Fox Trail 16k at Foxlake
My 2nd race of 2023 was a beautiful 16k taking in the sights of the John Muir Way and Belhaven Bay.
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| No medal for a finishing photo. |
Why Fox Trail 16k at Foxlake
I haven't been feeling very motivated to sign up to races this year. Especially after my regretful 5k race in January, I don't want to run a race unless I deem it worthy of my time and money.
To be honest, I wasn't sure this Fox Trail race met the criteria. At £26, it seemed expensive for the size of event and the fact that you didn't get any sort of bling or goody bag when you finish. Plus, I had to wake up at 5:30am to do it.
But the woodland and beach scenery just outside Dunbar seemed like a good enough reason to check it out.
It was on a Saturday, too, which meant there were early enough public transit times that could get me there for a 9am start.
The journey
I went to the race by bus. There was a bus stop right outside Foxlake, so taking the bus made more sense than the train.
It wasn't a quick journey, though. It was nearly 2 hours of traveling between 2 buses and walking to and from bus stops. Not ideal. But it wouldn't have been any shorter by train when you factor in getting to and from the train stations.
I did not like leaving so early, but it was a pretty stellar-looking moon when I got outside.
The picture doesn't do it justice. It was massive and bright.
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| The glowing orb far off in the middle is the moon. |
Foxlake
I had never been to Foxlake before. It's basically an outdoor adventure park.
As the name says, there's a lake in the middle of it where you can wakeboard or tube.
There's also a ropes course challenge.
It does look fun, but only if you went on one of the handful of days that Scotland has the optimal weather for it.
The race
A beautiful day and a short queue
I really lucked out with the weather for this race. It was mainly sunny with blue skies. Just really cold, though.
I kept my hat and coat on for as long as I could. The bus to Foxlake was not heated, so arriving, already freezing, to stand in the cold for a 40 minutes was brutal.
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| Posing with the start/finish line in the background. |
The only warm respite I had was in the very short toilet queue, which was indoors. There were 2 people in front of me and only 2 stalls. A racing rarity.
Wrist chip timer
This was my first race where the chip timer was on a wristband. I've had ankle chip timers and ones you tie to your shoe string before, but never this.
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| Chip on the wrist. |
I much prefer it to some of the muddy and gross ankle chip timers I've been handed previously.
Woodland trails
The race started on grass at Foxlake and quickly turned to trails in John Muir Country Park.
The trails were mainly around fields and then turned to gorgeous woodland.
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| From fields... |
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| ...to woodland. |
It felt like a much welcome escape from city living.
Beach running
Woodland then turned to beach, and I mean, proper beach running.
I finished the Scurry to the Sea run in 2021 on Musselburgh Beach, but that was such a tiny stretch of beach running.
This race had around 2 miles on sand (thankfully, firm sand!) and was the real highlight of the race.
Sun shining, waves crashing, running with (and not against) the wind. This was the scenery I signed up for.
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| Mandatory beach selfie. |
Pictures don't fully do it justice, so I recorded a short video too to take in the sounds of the waves.
The beach bit finished by having to run over the Bridge to Nowhere. I've walked across it before, but this was my first time running it.
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| The Bridge to Nowhere. |
The course then went along the John Muir Way, a walking path going all the way from Dunbar to the west of Scotland.
This involved a second bridge I wasn't expecting to cross over.
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| Second bridge. |
Beach running done, the course went back into trails, this time mainly along farmland.
Attacked by thorns
With such varied terrain, I was lucky to avoid slipping or tripping on things along the route.
I was doing so well until the last mile when I ran into a branch that ended up being a thorny one.
I wasn't expecting it to be thorny, and man, did it sting. It was thin but quite long and took a few seconds to get off me and move past.
I kept feeling the stinging sensation even on the bus back and noticed there were still thorns stuck in my leggings.
I'll spare you all a picture, but when I got home, I was shocked to see this stupid thorny branch did actually scrape me up quite a bit.
No hot drink for me
In the end, the route was just short of 16k (9.94 miles). My finishing time was 1:49:49, with 15.9k (9.89 miles) tracked.
I knew this race didn't have a medal or anything, but they did announce at the start you could collect a free tea or coffee from the on-site cafe after the race.
I don't drink either, but I am okay with herbal tea, so I asked if I could get herbal instead. The staff member said no. I'd have to pay for an herbal tea.
Whaaaaaaaaaat. I found this so ridiculous. I couldn't get a different type of tea bag put in hot water?!
No medal, no tea, no nothing. I ended up paying an eye-rolling £4.10 for a piece of halloumi on a roll because I was more hungry than anything else.
So, was this race worthy of my money? I'm going to have to say no.
But was it worthy of my time? As much as I resented waking up at 5:30, I'd say it was worth it to run stunning scenery on a stunning day.
Next race
As I said at the start, I'm not motivated to race at the moment. I have races in mind, but nothing planned.
We'll see which I eventually deem worthy.
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