Afternoon all
Back from Jedburgh after a lovely drive across though the Ettrick Forest and back up the motorway from Moffat, amazing colours on the landscape.
Well done on your time Dude, that is stonking for that course.
Wow that was a tough old race, hard hard hard, with all the mud and hills, and what was Eildon 1 (North) like with all that mud? A lung bursting climb. Sliding uphill anyone? 
Eildon 2 tough, scrambley-rocky and very windy on the top, then Eildon 3 a total doddle and a lovely springy peaty descent back down into the forest.
After that I had to haul ass between 22-28m, as I was initially doing okay, but then lost a lot of time slithering about on the slopes of Eildon 1, in order to make it back to Maxton for the cut-off....that 10m stretch from Rhymers to Maxton seemed to go on forever, and I didnt think I was going to make it. Doing the Neptunes Staircases twice did not amuse a Tiger 
!! I overtook a few folks on that last few miles so I dont know whether they got pulled or were allowed to continue after 3pm. Anyhow got in by the skin of my shorts, but near knackered myself doing it.
Last 10m after that back over the same ground we covered on the way out was tough, mud was really draining the legs, and I kept seeing stuff from earlier and trying to work out how far there was to go. Got the headtorch out just as it was going twilight-ish - thank goodness because I then entered the next section of forest and it was pitch black!! Very hard going, muddy, couldnt see much of he ground really,although headtorch cut a good beam into the trees, quite a spooky forest - everynow and then I would scare up a pheasant Wooooooop woooop woop!! (Holy sh!t ) I wish they wouldnt do that .
Finally out onto the back road that the half mara uses, short stretch of wood, then the main road into Jedburgh. Dragging ass, managed to run the last stretch in, met the organiser, made it by the skin of my teeth. A very tough race, I was out there for the full 10hrs, thank God I had the head torch, did about 1hr 40m in total pitch darkness. There were apparently a few people behind me they were still waiting for - I hope they had headtorches!!!
I thanked the organiser for a great race 
, I thought the course marking was excellent and I didnt get lost once, even in the pitch dark (which is quite something for me on ultras!). Really got the impression they pulled out all the stops to make this a success. Only thing I would say was from a safety point of view, that last 10m stretch was a hell of a way for them to not know where people were in the dark, not really chance to put in an extra CP, so a compulsory mobile phone and the RO's number would have been good to have - even just to say, okay I'm pushing close to the time but I'm only 2m away etc.
Fantastic training run, and great for building strength. Not too bad today, just tired and sore ankles from the twisting about in the mud, few days rest now I think.
