This was the second year of doing the Drumlanrig though this year it had been upped from 82 to 104miles. It was also going to be my first 100 miler of the year.

I was also doing this one with Roy and Mark, and this was to be Marks first ever 100!

The route is split into 2 parts; the first of 64miles and the second of 40miles. The split is back at the start/finish area of Drumlanrig castle where you get your feed stop.

The morning route was a continual up and down section. Right near the beginning is a short steep 25% section. I remembered this from last year when it was a tough part of the afternoon section. This year the loops had also been reversed. As it turned out with plenty of energy in the legs it was not too bad.

As I got to about 30km I started feeling I had sore muscles and slight twinges in my calf. I couldn’t quite believe it and kept checking my Computer for the distance gone and amount climbed. It wasn’t much. I got a gel in and drank a load of fluid and kept going. Fortunately the sensations passed. I guess a busy week of work combined with crap sleep had been having an effect.

The rest of the morning was going well with a great long descent coming down on the new extended section of the course. Unfortunately at this point Roy also had a puncture.

The rest of the morning was fairly uneventful.

The afternoon is a completely different loop. After a short climb out of Drumalnrig it is the 10km climb of Mennock Pass. It is then a long flat before a final long decsent of the Dalveen Pass. It potentially could be a fast loop.

Unfortunately as we headed out again Roy had a puncture (it turned out later there had been a split in the sidewall. It had worked with the new inner tube at a hand pump pressure but had obviously come through again when the track pump had been used over lunch and pinched flat)

Mennock Pass was straight into a head wind and rain. Fortunately having done hill repeats there recently I was confident and overtook a lot of people on the way up.

Mark and Roy arrived shortly afterwards and we began the fun part of the day. The fast straight and descent to the finish.

My final time was 7hrs7mins, missing a silver level by 7 minutes. With 2 punctures though it was no big disaster. My fitness and hill climbing had felt better than last year so a good day out.