Coll Half Marathon: 20/08/11

To over compensate for me pansying out of Mull a few weeks before I decided to go back up North and revisit Coll for the second year in a row.

Trip over was a bit rough and its also an early start at 7 am from Oban ferry port

Having also spent the night in a hostel room in Oban with three drunk 20 year old Glaswegian lads( (I was quite jealous) I had not

 had much sleep so was feeling a little rough by the time id pitched my tent behind the local hall and prepared for the race

Now for anyone who was here last year they will know that this is race is...

BEER TENT AT THE FINISH IS THE BEST BIT 

1)      Not flat

2)      Even more Windy than Windy Millars Windmill

3)      Did I mention  its not flat

4)      To compensate for it not being flat and  being windy there are some nice sand dunes to also run through at mile 6-8 and also there is a nice gentleman at mile 9 who offers you whisky

Whether you decide to indulge in the whisky or not this is still one of the toughest half marathons out there when the wind is up and believe me it was fairly whistling through the buildings as wed lined up on the peer at the start of the race 

There was a much larger field this year, around 120 runners and there seemed to be a very high percentage of club vests than I recall seeing last time around

Having learned my lessons last year I had decided to take it bit steadier this time around and found myself in about tenth place after the first few miles.

Now as we raced out of the village in to the undulating and blustery conditions you could see the look of trepidation dawning on my fellow runners faces as to it not being a pleasant little jaunt around the Island

By mile 6 I had got into a good rhythm with Carl , a rather serious looking triathalete from the Yorkshire Dales. And we had managed to catch one or two runners between us as we pulled into the sand dunes. Carl decided to race ahead, but having learned my lesson last year I took my foot of the gas a bit as knew how tough the next few miles were. Although classed as a road race This part is more or less rough off road stuff and the relentless undulations of the course start to take its toll.

By mile 8 I released that Carl was tiring and decided to push on. I then caught and passed a few more runners who looked pretty shattered on the run in.

I had the fourth place runner in my sites as we ran into the village but ran out of road and time to catch him so had to settle for 5^th place ,and 1:31 which I was pleased with as was a few minutes quicker than last year .the organisers somehow managed though to find two ghost runners to place ahead of me even though I could see the fourth placed runner in the closing stretch a hundred empty yards ahead of me but ce la vie