618

I finished 5th in 1.31.57, Mike 5 secs behind in 6th with us 1st & 2nd M40s. Andy was 11th in 1.35.11 which has was content with having just come off a few weeks of non-stop Christmas tree cutting which is good for the guns but does nothing for the running. Full results here