Go Hillbillies

We have six teams out tomorrow, two more than last year. Well done to everyone for getting involved. A special thanks to the team captains : Sandy, George, Paul, Garry, Fabienne and Andrew. You have all done a great job organising your teams and putting up with a bit of “team shuffling”. All the best for tomorrow. Most importantly ENJOY YOURSELF and have a geat day!

Team Transport

Please try to use 1 car per team for your transport around the course on the day – at certain handover points there’s not much parking so this makes it easier for all runners/marshals etc on the day. Please organise a car within your own team…

Kit

You are reminded that this is a hill race and full body cover (waterproof top and bottoms, hat, gloves) are to be carried or worn at all times, a map of the course (1:50,000 OS sheet Nos 58 and 59), compass and whistle must also be carried. A kit check may be done at ANY TIME during the race and if you don’t have the required kit you will be disqualified. We will print out course maps for the teams but the rest is up to you, please make sure you and your team members have the necessary gear.

Race Day

In order to get numbers, maps and cars organised on the day please be at Falkland Village Hall by 09:15 at the latest – remember this is a team race and it is important we support each other by being on time and being ready for the handover when the runner comes in. Please be considerate to your team members.

One Last Thing

Have a GREAT day and enjoy yourself.

Today six brave souls and a dog ventured out on the final leg 3 recce for the Devils Burden. Paul Davis, Alistair McGouldrick, John McTaggart, Colin Reid, Neil Campbell and Bill Duff. Bill was going to do leg one but had not left enough time to get over so he settled for leg 3. ” So at least I can get a run in”. He might have gone on to regret that thought.

It all started well being quite cold but with nice sunshine. We climbed up and made our way along to the Bishop where we passed some other runners. It was only as we started over the Devils Burden and up West Lomond that the weather closed in. We got a lot of snow being blown in with the wind. Now you can understand the need for full body cover even in the Lomonds! Visability was right down at the top so we had to navigate off the top with a compass. As we got down past the spring things opened up again and the snow stopped.

After that we had a fairly easy run in to Strathmiglo. Well done to John McTaggart who really had to work hard today but kept his sense of humor. A good run and a great effort from everyone.

Some photos below.

I have been away this week so have not kept up to speed with the Blog. Important Information about Leg 4 has come to light. It has changed from last year and from the recce we did last weekend!

PLEASE NOTE: Leg 4 checkpoint “path end NO 232078″ HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM THIS YEAR’S ROUTE.

Leg 4 runners SHOULD KEEP TO THE MAIN FOREST TRACK and should NOT follow the path that was included on the recce.

The new route keeps to the main forest track and is a straight run into Falkland from the forest track where it joins the farm track after the wrought iron arbour that we ran under.

Leg four runners please make sure you check out the new route on this weekend recce runs.

There are now maps on the Fife AC website for legs 1, 2, 3 & 4
http://www.fifeac.co.uk/

Follow the Events link and then the Devils Burden page.

Well done to all the Hillbillies who turned out today. We had 15 on a wet and windy day. George even took the hardier ones out and over the hill to do the last part of leg 3.

We will be posting the teams at The Academy on the notice board and if you are on email it will also be sent out with the bulletin.

One Idea is to all meet up at the start of our own legs (1,2,3 or 4) next Sunday to do recce runs. What do you think?

Time: We will meet as usual at 10am.

Location: next to the village hall, Strathmiglo. I have attached a link to street map with the location.

http://tinyurl.com/tnzzs (copy and paste the link into your browser if it doesn’t click)
We will look at the end stage of leg 3 theough the woods and the checkpoints and we shall go on and check out the main route for leg 4 and the key check point.

Any questions? Post a comment, phone me or drop me an email.

We hope to have the teams out by Monday.

Well done,

We had 21 Hillbillies and a dog out today. Tracey, Ryan , Judy, Garry, Helena, Andrew S, Paul H, Steve E, Steven K, Chris, George, Phil, Ian J, Bill, John McT, Alan Mc, Alan C, Ken, Colin, Morna and Neil.

It was a good day and we made good time over and back from Hol resevoir to Scotlandwell. I have included the profile from my Garmin to show the amount of climbing we did.

Click on the image for a bigger image. Click again after for an even bigger image

Here are some photos from the day. Click on the thumbnail for a bigger picture.

Here is a link to streetmap to show where we will start running for leg 2.

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?G2M?X=322575&Y=703255&A=Y&Z=3

As noted below we will meet at the car park next to Hol resevoir at 10am and go from there.

Here are some notes on the race for anyone not yet familiar with it.

The Devils Burden is a  relay race over 31 km consisting of 4 legs for teams of 6 (2 legs run in pairs). The race starts from the Village Hall, in the main car park in Falkland, at 10.00 am. There are limited changing facilities and toilets at the village hall in Falkland and none at the stage changeovers.

After the finish, food and hot drinks will be available in Falkland Village Hall from 12.30 to 4.00 pm. The race is run over the Lomond Hills in mid-winter and will require full body cover (waterproof top and bottoms, hat, gloves) to be carried or worn at all times. A map of the course (1:50,000 OS sheet Nos 58 and 59), compass and whistle must also be carried. There may be compulsory kit checks at each stage changeover and any team failing to comply will be disqualified.

The race consists of 3 hill legs and one road/track, leg 4. You will need some experienced runners who must be capable of navigation (especially legs 1, 2 and 3) in the hills in adverse weather. Short weather courses may apply in bad weather.

Leg 1: Falkland NO 253073 to Holl Reservoir NO 224034: 6.5km, climb 450m. Checkpoints: East Lomond NO 243062; Stile at road NO 238052; Field Corner NO 229050 to Holl Reservoir. Run in pairs.

Leg 2: Holl Reservoir NO 224034 to Scotlandwell woods NO 183021: 6km, climb 250m. Checkpoint: White Craigs NO 187032 to Scotlandwell woods.

Leg 3: Scotlandwell NO 183021 to Strathmiglo Hall NO 212098: 10km, climb 560m. Checkpoints: Gate NO 182041; Bishop Hill NO 185043; West Lomond NO 197067; Spring outlet NO 194070; path/track junction NO 206076 then to Strathmiglo Hall. Run in pairs.

Leg 4: Strathmiglo Hall NO 212098 to Falkland NO 253073: 8.5km, climb 100m. Checkpoints: path/track junction NO 206076; path end NO 232078. Finish in Falkland.

Well done everyone who has been out for the recce runs. Our next run will be Saturday 6th of Jan. at 10am. It will start at the resevoir (end of leg one/ start of leg 2) . We will run over to Scotlandwell and back by Whitecraigs.