LAMM 2006: Assynt

It's Tuesday: two days after the LAMM, in which I 'ran' (mostly walked) 43.8km officially and 50km actually, in two days. Amazingly, I feel pretty good, which is handy because there is a club race on tonight!

The LAMM is an annual event, for pairs, held in different parts of Scotland. Experience is useful as some features of the event crop up year after year. Although I'd not met my partner before the event, he filled me in on a few details:

You get kept in the dark about the start location, route length and mid-camp location right until you get there. We only knew for sure when the bus pulled over a few miles from the event centre and we started within a minute of getting off the bus.
Day one often starts with a twist - like a bus to the start - or a train or boat.
There is lots of climbing and rough terrain, with one or two really big legs between controls and often a choice of routes between controls.
You have to try hard on day one as it is much harder to make up places on day two.

This last one I'll have to test with my own experience, because looking at the time difference between places, it seems pretty similar on day one and two. For example, we came 65th on day one and 23rd on day two. 23rd to 65th on day one was an hour difference and on day two... it was also an hour difference.

I round day two to only be forty or fifty minutes shorter than day one, taking into account our day one deviation!

Anyway, the LAMM is a great event if you think you are a hardy camper and fell runner. If you go out with the attitude that you are as tough as everyone else, and maybe a bit faster than most, then you will get round alright. If you want to explore remote areas of Scotland, but think it's a bit far out for running, then come along and you won't be alone! Just don't expect it to be easy.

More info at www.lamm.co.uk.

Balmedie Beach Bash

What a run? This is/ was an unusual run that suits a hill runner's sense of the unpredictable! Basically, it is an evening race over about 3.5 miles. It starts flat and although there are no hills there are plenty of steep ups and downs. In fact, there is enough suffereing to leave you crawling at the end, begging for some solid ground that doesn't give as soon as you stand on it!

My position in the race was fair enough - too fast a start mean you slow down sooner or later. What I found particularly odd is that now, a couple of hours later, I feel like I could run another few miles. I can just tell that I've not run far enough...

Still, I'm not about to get my head torch out now!

Carn Bhac

I've been meaning to up my mileage since about the new year, but finally I have time to actually decide to do it rather than turn up and do what suits. This time I made my mind up to do some munro bagging - hill runner style. Looking for something suitable near Braemar leaves you a little spoilt for choice, but I didn't really fancy a long landrover track that I've done before - e.g. past Derry Lodge, and I wondered how much snow etc would still be up by Glen Shee ski centre. Fortunately, there are several hills north of Glen Shee, but south of Braemar, so I set off to Inverey. Inverey is cunningly set on the river Ey, which is very pretty as it winds it's way though gorges and higher plains in Glen Ey. Even the landrover track isn't too bad.

It took me 55 mins to cover the 8 or 9 km to the end of the track along pretty flat ground. The guidebooks say that you should come down from Carn Bhac via the Alltan Odhar, but I headed uphill before the stream. From above, it looked like the stream bed was deeply inset, so the views would be less, but I have no idea if there is a decent path. The route I took was virtually pathless up to the summit, however the heather is short and various sheep tracks help out now and then, so I'd recommend it. About 1h 45m to the summit.

From the summit, I decided to head over to Top of the Battery, as the OS map describes it. It is a gentle ridge with short heather, small rocks and frequent sections of deeply eroded bog. Actually, the tufty grass was the hardest to run across as paths did usually show the best way through the peat sections. When my legs were glad of the springy, gentle terrain, suddenly I had to go uphill, but the two 50m ascents are gentle and well worth it. Descending the nose of the ridge was actually the trickiest bit. Much longer heather and steeper slopes without path made it a relatively slow descent. Fortunately, from the bottom there is only 2km back to the car park in Inverey, so with 2h 43m under my belt, I ran out to make it in, in under 3hrs - just!

Of course, those out for a longer run would do well to add in the other munros, some of which are connected by high level belachs and others require significant descent/ ascent. Check the weather too, because I know this route would be unpleasant in the rain, but as I found - it is pure joy in the sun, with a touch of wind to keep you cool.

Total distance 22.3km, 940m ascent (my watch said only 730m).

Map is (C) Crown Copyright - courtesy of Ordnance Survey

Millstone

Finally back on broadband, and it coincides within a day of a fantastic run I've just done for the first time. Starting at Donview CarPark ( NJ672190), we headed up Millstone. We followed a slightly winding path, which has bits you could run - if you were fitter than me...

After the summit, we headed back down to a shallow bealach where the path splits - back to the car park or down the far side. By this point I had convinced myself that another hill wouldn't be too bad, so we headed for Mither Tap on Bennachie. Of course, leading the windy summit of Millstone for the 'bathed-in-sun' Mither Tap, how could we fail to have fun!

When got there, up some fast bits and some steppy stone paths, the wind had picked up and it was pretty evil. Shelly stayed out of the wind, but I headed up to the summit, followed by Rob, and felt great. Running down the long descent to just below Millstone was fast, intricate and tested most of yor downhill skills (except heather and burn jumping). There was a slog back up to Millstone to get back to the car park, but even that was worth it. 1h 20min.

In the pub afterwards I was almost convinced to run the Stuc a' chroin hill race this weekend. As the race starts at 1pm and could well be 4+ hours, I've decided to give it a miss. I want to be ready for the Saw Doctors in the evening... well - we all have our priorities!

Carnethy 5

OK, So I'm almost a month late, but it is never too late to say "What a race"!

If you don't know, the Carnethy 5 hill race, near Edinburgh, is a top notch event. For a sport that really shines in nice weather, to get 550 entrants in February is good going. Well, me and my pals thought so, so we travelled down from Aberdeen to a wet and windy Edinburgh.

Unfortunately my sister had to pull out due to injury, but another club member filler her place. It was also my missus's first ever race - fair play to that.

The race itself is just over 6 miles, to and from a very cold patch of moist tussocky grass on the south side of the Pentland hills near Pennicuick. The name derives from the fact that there are 5 summits to traverse, with 2500ft of climbing between them.

This year 460 runners completed in the cold and what turned out to be very windy and damp conditions. For me, the going wasn't too tough. I found the wind only really got me on the summits and I was moving fast enough to take my windproof off. Unlike most competitors I had a rucksack, so at least my back was warm! Also, being a big guy the wind never knocked me off my feet.

I found the icy/ frozen mud patches on the way down tricky. If they can be avoided, there was really no problem though. As for results, beating 75min was most pleasing.

It's best to try it to experience it! Results are here. Find the photo report - it is most fun.

I borrowed this picture of my missus finishing last from Carnethy...

Bring it on

I just noticed that the Saunders Lakeland Mountain Marathon (SLMM) is taking entries now for the July 1/2 2006 race. It seems the description and names of the race classes are a little different to the KIMM or the LAMM.

If anyone has any tips on how to reconcile the differences, or some sort of good weather comparison chart, then that would be worth posting.

I'm off for 8 days winter walking and training soon, so not much running and not much posting - see ya later.

Weekend sun

This weekend I got the chance to run in the Lake District - a pleasant change. I stayed in Great Tower, a Scout campsite near Windermere, but managed a run in Langdale. The weather was really good with bright clear skies and quite calm in the valleys. This week my tip is to not repeat what I did - forget to put your National Trust card in the window, when parking in a NT carpark. I didn't get clamped or anything, but I did run back to the car asap instead of going up the hill - shame, especially if you think about how you've paid for membership - card in window or not.

I shall really have to do more hill running in the Lakes. The scenary is so pleasant and the beer is pretty good too...