Glentress Trail Marathon

Here we go then; first race of the year.

Training has been OK the last couple of weeks although I was experiencing knee pain again after the Glen Prosen night run a couple of weekends ago. Nothing to interrupt running but I think this is an issue that isn’t going to disappear in a hurry.

In any event, I have always looked at this event as a bit of a late winter outing to shake off some cobwebs and to gauge where I am at coming into the spring. That said, I will be applying myself fully.

The event is based at the Peel Centre, the hub for all operations at Glentress. This is a forestry park just outside the town of Peebles and is better known as a MTB centre. I have run some of the trails here before at the start/end of the Tweed Valley Ultra, also run by High Terrain Events.

There are several distances over the weekend, and I am doing the 42K which is the longest. However, the course is not a continuous route and comprises two laps of the 21K racecourse. There appear to be just under 100 starters.

Totalling about 1,700 metres of elevation, the high point of the loop is around 7.5/15 miles, and it is a long descent to the finish which could be fun, or not, depending how the legs feel. There are a couple of aid stations and an option for a drop bag at the finish line for lap two. The kit list is light too.

I toyed with the idea of driving down in the morning, but this might be high risk with the weather being unknown until shortly before. So, I am staying in Peebles on both the Saturday and Sunday which will allow me a relaxed start on race day and a good rest afterwards before the drive home.

Thus, I arrived in Peebles on Saturday afternoon and relaxed for the rest of the day. However, I had a terrible night’s sleep awake every hour at best until I just got up at 0500. The event organisers had been emailing the day before with weather updates. There was a lot of recent snow on the course, especially at higher altitudes and this was to affect the car parking. So, the start was delayed until 1000 and they pretty much said that there would be no aid stations out on the route.

I decided to be self-sufficient from the start and carried enough calories for the whole distance, only needing to top up fluids at the halfway mark.

I killed time at the event venue until start time eventually arrived.

So, at 1000, we were off. The first three miles is a consistent climb, and I went off way quicker than I would have liked. I figured it would give me a good start, and I could rein it back in later on. With hindsight, I am still unsure how this turned out although I later wiped out any real advantage as you will see.

As we climbed further up into the forest, the snow cover increased and care was required on the forest single tracks as rocks and roots were concealed.

However, the snow was still fairly cold and compact at that earlier part of the day.

After three miles, there was a good mile or so of downhill on forest road which allowed me to stretch my legs a bit and to bring my breathing and heartrate back down. Then, a mistake.

I came down a narrow path which met a forest track. The pink arrow indicated a right turn, and I duly set off down the forest road. As it turned out, the course doubled back immediately into the trees, and I simply missed the additional route marker. The guy behind me followed me and after about 500 metres, we realised we couldn’t see show tracks. We turned and made our way back (uphill!) but given the early stage in the race, a good number of race places were lost, and I probably burned any advantage I had accrued from a speedier start. Marvellous.

The next few miles were a mix of uphill forest road and windy single-track through the trees. Then, we hit the start of the proper climb up to the highest point of the course.

The snow was getting deeper in places and as we climbed, we hit what seemed like a never-ending series of switchbacks.

Finally, we came out of the trees into the open and up through the snow to the highest point of the course. No views unfortunately but it was atmospheric nonetheless. The weather was still holding at this point. I was never too hot or cold either so I think I got my kit choices right. Wearing the waterproof from the start would pay dividends in the second half.

The next couple of miles included some enjoyable downhill, albeit quite technical in places, interspersed with some shorter climbs up through the snow and trees. A couple of miles later, I was looking forward to the final downhill but not before the short but painfully steep climb that preceded it. As we crested once more, there was a really attractive single-track downhill through snow-laden trees before we transitioned once more to forest track which would take us downhill for 2.5 miles to the halfway point.

I arrived at the start/finish in around 2 hours 30 minutes which didn’t really impress me very much and a second loop suddenly seemed like quite an unattractive proposition!

I topped up my water and refreshed my Tailwind and set off once more. It would have been so easy just to walk much of the initial climb but I ran where I could and slowly made progress.

I found myself very quickly on my own and this remained the case right up until the high point of the course.

By now, it was snowing quite a bit, and it was lying. There was plenty of light and atmosphere in the open, but the forest paths were gloomy and a lot of care was required.

I also think the temperature had warmed a little as there was a lot of melt water coming down off the trees and the paths in the trees were becoming a difficult blend of slush and mud with all the passage of runners. All the 21K runners had also been through by that point.

I have to say that I found that whole first half of the second loop to be a tad miserable. My legs were weary and the difficult underfoot conditions weren’t helping. I am not sure it helps knowing exactly what is ahead of you either. Sometimes not knowing keeps it interesting.

As we once more approached the high point of the course, a couple of runners caught me. One breezed past, never to be seen again. The second runner and I kept pace for most of the second half, with the usual ebb and flow.

The snowy downhills were enjoyable and once the short, sharp climb was done for the second time, the end suddenly seemed close.

The last little climb before the final descent saw the heaviest snow of the day. It was really chucking it down in large chunks giving the whole trail a very wintery feel.

I had decided to max out my pace on the last three miles of downhill, to get the training benefits as well as to improve my time as much as I could.

I ran strongly on that last section. The young lady who I had been pacing with had edged ahead and as much as I tried, she remained just ahead right until the finish although only about 20 or 30 metres separated us at the finish line.

I picked up my medal which was one of those nasty embossed plywood eco things. Not sure that one will even make it to the drawer! Still, the lifespan of the planet might have been extended by a minute or two, so who am I to have an opinion.

So, in the end my finish time was 5:39. My overall position was 40^th out of 82 starters, 18 of whom DNF’d. So, top 50% by a ball hair, as they say.

Thoughts then?

Underwhelmed really. I could find a few excuses like lack of decent sleep, wrong turn on the course, not feeling great in general but that would just be lame. I just don’t feel that I did very well and no-one could persuade me otherwise. My kit choices were good and my nutrition and hydration were fine. Just not a great day. However, as tempting as it was, I resisted the easy option of finishing after one loop and as much as I didn’t enjoy large parts of the second loop, I am glad I completed the route.

The organisation was spot on and recognition as always to the volunteers and marshalls in particular who stood out for hours in some difficult conditions.

It was a genuine winter race which was nice, even if it did throw up some challenging underfoot conditions.

There was a course photographer, so I’ll add in any supplementary photos worth including later.

There is nothing on the radar now until France at the very end of March so a good time to consolidate my training and build on what I have achieved over the winter months.