Knockargety night race

The 2nd Deeside night race at Knockargety, Tarland and I was keen to podium in my category at least and maybe even get an overall place as no Dan Whitehead to be seen! 

However, Peter Hendry and Stuart Pringle were both running and I didn't see Calum Dempster at the start so i thought it could be on! Stuart had raced the day before at the Lochaber winter series so I thought he'd be tired and I might get the better of him as I've been going well recently on shorter courses.

It was a cold night, perfect for a race! 

This is a flat trail race through woods, single track, landy track, road, felled tree stumps, heather, grass etc etc. Very fast running and care needs to be taken as several of us found out, Stuart receiving 3 injuries! We both rolled an ankle each in the first couple of kms on tree routes but not bad enough to stop.. 

So from the start Peter, Stuart and myself sped off waaaay too fast but it was enough to build a gap for a while with everyone else behind. Then the inevitable happened at this pace.. I could hear somebody behind me and I had no idea who it was. I certainly wasn't going to look. The footsteps followed for a while until finally overtaking me and it turned out to be young Calum Dempster again who beat me by 1 second at Cnoc Dubh when he took 3rd overall putting me in 4th two weeks before. Calum was on top form and disappeared quite quickly in front.

Peter had a good lead on Stuart who was slowing by now with his race the day before starting to take its toll. I had now caught up with Stuart but he was still pushing on so I decided to hang back with him as there was nobody that close behind us and I knew if I overtook I would speed up but only for a short time. It was great and we had a wee chat here and there and pushed each other on.

Then Stuart had some bad luck, he hit his head ducking under a fence which alerted me to the hazard so I missed it, then not long after he ran straight into a felled tree stump giving him a nasty gash on his thigh! Ouch!! He was now hobbling in front and with a head torch getting closer to us from behind, somebody else was catching us so I passed Stuart and put in a wee push and got a bit of a lead on him. I kept it up until we got back to the carpark at Tarland Trails and Stuart had managed to gain on me and caught me and passed me! The hardy bugger was on fire! I stayed on his heels though down the road towards the finish and found a last spurt of power and just managed to pip him by 1 second!!!! 

I finished 3rd overall and 1st V40 with Stuart 4th and 2nd V40. It turned out Calum had caught Peter and won with Peter runner up. 

The post race was at the local cafe in Tarland where I caught up some folk and shot the shit. Prizes were veggies so i got a bag of tatties and a Lindt chocolate rabbit! Yaldie!

Brilliant race and another great battle with Stuart. 

Dess Woods next 17th Jan. Ooooosh!

Tattie and chocolate prizes.