More Glentress Nightriding, 23 October

Goodness, how windy it is just now ! Fortunately the Glentress mountain-biking trails are in forest, well sheltered from the rain and gales that are being pelted at the country just now. A few of us went down from Edinburgh to enjoy the red routes. I must invest in new night-lights ! Bought a copy of Tracy and Emma's "Essentials" from the Hub - I'd been on their terrifc essentials basics course earlier on the year and this small book is great back-up. Well recommended if you do any trail or country-track biking, whether is to reach the foot of a munro or just for the heck of it !

Fell Running Relays, Wales, 19 October

The Fell Running Association Relay is an annual event not to be missed. Not only is it a chance to compete against top hillracing names from everywhere in the UK, but the weekend is a social catch-up for most runners. This year's event was to be held in Wales - I was excited about the thought of running up new routes in Snowdonia. Alas, the relay was held in the Clywdian Hills - not unlike the rolling gentle Moorfoots of Scotland. The running proved to be quite tough though. Andy Spenceley and myself ran the navigation leg - paths and trods for the most part, apart from the last 20 minutes or so which was uphill through dense heather, gorse and thistles. At least we didn't have to run through the field with the bulls that the leg 4 runners had to do !

In a way this race was a bit sad, as it was Helene Whitaker 's last race for our club - she's been out of Scotland for 8 years and in England for the last 5, so decided it was time to cut.

Back to Munro and Corbett bagging next week !

Pentland Skyline, 12 October

Starting practically from my back garden, this race is one of the best hill races on the Scottish Hill Runners calendar. This year it was also the last race in the inaugural SHR Long Series. With 16 miles and 6,200 feet over varing terrain, the 170 runners had their work cut out. I did the route in just under 2:55hr, a few seconds slower than last year, but not feeling anywhere as nackered at the finish. More info here. Photo courtesy of Anne and Ian Nimmo.

Manor Water Hillrace, 11 October

This was one of the first races I did, back in 2005, and I've not ran it since. My neighbour and her son were persuaded to come down, so as he could compete in the Junior race. As it turned out, no other junior appeared today. However Lachlan raced all the same, being sent of just after the rest of us to run to the first summit, passing many seasoned runners on the way - excellent for his first ever hillrace ! I managed to keep in the top 10, just ,and hopefully managed to save enough energy for the Pentland Skyline the next day. More photos are on the Carnethy HRC website.

Another Skyline recci, 9 October

Lucy wanted to checkout the route from Hare Hill to Black Hill on the Pentland Skyline hillrace. A bit of route-finding, but I think we've refined it to perfection. Now we just need some speed and endurance (which Lucy's got an abundance of). We'll find out on Sunday !

Glentress at Night, 8 October

A half moon, clear skies and windless conditions - perfect ! Jon and myself took just over 2 hours to go round the red route at Glentress in darkness. I borrowed some powerful Lupine lights for the likes of Spooky Wood, Magic Mushroom and the Matrix. My Petzl hillwalking headtorch cost me around £25, these Lupine lights sell for £250 - the difference is amazing. The moonlight above the forest at Spooky Wood climb was earie yet beautiful and worth all the effort.

Skye and Kintail, 5 October

With only a few munros to go to complete my 14th round, and with the fine forecast for today, I thought I'd get up to Skye and bag the remaining peaks on the Cuillin ridge. The route was to be from Sgurr Mhic Choinnich to Sgurr a'Mhadaidh as in the Cuillin South page , however Skye had other ideas. It was raining first thing, so there was no way I'd be heading up the In-Pinn in the wet, so I decided to aim up Blaven via the usual route instead. On the return to Broadford, I could see the Cuillin was still sulking in cloud - I had to give up on the idea of the In-Pinn & co and headed back towards Kintail and walked up Sgurr an Airgrid, an easy corbett instead.

Pentland Skyline recci, 4 October

The last race in the SHR Long Classics Series , the Pentland Skyline is looming, so I thought I'd better and get out and do a recci of the western side. The one bit of the route that I've never really managed to get a good line on is the route between Black Hill and Bells Hill, so I checked it out in very wet conditions. Still not decided ! The Pentland Skyline is on the 12th October and on the 11th October is the Manor Water Hillrace - the combined times of these two races go to the Manor Mouse trophy - which I retain from the last time these two races were run on the same weekend.

Glentress, 2 October

The start of the Glentress Duathlon is just a couple of months away, so time to get some practice on the mountain-bike. I headed down to Peebles and did the black route up to the mast. Horrible wet, cold and windy weather quickly pulled in, so I decided to cut it short and took the shortcut back to the Hub in the Forest .