FALKLAND

We had thought about doing the “Frostbite Trail Race” in Falkland on Sunday.

Thought about it for a couple of weeks. But there was a pretty large part of me couldn’t be arsed if I’m honest.
The thought of the journey through to Falkland and then the journey back – all for a 5k trail race appeared to be “a bit of a waste of time”. Time, perhaps, better spent on some LSD.
Said it before. I enjoy the smaller races but I really need to do the LSD at the moment for my mara’.
Anyway. We had arranged to take Monday off work anyway (my new employer has a generous “use it or lose it” approach to leave and it’s getting to the end of the leave year anyway). So… we could do the “little” race and then get out for a bit of LSD on Monday.
So there we were on a cold and windy Sunday morning in Falkland. To get to Falkland, leave the M90 onto the A92 turn off onto the A912 and then keep going till you reach the 1950’s.
This was the 4^th in a  series of 4 short trail races (all run over the same route). The venue was familiar to us, from last year’s SAL trail race championship race, but the route was new to us (even though there was a tiny bit of “overlap” on one of the farm roads).
Me and Anne had been round most of the route for a bit of a warm up, when we met up with Brian and Theresa, so me and Brian headed off again for another wee recce.
A couple of burn crossings and a couple of fallen trees to jump/vault/climb over made it a bit “cross country” to my mind. Not really sure on the distinction between “trail” and “cross country”. To me it's all the same - lumpy, muddy and awkward.
Anyway. Obstacles always look worse on a warm up or recce. It seems to be that when your racing and the adrenalin is going you hardly give them a second thought.
Got back to the start area and removed excess gear and got down to shorts and vest – only to be told that the start was getting put back by 5 minutes … so a quick jog around the start area was in order to keep warm.
Back in line we got our instructions and then some strange ceremony took place where we all had to “pay homage” to a toy squirrel and then “death” and two of his minions walked through us telling us we had all “sold our souls” (must be a Fife thing).
By the time we had done a couple of circuits of the park and headed off towards a nice stretch of farm road I was in about sixth or seventh place. It’s a two loop circuit and the first time round I managed the burn crossings and tree obstacles no problem. I also knew that there was about a half mile stretch on road coming up and managed to get the head down on that section and moved into third place.
The course was great to be fair. Mostly on really nice paths and trail and was incredibly well marked out. There also appeared to be a load of spectators cheering us on.
It was on the third burn crossing that I felt my “iffy” foot “go” again. A real sharp pain.
Managed to keep going and managed to hold onto third place by the end.
However once the race was over and the adrenalin stopped flowing the pain just got worse.

Yesterday’s run (on the road) wasn’t too bad but I feel I’ve almost put it back about a month or so. Really scunnered about this as I did think it was getting a lot better. Actually starting to wonder if it’s a tendon problem rather than a bone – but the last thing I want to do is go to a doctor … all they will say is “stop running”.
So… the intention is to hang up my off road shoes for this year at least until the marathon is over – just stick to the roads. I’ve put my name down for the National XC at Falkirk, but I’m afraid I’m going to be a “no show” for that.