Moorfoots at the Devil's Burdens Relays 2016

   

One Moorfoot team this year, boasting a wealth of 'experience', but a bit light on 'youth'.

Leg1 - Tom Hobbs - 28:40 (Leg Rank 22nd )
A good start by Tom on Leg1 on this shorter but 'eyeballs out fast' leg, putting us into the mix, and ahead of some of the bigger teams.

Leg2 - Kenny/Eddie - 1:24:10 (Leg Rank 56th )
Steady enough start on the runnable bit, before someone poured concrete into my legs on the start of the ascending traverse onto West Lomond. Literally on my hands and knees on the pitch up to the summit, and then the gearbox got stuck in first gear for the remainder of the run - sorry chaps ! Eddie showing much patience waiting at each checkpoint...

Leg3 - Paul/Alan - 1:16:53 (Leg Rank 82nd)
A much changed leg3, still with a massive climb straight from the start before a new route over the upland moors to West Lomond and then a fast finish. Alan nursing a throat infection, but still producing a steady run with Paul.

Leg4 - Lucas - 29:52 (Leg Rank 7th)
Our secret weapon - Lucas running another stormer up and over East Lomond, and a couple of minutes faster than his time on this leg last year. Took a tumble on the final run in (the easy bit of the trail), so could be faster still....

Final Placing:
38th - 3:39:35

Full results here...

Photos...

Team DB16

The DB Six

Feel The Burns 2016

       

                                
                          


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perfect winter conditions for this years Feel The Burns race at Selkirk. Soft fresh snow underfoot and clear calm conditions overhead. A little ice around to keep you on your toes (or not in the case of Alan who took a nasty tumble near the start). A strong field of 200 runners.

A good turnout from the Moorfoot seniors.

12th  1:47:14 Darin Dougal (4th M40)

16th  1:50:04 Colin Williams

17th  1:50:09 Andrew Cox

36th 1:57:02 Mike McGovern

49th 2:01:54 Kenny Davidson

60th 2:04:24 Eddie Balfour

102nd 2:16:00 Alan Elder

108th 2:16 59  Chris Blackwood

124th 2:24:33 Paul Nichol

Wonderful encouraging marshalls all the way round, full haggis supper at the end,  and over £1000 raised for Tweed Valley Mountain rescue.

full results

Juniors help Team Borders to two East League titles

U11 Girls Emily and Esme (back), Christina, Madeline and Holly

Back row: U13s Michael, Corran and Ethan 

Significant contributions by the Moorfoot juniors to the winning of two East League titles for Team Borders at the third and final race at Broxburn on Saturday. Indeed all the team points at this race for both the U11 Girls winning team and U13 Boys winning team came from Moorfoots.

It was a day when temperatures stayed around the freezing mark, with the frozen ground causing the first challenge of the day, the decision on whether to wear spikes or trail shoes. The course is renowned for its water feature, a 4 metre wide stretch of shin-deep  flood water in a dip about 1km from the finish, and strenuous efforts were  needed by the organisers to break the thick surface ice, leaving a less deep but very icy paddle to provide a shock to the system mid-race for the record 771 runners. 

The U11 Girls held a 14-point advantage over Fife going into the race and ran out convincing winners on the day with Madeline Collins, Esme Minto and Emily Carrick-Anderson bagging the team points with 3^rd, 4^th and 10^th places over their 1.4km course. Madeline was home in 6 minutes 21 seconds, one second ahead of Esme, with Emily timed at 6.40. As ever, the fourth and fifth team counters, fellow Moorfoots Holly Hobbs (11^th in 6.45) and Christina McGorum (13^th in 6.48), also played their part, helping to push up the scores of the opposition teams. Once the calculators had been put away, Team Borders were confirmed as league champions by 35 points ahead of Fife.

The U13 Boys lay fourth in their league after the first two races but in a closely contested age-group, they were only eight points adrift of leaders Central. Given that they had yet to field their strongest team so far, there was some optimism that a strong turn-out might be enough to challenge for the title. Not only did they do that, but they raced away for a clear-cut team win on the day and an overall league winning margin of 22 points over Falkirk, with Central dropping out of the podium places. The Teribus Trophy, originally donated by Teviotdale Harriers, was awarded to Team Borders for the third successive year.  Ethan Elder had another excellent run for third place in 10.04 with club-mates Corran Carrick-Anderson using his cyclo-cross fitness to good effect for 5^th in 10.23 and rugby playing Michael Girdler, having a rare winter race, just behind in 6^th in 10.26. 

There were many other good performances on an icy day.

This is what came off the water hazard...

....leading to some shock

and cold wet feet!

Peebles Night-Run with Carnethy

An invite to Moorfoots to join the Carnethy Night Run in Peebles on Wed 20-Jan from Craig and Kate - remember your head torch !

Carnethy’s night run on Wednesday 20^th in Peebles.

Plan is to meet in main carpark next to Sainsbury’s at 6.50 to get running by 7. It’ll be a 5.5m approx. sociable jog up through Venlaw and beyond back in time for food at Wetherspoons (optional).

