Highland Boundary Series, including the Birnam Hill race

The Highland Boundary Series is an Adrian Davies creation comprising three races held on consecutive days over the weekend of March 23-25, in and around Dunkeld and Birnam.

The first race was the Tay Dash, a night race of 5km alongside the Tay, at night, run with headtorches. Race winner was Robbie Simpson, and Angela Mudge won the women’s race in 18.42. Digby and Wendy ran this one, with Digby coming in 7th, in 18.18. Wendy was a very good 3rd place in the women’s race, in 20.07.

The second race was the Birnam Hill Classic. This was a club championship race, but after the high numbers of club runners at the Alloa Half the previous weekend, it was a small contingent of just the four of us who made it for this one – Digby, Angela, Grant with another one of his last-minute decisions, and me. Reasons for not running ranged from bruised ribs (that’s what happens with mountain biking), injured Achilles, injured hamstrings, post-D33 recovery, pre-duathalon preparation, to essential parental duties watching offspring playing football/rugby, work, illness, plagues of frogs and locusts and so on, to the extent that the reasons for not running outnumbered the runners by at least two to one.

The start was mildly frustrating, with Adrian Davies insisting on taking a school register at the start to ensure no-one was left behind on the hill, which is sort-of understandable on a longer race, but on a 6.5km up-and-down seemed a bit excessive. Anyway, we eventually got going and by the time most of us started the ascent, Robbie Simpson had already won. Well, almost. So, up we went with varying degrees of running, shuffling, walking and wheezing. I lost sight of Digby ahead of me quite quickly, and I could just about see Angela for about two-thirds of the ascent, and then she disappeared from view. Having huffed and puffed a lot on the way up, I really enjoyed the descent – none of it is very technical, and a lot of it is quite straightforward, so I was able to overtake a few people on the way down.

The race was won by Robbie Simpson in a new record time of 28.14, beating second place Calum Gilhooley by two minutes. Sarah O’Neil won the women’s race in 33.06, 24 seconds ahead of Angela Mudge. Digby was first Harrier to finish in 23rd position, in 37.17. Angela was next home, in 38.20 in 6th place in the women’s race, after what sounded like a great race with Jacqui Higginbottom. I bumbled in a couple of minutes later in 47th position, and Grant followed a bit after me.

The third race of the series was the Deuchary Hill Canter, an 18km run round Craig O Barns and up and over Deuchary hill. Once again, Robbie Simpson won, in another new record time of 1:23:58, and Angela Mudge won the women’s race in 1.36.02. Andy Greaves coped well with his bruised ribs to finish in 29th position in 1.46.47, and Digby wasn’t far behind in 35th position in 1.48.04.