Birnam Hill Race - SHR Champs - Short

First race in 6 race Scottish Championship Series. Today was a short race from Birnam/Dunkeld up to the summit of Birnam Hill and back. The climb up to the top wasn't too bad - just too steep to run so a fast paced walk most of the way to a long muddy plateau at the top. The route continued down the far side of the hill on mud and grass before contouring back around the south side of the hill. A long descent on stony path at pace resulted in blister appearing and the last mile or so over undulating terrain was tough after putting in such a hard effort on previous sections. A good hard effort and was pretty pleased with my performance.

Race time was 48 mins 24 secs and 164% of the winning time. Placed 180 of 241.

SOL 2 - Pitlochry

Out on the blue course today. As always the SOL events prove to be really challenging. Navigation was generally OK this time round but the terrain was so rough with fallen trees everywhere that progress was very slow. Got round in 1 hr 26 minutes.

Risk Minds

A week in Amsterdam at the Risk Minds Insurance Conference. A long time to be sitting listening to talks ! I was presenting on the Thursday with numbers dwindling by that stage of the event.

Hill walk with Max - Crianlarich

We had planned a long munro bagging expedition for a while and headed out to Crianlarich to see what was possible. The cold weather this winter and early spring meant that most of the hills were still covered in snow and we weren't equipped for full on winter walking.

In the end we were able to walk up to about 700 m and with the summit not too far away had to turn back. We also did a short walk at the head of Loch Lomond (pictured).

SOL 1- Gullane Dunes

A day out helping at the Interlopers run orienteering event at Gullane. A lot of standing about and didn't feel like racing at the end so went for a short run along the coast. Nice area and worth planning a walk there at some point.

Scribble

Joined Hannah to watch her short play being performed at the Traverse Theatre. Great stuff.

Spring Fling

Well done Hannah. Awesome drumming at the James Gillespie High School Spring Fling.

Bishop Hill Race

A short sharp hill race in Fife. Hannah joined me to spectate at the run. The weather turned out to be quite nice and the race course was excellent. The climb always feels like its a long was but probably only lasted about 20 minutes before a quick descent. Nice tea and scones afterwards. Running time 29 mins 15 secs.