Entries for Carnethy 5 open until 13th JAN only

Entries for the Carnethy 5 race on Sat 13th Feb are now open

https://www.sientries.co.uk/event.php?elid=Y&event_id=2502

You have to register your name on SI Entries before 13th JAN - there is then the selection process to decide on who gets a place!

Juniors at the Inter-District Champs - Bronze for Ethan

Racing for the East of Scotland team, Ethan Elder had an excellent third place podium finish in the U13 Boys Scottish Inter-District Cross-Country Championships earlier today at Holyrood Park in Edinburgh. The early morning freezing fog had lifted by the time racing got underway leaving chilly but thankfully calm conditions and the forecast rain stayed away until the completion of the age-group races.

At one stage Ethan was warming up within a few metres of a certain M Farah (GB), although I think he was oblivious to that. But so was Ethan!

After a sensible steady first 400m, Ethan gradually picked his way through the field over the three-lap 3km course which churned up badly in places. The end of lap two saw him overtake the top placed West team runners with only two fellow East runners away and clear, and one from the North within striking distance 30m ahead. With third place bagged with 600m to go, Ethan then bravely set his sights on the two East boys up ahead, keeping up a relentless tempo which saw the 40m gap to the leaders reducing stride by stride. But the line came just too soon with the East Champion David Addison from Corstorphine managing to just hold on by a couple of seconds and the East runner-up Lewis Dow of Pitreavie this time taking the spoils a further three seconds ahead. Ethan's time was 10.59 and he emphatically turned the tables on the two lads who denied him a podium position at the East Champs in December when he was physically a bit under par in 5th.

The East team (six to count) were clear winners over the North and West.

In the U15 Girls race over 4km, Mairi Wallace had a strong run for 10th in 16.10, just outsprinted on the run to the line by a big lass from the West, and she was a valuable third counter for the East team. Charlotte Clare was the 6th East counter and ran a similarly progressive race to Ethan, finishing very strongly for 18th in 16.39, and the third Moorfoot in the team Beth Hobbs finished just outside the counting places in 23rd in 16.53. It was team silver for the East in this one.

Two of the training group now racing for Lasswade were also in action for the East. Euan Hood was a late call-up for the U15 Boys team but more than justified his selection with a solid run for 18th in 14.53, finishing 9th counter of the 15-strong East team.

And Ailsa Innes was up against it in the U17 4km race which was combined with the U20 and U17 International races. In the distinct Inter-District results she finished 23rd of 33 (11th East) in 17.35.

Peebles Outdoor Film Festival 22-24 January, Eastgate Theatre

The Peebles Film Festival is back this year. Here's the blurb:

Global adventurer Mark Beaumont will be one of many star attractions as the Peebles Outdoor Film Festival returns to the Eastgate Theatre later this month (22-24 Jan) with an outstanding line-up of speakers, adventure films and hands-on activities. Following a successful inaugural festival last year, the 2016 event sees an expanded programme of speakers, shorts and feature-length films covering everything from adventure film-making, cycling and trail running to climbing, skiing, wildlife photography and more. The festival also sees presentations covering triathlon racing and the growing sport of canicross. Tickets and hard copies of the programme are available from the Eastgate Theatre Box Office, while the programme can also be viewed online at http://issuu.com/eastgatearts/docs/eastgate_poff

 

Runners will particularly enjoy Running Along the Spine

 

Glasgow based ultra-runner Elspeth Luke recently took on a very different kind of challenge – an unmarked, 680-mile route along the watershed of Scotland. Elspeth recounts the highs and lows of a 34-day run from the Borders to Duncansby Head that included more than 40,000 metres of ascent.

 

Date: Sunday, January 24, 2016 - 17:00

Price: £5, £3 for schoolchildren

      

More details here: http://www.eastgatearts.com/events

Caerketton Doonhill 2015

Here's in interesting video from the 2015 Caerketton Downill Race. I managed a short appearance (around 3.40) - probably as I was overtaken by the eventual winner!

Useful to see the preferred lines of experienced Caerkettoners - stay away from the trenches at the fence!

Click Doonhiller

Greenmantle Dash 2016

In an attempt blast off some excess festive excess I entered the Greenmantle Dash on 2nd of Jan. It's a bit of everything in a very short space (3.2k or so). From Tarmac to a leap of faith over a dyke, to an angry burn, mushy marsh and  then the uphill calf scorcher. I managed OK until this point and lost a couple of minutes due to pain of lactic acid saturation - or perhaps it was just over indulgence having its say. The decent is tricky after the turn at the cairn on Ratchill Hill with numerous runners falling on (all) the way down. I managed to stay on my feet and caught many who had passed me as I suffered on the way up. Once out of the bottom field, it's a dash along the Dreva Road to the Village Hall. First time doing this one and will hopefully do again next year.

Ethan ran with the juniors and spent much of the run up front until the turn.

Video here

Courtesy of Trail and Mountain's Youtube channel

Results here