Saturday 5 May 2018

Selkirk Trail Half Marathon Report

On Saturday 5th April Mike McGovern and Colin Williams (me) raced at the Selkirk Trail Half Marathon  (well actually it was 14.5 miles but what's a did extra between friends).

It was a bit breezy at the start and therefore cool but we warmed up once we got going and then the sun came out making it a lovely day. It was a mass start for both the half marathon (115 runners) and full marathon (56 runners). As soon as the race started everyone bolted but it had pretty much settled down into a group of 4 racing along with the lead marathoner after a couple of miles, with the eventual winner Graeme Murdoch of Gala Harriers already gaining such a gap that he had disappeared off the front.

Mike and another runner gradually pulled out a decent margin ahead of me by the high point of the course at Duchess Drive on Bowhill Estate after about 45mins and on the decent both Moorfoots ran well with Mike pulling ahead and Colin closing on the 3rd place runner. It stayed like that for the next 45 mins when following a steep dig there were more technical descents on MTB enduro single track. By this time I caught and decisively over took 3rd place runner before popping out back at Bowhill House for the last fairly flat 3 miles through Philiphaugh Estate. With only a mile left I started to see Mike still a good distance ahead and dug in an attempt to close the gap, but Mike was too strong. At the finish line there was only 3 seconds in it but it meant two Moorfoots made it on the podium, both almost 4 minutes within the course record set by the inaugural winner last year.
Colin, 3rd; winner Graeme Murdoch, Mike 2nd
A really nice, but tough, route with over 2000 feet of climb. Full results here: http://www.durtyevents.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Trail-Run-Results.xls
The start from above

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