The forecast for the Alloa half marathon was bitterly cold with a strong wind and so it turned out.  There was significant slush on the M77 over the Fenwick Moor and considerable snow on the Ochil Hills. As usual the race started pretty quickly with a downhill section and I went past the first mile in 6.10. Reasonable progress was made till the village (Alva?) at about 7 miles where the left hand turn is made onto the very long straight for which Alloa is famous.  From here things slowed down a bit into the fierce headwind until mile 11 where we turned out of the wind.  I did manage to shelter a bit behind a tall runner who was kind enough to wear a fairly large jacket which billowed in the breeze and who did not seem to mind me tucking in behind him.  Even if he had objected I would probably have done it anyway, it was just too tempting.  I could see Connell from Ayr Seaforth about 100m in front of me almost the whole way round, but unlike the National XC where we exchanged places several times he remained in front and finished about 45s ahead.  I finished in 1.28.32 in 105th place which probably is not too bad but was poor compared to my last run at Alloa when I was almost exactly 4 minutes faster.

Poor Kate had to withdraw early in the race with an injury and I did not see Caroline or Anne after the race – perhaps they would like to add their accounts themselves. Looking at their times they certainly did well.  Although it was cold at least the rain, sleet, hail and snow stayed away, mostly.