Devil's Foot Trail Half Marathon & Hop Run Trail 10k - belated reports Alex and Ross both podium

A couple of belated reports from two new Moorfoots from two new trail races from the weekend 8^th and 9^th June

Sat 8 June –Ross Docherty took part at the Hop Run trail 10k by Roslin.

Ross on the right hand side on the podium

This is how the event website explained the run:

Starting at the historic Rosslyn Chapel (heavily featured in the Da Vinci Code book and film) to start your 10K (ish) trail run through the beautiful valley of the North Esk River. You will pass tumbling waterfalls, still river pools, quiet natural forests and atmospheric ruins of the area’s surprising industrial past, before emerging at Stewart Brewing HQ to celebrate your achievement over a beer (the first one’s on us!).

Ross finished in a fantastic 3^rd place out of a big field of 240 runners! Here's his summary:

The hop run was great fun.. undulating, mucky, technical and steep trails. Quite unexpected and challenging but suited hill runners over speedy 10k runners. There was a downpour of biblical proportions as we waited on the start line which really set the scene. The finishing line was at Stewart brewery where all runners got a free pint of tasty craft beer fresh out of the tank! ( I work there which is why I got involved but the beer is worth a visit alone) 

Event details https://www.stewartbrewing.co.uk/whats-on/news/a-10k-with-a-difference Results https://www.durtyevents.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Hop-Run-2019-Draft-Results.pdf

Sun 9 June - Alex Campbell had brilliant run at the ‘Devil’s Foot’ Trail Half Marathon along the Southern Upland way from Lauder to Melrose. The route includes a devilishly difficult finish via the Eildon Hills! Alex finished 10^th overall and 2^nd female – big congratulations.
Alex modestly says:

I don't think there were that many runners doing this anyway since it was their first year. Enjoyable run from Lauder, but hard finish back over the Eildons into Melrose

Event details https://devilsfoot.co.uk Results https://devilsfoot.co.uk/devils-foot-results-2019.php

Huge congratulations to both Alex and Ross.

Eildons Hill Race Report

Andy Cox, Colin Williams and Pete Hall were in Melrose on Sunday for the 2019 Eildons Three Hill Race. Its a Borders classic and been on the go for over 50 years (although they only added the third hill about 5 years ago) and is 4.5 miles with 1,400 ft of ascent (7.2km / 420m).

It was a lovely sunny day and Andy made the most of it heading out of the park at a super fast pace in 2nd place and barely slowed down to finish in brilliant a b 4th position, the highest place he ever finished so he was chuffed with his very strong showing. Colin bagged the final place in the top 10 and managed to place as third M40, and Pete had a very solid run clocking an almost identical time to last year finishing in the top half, 45th out a field of 92 runners, having been hampered this year when injury has made it difficult to get the training in.

Many thanks to Gala Harriers for putting on a very well organised and marshalled race, and a nice afternoon out as its part of the Melrose Gala week with the kids sports and shows going on at the same time.

Full Results here: https://www.galaharriers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Eildon-Hill-Race-2019-Results.pdf

Course flyby - https://youtu.be/-1GywcO3VHQ

Muckletoon Adventure Festival Trail Half Marathon - Brian takes 5th

New Moorfoot Brian Smith has hit the ground running. Brian only very recently joined the Moorfoots and has started coming along to training after doing Glasgow half last autumn and then Edinburgh Half in May (1:30:24). He did the tough Muckletoon Adventure Festival Trail Half Marathon (it has a lot of climbing with almost 2,000 feet in total) in Langholm on Saturday and had a brillant Moorfoot debut - big congratulations.

Here's his summary:
Thanks all for the friendly welcome to the Tuesday night training sessions. The muckletoon adventure festival was held on 14-16 June with a number of running and biking events held over the weekend. I was doing the half marathon and we had a quick pre race motivational talk from Vasos Alexander (sports reporter and endurance runner) and then it was a mass start for both the half marathon and 10k. The 2 distances split after a few hundred yards and then it was a challenging 1.6 mile ascent of Whita hill to the obeslisk. There was then a fair mix of fast descents and short steep climbs with a fair mix of sun, wind and heavy rain thrown in.

This was a really enjoyable and well-run event and I was delighted to finish 5th in a time of 1:53. I’d thought I’d finished a bit further back but had underestimated how many of those that had made the quick start were taking the 10k option so a pleasant surprise when I saw the results! 

Lauderdale 2 Pubs Race - an amazing buffet with a run thrown in!

Colin Williams and Mike McGovern headed to Lauder for the annual 2 Pubs Race. It's a great local race where you register at the Lauderdale Hotel and then the whole field is bused to Oxton. The race is 4.75 miles run mainly on a grassed over disused railway but with road sections too. There is stiff climb of 80m around the 2 mile mark and followed straight after by an even stiffer descent. Here is the route on a funky flyby tool: https://www.relive.cc/view/1649169917

It's a really friendly event with the 60 strong field being made up mainly by the host club the Lauderdale Limpers as they use to results to calculate a club handicap winner, as well being run as an outright race, as well as lots of other Borders clubs represented. We were motivated to go after a successful trip the year before where Colin and Magnus were 2nd and 3rd respectively.  It was a similar story this year with race being won again by Limper Leahn Parry in 29.22, Colin 2nd in 29.42 (a 30 sec improvement on last year) and Mike 3rd in 30.32. Leahn's 15 year old son Dylan was 4th making up the photo below.

Moorfoots looking a bit pink after our exertions

It felt like it was a much closer race this year as Leahn led out, with Mike and Colin within about 5 secs until the climb midway. Mike wasn't having the best run and dropped back a little at that point paying for a very quick first mile and Colin threw everything into the descent to close the gap that had grown on the way up, bringing it down to a couple of secs - but that was as close as it got as Leahn stretched it out again over the last two miles with a strong finish to cap a well paced run. Results: https://www.webscorer.com/racedetails?pid=1&raceid=185266&did=204691

The running was very much a side show to an amazing and huge buffet that waited for us after in the Lauderdale Hotel and free to all the runners and very much recommended!

Black Rock 5 Report

A few Moorfoots headed across the Forth to the village of Kinghorn on coast of Fife to take part in the Friday evening Black Rock 5 race.
A fantastic race with a deserved reputation for having a bit of everything - 4.3 miles long starting in the village, the first mile on road down to the beach, along the beach with sand of all types, splash round the Black Rock with a piper on top playing the bagpipes, the three bridges on the horizon, more sand, then back on the road and a cheeky wee hill sprint to finish. And a bottle of beer as your finishing line reward, which was supplemented by some more in the pub and and a decent chippy - what’s not to like?

Great atmosphere and a good way to spend a Friday night - 1,100 other runners agreed as it has a massive field and it sold out in about 45 minutes when entries opened.

A real spread of ability of runners taking part with some seriously rapid runners at the pointy end. This is how Moorfoots finished with some good performances and the two Andrews running shoulder to shoulder until the last mile:

Pos		Name		Category		Cat Pos		Gender		Gen Pos
31		Andrew Dancer		SEN		23		Male		29
36		Andrew Cox		SEN		27		Male		34
43		Colin Williams		V40		6		Male		40
102		Kenneth Davidson		V50		7		Male		91
140		Craig Walling		SEN		71		Male		127
215		Amy Alcorn		SEN		16		Female		25

Full results: http://results.perfecttimingscotland.co.uk/Results.aspx?CId=20065&RId=6005
Some video footage of the start where you can pick out most of us (can't see Amy): https://twitter.com/runandbecome1/status/1139806263896870912