Devils Burden Relay – 9th February

Killie headed to Fife for the Devils Burden Relay on 9^th Feb.  Starting and finishing in Falkland the race comprises of 4 legs around the Lomond of Fife hills.  Due to numbers there are two starts for the race and we were one of over 50 teams on the early start, 9.30am, generally for the slower teams

Race stalwart and team captain Roddy Pugh lead off on stage 1 completing the 7.5km leg in 33.40, and a top 10 finish.  Handing over to Alasdair Murray and David White, they took on the toughest leg of the race, 10km and 680m of ascent over Bishops Hill and West Lomond.  With the need to find checkpoints throughout the race low cloud made navigation tricky particularly on this leg. With a steep descent to finish unknown to them they had gained a number of places in this leg completing in 1.26.07, handing over to Ian Gebbie in 3^rd place. (Mention also to Colin Glencorse (running for Strathearn Harriers today) who ran the 2nd leg in just over 65 mins!

A lung bursting climb was the start to the 3^rd leg and Ian was soon to take the lead and was uncatchable over this 5.5km leg completing in 29.44.

As Ian ran his leg the rest of the group drove round to the 3rd / 4th leg changeover.  We knew time was going to be tight and as the race officials shouted “first runner approaching” leg 4 runners  Mark Hamilton and Stephen Gilmour  were literally caught with their pants down as Ian reached the changeover point with Mark & Stephen still getting ready. A couple of minutes were lost but they still began the 8km, leg 4 in the lead.

Novices in this race, Stephen and Mark started well and held the lead until some navigational confusion lead them off in search of a non existant checkpoint.  In the couple of minutes lost 3 teams had passed them as they began the final ascent up East Lomond.  A difference of opinion at the summit saw the pair follow other teams, rather than follow Stephen’s gut instinct.  This resulted in one of the teams opening up a 2-3 minute lead and Killie coming in in 4^th place of the early starters in a total time of3.26.55, with a final leg time of 57.24.

Despite difficult conditions only one minor injury was incurred by our team with Mark slipping into a hole and smacking his lower shin off a rock.  It didn’t put him off his stride though.   A similar wound was seen on Match of the Day to a Newcastle player on Saturday – and he was stretchered off!

With over 110 teams taking part in the race, across both start times, we look to have finished 42nd (although this is subject to change as some teams seem to have an extra hour added to their final leg time).    A great result and a great event.