Crippled by Criffel...

...is the headline I'd like to write but in fact I had a great time running the Criffel Hill race on Sunday.



It's a nice height & distance (569m & about 10K total distance) so it's not too extreme for someone attempting a bit of a comeback. After about a 1km run in on road & hard track it turns into a steady peat bog climb. Just a question of putting one foot in front of the other over & over again until you near the first peak when you have a brief period of running before ascending the second peak.

It was very windy at the top but the views over the Solway firth were amazing. Well worth climbing up to see even if you're not racing.

On the way down, as expected, I was passed by several runners (I just don't have the quads and kamikaze mindset for serious downhill running) but I hung on to the back of one lady who passed me determined not to lose any more positions. I think it probably helped me following her line and no one passed me after that. Of course that might have had something to do with the paucity of runners behind me. ;-)

I had a few good falls. The first one between the two peaks when a strong gust blew me over into the heather, a second one where I ended up on my hands and knees in a *really* sludgy peat bog and the last where I managed the classic hill runner's "fall - somersault- get up running again", all without losing any forward momentum.

No harm done and great fun.

I finished 46th out of 60 starters (59 finishers) but I really didn't care about my position. It was a great day out in a beautiful little village (New Abbey) and I'd highly recommend it.

I thought it was the boggiest hill run I'd ever done but I was assured by regulars that the course was drier than it's been for a very long time!

Full results here for anyone that's interested.