The Two Breweries hill race http://www.twobreweries.org.uk/ is a race that I’ve long wanted to do but somehow, every year something either comes up or I go and enter the Loch Ness Marathon before remembering that the races are only a week apart.

Well, this year was no different but this time I decided that the LNM could play second fiddle and I’d do the Two Breweries as well and hang the consequences.

I knew it was a long hill race at 18 miles but it’s not as hilly (in total) as the Pentland Skyline so how hard could it be? Surely just an easy romp over some rolling hills?

Well, I met up with Roddy Pugh from Kilmarnock at the start and made the mistake of asking him which was harder. Turns out the TBHR is tougher due largely to the lack of footpaths and large amount of heather bashing that you have to do and he wasn’t wrong!

I must have looked at some misleading pictures on the net of cheery runners running along clear paths because they just didn’t do justice to the amount of bounding/leaping/staggering/plodding through heather that ranges from ankle high to mid-thigh deep.

The race starts at Traquair house, a house steeped in history that anyone interested can read about here. http://www.traquair.co.uk/

You run up the main avenue towards the gates (that won’t be opened until there’s a Stuart on the throne apparently)
(2007 pictures)

The first ascent up Grieston hill and Orchard Rig doesn’t look too bad on the map (http://www.scottishhillracing.co.uk/Graphics/Maps/RA-0103-main.jpg) but I perhaps foolishly followed a splinter group who looked as if they knew where they were going that headed more northerly and through lots of deep heather & bracken.

To be honest, that pretty much set the tone for the first half/two-thirds of the race and the descent off of Birkscairn hill just got tougher and tougher as the heather got deeper and deeper as we descended. Fortunately though, the weather was great (if windy) and there were clear views from all the tops and nearly always other runners in sight to follow.

This was followed by another heart bursting ascent of Hundleshope and another staggering descent down Stob Law.

We then has a short respite before plunging into a forestry plantation and heading straight up a fire break though the forest (again with bare a path and lots of heather) to Whitelaw hill. Yet again another heart pounding climb.

After that we had a good spell of some actual running! Of course the legs weren’t too fresh any more and when we reached Stobohope, the path disappeared into a trackless waste of tussocky bog followed by a “shortest route” straight up Trahenna hill. By now the runners around me were all going very slowly, pausing for breath and muttering “never again”.

Once at the top the wind was very strong (it had been in our faces most of the way) but erratic and I briefly got shoved right off the path whilst traversing a slope at one point, fortunately not at a terribly steep but but an unnerving experience nonetheless.

The descent wasn’t quite as bad as some of the others but as ever, I’m pretty rubbish at it and lost a few places until I hit the road where I managed to claw back a few places again with a good strong run to the finish to pick up my free bottle of beer.

I finished in 4:29 which is well down the field (about 145 out of 185ish) but given my lack of preparation I was happy enough.

Back at the village hall there was a huge caldron of minestrone soup bubbling away with lots of bread, tea and cake on offer. There were also free pints of draught Broughtons beer but as I had to drive I couldn’t partake. I would have liked to stay for the prizegiving but had to make my way back to Glasgow asap but it looked like it was going to be a good affair with lots of spot prizes.

I’m really glad I did this race as I really like “A to B” races (they bus you from Broughton, the finish, to Traquair house at the start) but, I suspect I might not want to do it again in a hurry. There’s just so much heather bashing and not enough running for my liking and when you can run, it’s still tricky. I didn’t help myself by wearing the wrong shoes (my Inov8 flyrocs) which are a bit wide and not very snug. They’re fine for flatter trails but not good when you have to do a lot of running traversing slopes as my feet were sliding from side to side in them too much resulting in some blisters. Walshes would have been better.

Despite the downsides, it’s a great event with great organisation and I think one that everyone should do at least once. Hopefully there will be lots of pictures on the website soon as there were a lot of photographers around.