From Tom Adams…
Photo credit: Scotland Skyline photographers
The Ring of Steall (UK final of the Golden Trail Series)
I travelled up to Kinlochleven on Friday and set up my tent in the pouring rain a couple of miles from the race start. On tonight’s menu was some chicken pesto pasta, a pretty boring meal, but nice and simple is best for me before a big race. I had a good night’s sleep despite the rain and I woke up to a reasonable morning. I wolfed down some overnight oats with banana and headed over to the Ice Factor where the race start was located.
The hour or so before a race is always a strange one with mixed emotions going through your head…why have I just travelled seven hours to run up and down some hills to then drive another seven hours home? Can I really compete against these top class athletes, some of which are half my age? Come on Tom, you’ve done well in similar events before, so let’s go and smash it. I chose to ignore the first couple of thoughts and got my race pack ready with all of the required kit and funnelled into the starting pen.
I felt quite at ease before the race, chatting to fellow runners and doing the odd leg rub to warm up the pistons. Before I knew it we were called up and we were bagpiped out by a piper with crutches.
The start was nice and relaxed and somewhat steadier than the previous races in the series and we soon started up the first climb. I was running side by side with Seb Batchelor, and we were soon pulling away from the field. I felt good, but Seb obviously felt a little better as he pulled away towards the first summit and he seemed to be just far enough ahead to be out of site. I had a good descent and a short road section and a wooded trail allowed me to catch up with first place once again. I felt good at this point, but I was thinking, why is he being so restrained? We crossed a river and started heading back up. This is where I got into a few issues. I thought we just had one last climb before a nice long descent into Kinlochleven. Again Seb pulled away on the climb and I started to go backwards (not literally). I pushed on thinking if I just get to the top, you’re on the homeward straight, but this wasn’t to be. I dragged myself to the summit and could see people on the summits of peaks in the distance. I asked a marshal if we were done with the climbs, but he said you’ve got one small and two big to go yet! This almost destroyed me mentally, but I’m not one to give in easily, so again I cracked on and on and on and then through myself down a hideous technical descent and back into Kinlochleven.
I crossed the line nineteen minutes behind Seb, but I was in one piece and had a smile on my face. I knew that I had won the series and even though it would’ve been nice to win, I knew that I had completely underestimated how technical and taxing 2700m of ascent over 28km would be. Winning the series means that I now get to go to the Azores at the end of October to race at the grand final of the Golden Trail Series against the best of the best from all over the world.