Part 2 of my adventures in insanity commenced last Sunday.
After giving my weary limbs sufficient rest following the Stuic, I embarked on the Lairig Guru.
Its a 28 mile race starting in Braemar and finishing in Aviemore via the Lairig Guru, hence the title.
Went up on Saturday and stayed with my Brother in Law in Boat Of Garten. He kindly treated me to a spot of Fly Fishing on the Spey, needless to say it wasnt Salmon/Trout for tea, no beginners luck for me of and no bites for the expert.
Down to Braemar first thing Sunday morning. A beautiful drive via the Lecht, mind a saw a sign warning of Adders, which I made a wee mental note of not to sit in the Heather later on if I was knackered.
Race started 10am prompt, very informal.
First 3 miles on road, weather perfect overcast gentle breeze not to warm, although it did get quite hot later on.
The road gently rises to Mar Lodge, a massive NTS property think Monarch of the Glen, then its off road and into Lairig Ghru.
Next 6 miles are great trail running gently ascending with a couple of stream crossings, which were suprisengly high given the recent dry spell.
Then into the belly of the beast and the fun really started.
The middle of the Pass is very tough going underfoot, a huge amount of concentration was required, with very little opportunity to take in the granduer of the surroundings.
First major drama after about 14 miles, Fording a fast flowing stream, I jumped onto what I thought was a dry stone but  wasnt and promptly did my best Tom Daly impression and went right in and under,to be pulled out by my guardian angel nee fellow runner who was fortunatly right behind me and grabbed my back pack and hauled me out. Soaked to the skin few bumps and bruises but  no real damage just a heavier pack.
Next up the dreaded Boulder Fields by the Pools of Dee. Impossible to run over pure scrambling helped somewhat by snow coverage, very bizare running over snow in the height of Summer.
Finally Aviemore appeared way down some 10 miles away in the Valley.
The long descent was intially very tricky, I managed one really good fall resulting in two badly staved toes.
Reached Rothiemurcus Forest which is absolutly stunning  awesome running felt strong and ran well over the last few miles manged to catch three of four.Out of the forest at Coylumbridge and then its on the road finishing opposite Aviemore Police Staion at the northern end of the town and a slab of well deserved Carrot Cake.
Finished in 4hours 14 minutes and 23rd overall.

Gala Harriers laid on an unusually good day for the race up and down The Eildons.   It was warm with occasional sun.   John Anderson had a good run, just slightly slower than last year but I got lost.   Navigationally it's really quite simple: start opposite The Greenyards, run up the Main Street, turn right, go through a close, climb the Easterly Eildon, run up the Mid Hiil, run off the Mid Hill back through Melrose and finish at The Greenyards.   You'd think that a runner who had already completed the race 14 times would have no difficulty but you're wrong.   On the day I was trying to to outwit Dick Wall, who was just ahead of me at the top, and I ran off to the south and found myself lost.   I managed to find a way back and finished last about 10 minutes behind my 2009 time.   My only bit of good news is that John managed to get a bottle of wine for me at the prizegiving.

Not even a marathon game at Wimbledon or a World Cup match would stop the 7 Harriers who turned out to help make up the 130 runners that took part in this midweek race, unfortunately no team photo as we all ran to the cars to get away from the midges! Apart from Duncan who had arrived on his bike.....

Results are not available yet but I think the finishing order was :- Duncan, Mike, Tim, Rob, Chris D, Gordon & Susie.

This was a really nice race to do on a beautiful evening incorporating Hare Hill  (incl the bog)  & the Western path on Black Hill which was dry and for me was a really nice run down to Threipmuir Resevoir.  Bit of a slog to get back round the resevoir but my various injuries decided to keep at bay - my foot had extra cushioning from the bog mud that was in my trainers so that helped.

Thanks to Jamie Thin and his lovely daughters whose race organisation I can only aspire to!

Jamie's report from SHR website:
At the front Al Anthony (Ochil) won in a fast time of 35:32s - only 20 secs off Murray Strain's record from last year. Don Naylor (HBT) was 2nd , followed by duathlete Drew Sharkey (Bicycleworks) in 3rd.

First lady was Kate Jenkins (HBT), showing few signs of slowing down even after being first woman at the 95-mile West Highland Way race a few days before,

2nd lady was Lucy Colquhoun (Carnethy)

Towards the back of the race the last 2 finishers both managed to do an extra mile by heading out round Harlaw Reservoir as well , before spotting their mistake and re-tracing their steps but that earned each of them a bottle of wine at the prize giving in the Grey Horse pub afterwards.

The Harriers came in as follows:

#8 Duncan 40:58
#38 Gordon 49:07
#54 Chris B 52:56
#65 Rachael 55:27
#82 Kirsty 1:00:02
#85 Gilly 1:00:39
#90 Alia 1:01:12
#91 Nadia 1:01:19

# indicates race position /there were 105 finishers in total.