Trent Park 5km Handicap

This weekend I headed down to London for my goddaughter’s 1^st birthday. Her mum being an avid runner (and Jorjia surely due to follow in her mum’s footsteps very soon), we decided to give the Trent Park 5km handicap race a go before the afternoon’s party celebrations! This race is organised by Trent Park running club on the last Saturday of every month, and was the first time I’d given it a go. Katherine had last tried it only a few months after having given birth to Jorjia but her times have been getting faster ever since! Having not done this race before I told them a recent 5km time and was instructed I’d be setting off 15 minutes after the first runner. Katherine was going off after 14 minutes so would have a minute over me. The course was mostly off road through the park, with lots of up hills and down hills. A really nice course, though the cold weather made it hard to warm up in the early kilometres. The final 1.5km was along the tarmac, before doubling back to the finish. I could see Katherine as we crossed each other on the route back, she was running well and there was no danger of me catching her up! Katherine finished in a great time of 20:28, her quickest since Jorjia’s arrival. I came in only 10 seconds faster – she’s hot on my heels once again! I really enjoyed this run. Then it was time for a quick cappuccino in the café and off to make sandwiches and set up ready for the party. With 18 babies arriving I was wondering whether the 5km was going to be the easy part of the day…..???

East District XC Champs, Livingston

I woke up on Saturday morning to the sound of rain and wind battering my bedroom window. Hmm, a usual XC weather day then. The race wasn't till early afternoon, so had the morning to relax and prepare for the impending mudfest!! The CAAC female contingent headed to Livingston in Corrie's mini. We actually managed to find the place by luck!

After a bit of a warm up, we got into vest and shorts and lined up at the start of the Senior Women's race. The first section was very muddy and against a strong head wind, and there were some icy bits to contend with too. However, once into the woods, it was more like trail running and I felt I got a good rhythmn going. The ups and downs felt good and I was managing to pick off a few on the uphills, and trying my best to maintain it on the downhill sections. There was some great support from the CAAC men all the way round the course which really helped in the tough conditions.

I felt strong over the second lap (though wouldn't have wanted to have done a third!). I managed to get one last HBT runner in the final metres to finish in 30th position. Gillian and Corrie both had great runs too, but unfortunately missing a 4th runner we couldn't figure in the team positions. Hopefully we can get a full squad out for the Nationals next month.

Some Snowy Running

Running through the Hermitage from Jo Kirby on Vimeo.

Running up a snowy Blackford Hill from Jo Kirby on Vimeo.

Reflection on 2010 – Looking ahead to 2011

This time last year I wrote a similar blog entry with my aims and objectives for 2010. Looking back over them, I’m pleased to say that many can be ticked off – and although a few I’m still working towards, I feel I’m making progress and can happily carry them over to the coming year.

With regards to my running objectives, I was really pleased to reach two big mile stones, sub 19min 5km and a sub 40min 10k. I was affected by injury earlier on in the year (plantar fasciitis) which I thought might put an end to my season before it had properly begun, but with some chiro treatment, a 2 week break from running, and some exercises I was able to shift it. I’d hoped to get closer to my half marathon benchmark of 1hr30, but had to settle for 1hr34 at the Wolverhampton half (taking 4 mins off my previous best of 1hr 38). However, I felt great at the end of this race, which makes me think that I have more to get out of this distance. This year’s target will therefore be sub 1hr30 for the half. My 5km and 10km PB’s were hard work, so I’d now like to run these kinds of times more consistently.

Other aims I’d had were to learn to ski and XC ski – both of these I did (the downhill lesson being on New Year’s eve!). I’d also hoped to get better at rock climbing. I managed a lesson at the Edinburgh University climbing wall during the summer where I definitely increased my confidence on the wall. However, time (and temperatures at Ratho!) didn’t allow me to do much otherwise. Something to keep for the future.

I’d also made a plan to reach 75 Munros by the end of 2010. However, by the end of the year I was on a mere 53, so a fair bit off on that one. There are just aren't enough weekends in the year! Having bagged one Munro already this year though, I’m going to carry this aim over to 2011. So hopefully when I sit down to write this entry next New Year, I’ll be on 75 or more! With Neil hoping to get to the century this year, if I stick with him I should be on target! We had a great weekend in the Lake District for Rosie’s 30^th and did Scarfel Pike, so I’d love to get down to the Lakes and do more hills there. It’s not really much further away than going up north to the Highlands.

Highlights of 2010 for me were XC skiing in Norway – a fantastic country and scenery. I think ski touring might be the next thing to try. The Barra Half Marathon – what an amazing place and great atmosphere for a race. I’m inspired to do more Outer Hebrides races! The Rat Race – possibly the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but also one of the most fun and rewarding. I’m hoping my fellow CAAC Attack team members will be up for a similar race this year.

So, with all this in mind, my aims for 2011 are:

• Run sub 12 min 2 miles
  

• Run sub 19min 5km and sub 40min 10km more consistently

• Sub 1hr30min half marathon

• PB at 10 miles (perhaps Lasswade) – I haven’t run a 10 mile race in a long while and would be interested to see what I could get

• Run the Edinburgh 7 Hills race (only done challenge so far and missed race last year due to injury) and improve on my previous time

• Reach 75 Munros

• Hike some Lake District Hills
  

• Run at least one (possibly two) of the Outer Hebrides half marathons. Stornoway Half marathon is number one on the list, with Benbecula and Skye other possibilities.
  

