Stuc a Chroin Hill Race

I played around with the idea of running this race but I think that it is a bit early to run your first proper hill race one week after the fling. Okay I know that I ran in the Islands Peaks race but I think of that more like an ultra.
It was an even harder decision when I was going to be just 10 minutes along from the start of the race at Strathyre because it was the Garscube Training weekend just down the road in Callander.
We were staying in a beautiful hostel, the same one that we stayed in last year and I am sure the same one we will stay in next year.
Trossachs Tryst
The training weekend isn't normally a training weekend in that it is normally an excuse to consume loads of food and drink and attempt to run after it. In fact recent years have been hilarious watching us athletes trying to run with a hang over or still drunk from the night before.
Still I normally run more miles than hours slept although this is easy as no-one seems to sleep much.
But as the years have gone by the weekend has got a lot more civilised with wine, kids and quiz shows. And so during all this fun 4 of us decided that on the Saturday we would go to the top of Stuc a Chroin to watch the race.
We wouldn't run the same route as the runners but would run up the back (and easier) slope from Callander and time it right so that we would meet the leaders at the top.

We set off at lunchtime and ran for a couple of miles along a track to the dam and a stalkers bothy. Immediately we started our ascent up the hill. It was an easy incline and we managed to run most of it. There was 4 of us. Grumpy Euan, Ian the hill runner, John the Jogger and myself.
I have never found Euan grumpy but his partner Ali calls him that so it has stuck, Ian is the hill runner of the club and known for his mental hill runs in inaccessible places of Scotland and last but not least is John the Jogger. Not much of a jogger when doing 32 minute 10Ks.
John unfortunately had his road shoes today but the rest of us had our fell shoes on.
200 meters or so up the easy incline the hill started to get steeper. I tried a mixture of walking fast and running but my quads were burning and by now I was glad I wasn't running the race. The views were beautiful and I wished I had brought my camera. The morning had been showery but the afternoon was sunny with a biting wind. But we were running and you don't notice the cold. Again the incline eased and we ran, passing walkers on there way up. I started to feel stronger and was finally shaking off the fatigue of the fling and the easy week I had had. The last section was steep but we still couldn't see the runners on the ridge and so we took it easy.
Up at the top the marshals for the race were gathered waiting expectantly. It was icy cold and we quickly cooled down.
This was the first time that I have ever watched a hill race and it was an eye opener. All the runners looked knackered. Okay I know that it is no mean feat to get to the top of a munro but I thought that perhaps the front runners would have looked a little fresh. But the didn't and again I was thankful that I wasn't running it.
I started to see people that I knew. Tom Owens, Iain Ridgeway, Richie Cunningham, Angela Mudge, John Kennedy, Andy and Emma Birnie, Nick from Bella and the only Garscube runner running Davie Dickson. He has just started running hill races and seemed to be running superb.
By now we were bloody freezing and it was time to go down. I love the downhill sections and managed to get a good pace down some sections. John in the other hand had a hellish time with his road shoes. Slipping and sliding everywhere.
Just before we got back to the car we got a soaking from a rain shower but that didn't dampen our moods as we all had a great wee hill run.

Stuc a Chroin Results

11.41 miles
2 hours 29 mins