Lauderdale athletes brave the chills for Burns event

The training and guidance is proving to be very popular with the Lauder locals.

The Feel the Burns event on Sunday started being calm, with clear, red skies.

And, with an indicated -3 degrees showing on the temperature gauge, a heavy white frost covering was evident.

This ensured the running conditions for the Feel the Burns course would be ‘firm’ underfoot. However, as the temperatures increased, so did the mud.

The Feel the Burns runners gathered at the Selkirk Rugby Club to register for the noon start at the nearby Corby Lynne field.

The run is an early season hill event that includes Peat Law, the Three Brethren, Brown Knowe and Foulshiel Hill.

The route was 21.4km through a combination of forest roads/ farm tracks and paths/ rough hill tracks, with a climb of over 800m.

The record holders for the event are Jonathan Crickmore (2019) in 1:27:52 and Scout Adkin (2014) in 1:43:30.

With a Burns Supper theme, the exhausted runners were welcomed home with prize giving and a well-deserved hot meal served at the Selkirk Rugby Club.

With over 310 entries, Lauderdale Limpers were well represented with over 20 runners – injuries and illness having stricken a few attendees at the last hour.

First Limper home was Marc Wilkinson (vest 305) in 10th position, in 1:42:43. First female Limper was Cloe Summerfield in a very respectable 2:09:00. Mark Sutherland led home the family affair, with father (Limpers coach) and daughter following shortly behind.

The event – won by Andrew Douglas (unattached) 1:25:03 – was well organised and marshalled, with the profits from the day going to the Tweed Mountain Rescue team, which was present for the occasion. All finishers should be very proud at having competed in a very arduous event.