Wish list (runs/things I’d like to do if get the chance, but not all this year!!): Northumberland Coastal run, Lakeland Trail run, Coniston 14, Nottingham half marathon (this one for nostalgia rather than scenery), Kilomathon, The Inn Pinn (plus other 2 Munros on Skye I’m missing)

Snowy Running, Munro-ing and Skis

Happy new year to all!

The Christmas and New Year holidays have been great – it’s always nice to have two weeks where you have the time to relax, spend quality time with family and friends and do lots of fun activities – all fuelled by mince pies and mulled wine!

With all the snow in the build up to Xmas, I was able to get out on lots of snowy runs. Highlights were the Springvalley Harriers Xmas run, where a good group of us went running in the Hermitage and over Braid Hill with Santa hats and head torches, followed by many cakes back at Springvalley. A perfect way to kick off Xmas! Then on Xmas Eve, myself, Neil, Dean, Gillian, Susan and Keith headed off for a morning run over the same route followed by a hearty breakfast in the pub. Over the Xmas holidays down in Wolverhampton I was able to get some good runs in to keep me ticking over aswell as a lovely 7 mile walk with my Dad on the 27^th. There was still a lot of snow on the ground and I was amazed at how rural and beautiful the area was behind my grandparents house.

After a great Xmas with my family I headed back up North to meet Neil in Dunblane at his parents’ house, and from there we continued up to Inverness to stay with Neil’s sister Eilidh in Inverness for Hogmanay. The plan was to do a bit of hill walking and some skiing over this time, and we had a great time! We drove up on the 30^th, and stopped to do a Munro off the road from Dalwhinnie - Geal Charn (926m). We’d been expecting lots of snow given the amount that had fallen in December, but there had obviously been a big thaw so it was more wet than snow. This was a fairly short walk in terms of elevation, only being at 926m and starting just over 300m from the car, so an ideal hill to do on the way to Inverness. We got all geared up – ice axe and crampons at the ready and headed off up the path. However, we were chatting away and then realised we were going up the wrong way – fortunately we hadn’t gone too far at this point, we’d just added an extra mile round loop to the walk. We soon got back on track and climbed gradually up the hill. Some good views till nearer the top when the cloud came in. We reached the summit at 2pm – Munro number 53 for me. Neil still needs to count how many he’s on, but somewhere in the 80s we think. With the short days at the moment, it was pretty dark by the time we got back to the car, but we got some great glimpses of views on the way down when the clouds cleared for a moment. The final Munro of 2010 was done.

On New Year’s Eve, myself, Neil and Eilidh headed to Aviemore for a ski lesson. We had to be at the ski school at 8:30am so it was an early start. We got kitted up and drove up to the ski car park. Turns out New Year’s Eve is a busy time for ski lessons, so we had a fairly big group, and the queues were big to get up Cain Gorm on the funicular. By the time we got going it was gone 11am. We did some basic skills before breaking for lunch. We were glad to have brought our own picnic given the amount of people in the Ptarmigan restaurant – though those chips did smell nice!! After lunch we were back on the slopes for the afternoon session, we got into snow ploughs and we all started getting the hang of it. I really felt my XC skiing from earlier on in the year was helping me with my balance, it felt much easier with the bigger, sturdier downhill skis. Learning to use the ski lift was good fun, and once we mastered that we just went up and down trying to perfect our downhill skills in the last half hour. It was pretty icy and the visibility was poor, but as the instructor said “If you learn to ski in Scotland, you can ski anywhere!” Unfortunately, we had to stop around 3:45 just as we were getting into it, and we caught the last funicular of 2010 back down to the car park. A great day and I can’t wait to get back on some skis very soon!

After a day of rest and recuperation on January 1^st (aka film watching marathon) we headed back to the mountains. We decided to do a couple of Munros on the road to Kintail. This was a bigger climb than the previous Munro, with a lot of the height gain covered early on. We managed to find a slightly more forgiving climb further round the mountain which was fine. We enjoyed the amazing views of the South Glen Shiel Ridge as we climbed higher and higher. At around 750m we felt a drop in the temperature and there were bigger patches of ice and snow. We had ice axes with us, but given the conditions the previous time, we didn’t have our crampons. Big mistake and lesson learnt - always carry crampons in the winter!! On reaching the plateau we had a quick stop to put on some extra layers. At this point two other hill walkers popped out from the other side of the hill. They caught us up just at the final push to the summit. As I glanced over to say hello, I realised one of the guys was “Mountain Goat” aka Martin Hulme from CAAC!! We’d seen nobody else all day and then here was Martin on a hill in the middle of Scotland, miles from Edinburgh!! Small world. Our meeting was nicely timed to have lunch together at the top of A’Chralaig (1120m). Martin and his hiking buddy had the big crampons so they were back down the mountain very quickly, as opposed to mine and Neil’s more steady descent. We decided to miss the second Munro given the ice and the time of day. A real shame, but a good excuse to go back another day. We took the steeper route down and could see the Claunie Inn in the distance looking very inviting. We got back to the car just before dark and headed to the pub for a well deserved coffee to warm us up. Turns out the Claunie Inn do a very nice latte! A great start to the Munro-ing year!