Feel The Burns

Ran in the fantastic Feel the Burns race from Selkirk Rugby Club up into the snow covered borders hills. It is generally a lovely route with modest climbs at reasonable gradients and some great long runnable descents. Snow covered about 98% of the course today but for the most part it was very runnable and only in 1 or 2 places becoming icy and slippy.

After an extended flu and a slow recovery I was very nervous about my fitness and ability to complete a length race like this (over 20 km and 890 m of climb) in a decent time. As usual I started off at a slow pace but with the steady ascent Heart Rate was quickly up to 160 bpm. Used the heart rate monitor to try and guide my pace and effort level and maintained an average of 156 over the 2.5 hours.

The snow on the photo was fairly typical of most of the course. Dropped down to a walking pace up the first hill. At the summit the strong wind made it very cold but made good progress down the descent passing quite a few runners many of whom were in trainers. The course undulated up and down for quite some time. I reached the turn in pretty good shape and then enjoyed one of the nicest long descents in scottish hill running being at the perfect slope to make you feel fast but never need to break.

At around the 3/4 mark there is a hard steep ascent which is pretty unwelcome after 2 hours of running. It didn't take too long however and was pleased to keep running for the last mile of so back to the starting point.

A little slower than last year but came ahead of a few runners who can often beat me. 161% of the winning time. Pleased with the effort and really enjoyed the well organised and well marshalled event.