After the Killearn 10k last month, I was looking for another 10k in July. I literally searched something like "10th July 2016 10k in Scotland" and up came the Crieff 10k. Fast forward to today and I find myself on the start line. I had done a bit of research on the course. From the map it looked like there was quite a big hill early on then the second half seemed quite flat as it runs along beside a river.
We set off bang on 11 am. The start is in a grassy field so everyone is quite spaced out. That is until you have to run round the back of an astro turf pitch after about 100 meters. This would slow the pace down anyway. But even more so that it turned into a mud fest and everyone was walking through it. Then about half way people started trying to avoid it by going either side of it. I took this opportunity to go straight through it! The race then goes onto a road and continues on it for the first km before turning up right on to a path. This is where it starts to get interesting. This was the hill. I managed to run most of it. Then just when I nearly reached the top the incline got steeper and I had to start walking. Obviously I did not know I was near the top at the time having never done the route before. Plus its all forest so you can't actually see any peak or anything.
Up until half way from the peak I didn't walk as it was more rolling terrain on trails. It was a lot of fun and there was enough space to pass people or be passed. There was also muddy bits too to negotiate or go straight through. There was also pipers dotted about the course to which was a nice touch.
After half way I was really pleased to see a drink station as I needed one by that point. I did expect the course to flatten out here but there was another hill to go up. I wasn't really prepared for it mentally or physically and just walked up it. I got going again at the top of it and after about 6k the course drops down to the river till about 8k. This was a wide well used trail now. No mud or rocky bits or anything like that. Just flat and easy running where I managed to start picking off people. Just after 8k there was another hill. I decided this time that there can't be much more in the way of hills so went for it. This one seemed to last forever and after breaking the back of it, I had to walk the last incline. But after that the final km was all flat/downhill. Back along the road we went along at the start/round the astro turf pitch which was a lot quieter this time! Then across the field to the finish in a time of 1.02.35 (watch time).
The time I got was actually pretty much exactly the same time I ran in the Killearn 10k. But this was a lot more tougher course with over 500 feet ascent. So probably the toughest 10k I have ever done (barring hill races) but it was also the most fun. Trails, mud, long ascents, long descents, flat bits to stretch out a bit, forest, river, pipers - it has everything!
Now I'm off to practice hills more!
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