Border Nights 400 - 21st September

I woke up from a fairly rubbish sleep and not exactly raring to go; it took me ages to get out of bed and sort myself out, I had planned to get the 0722 train with the 0750 as back up even thought the 0840 would get me to Edinburgh on time. I set off for the station at 8, I felt good and was riding well so put the morning fug down to being an anxious Owl and the needless early alarm.

This is a local shop for...

The trains down to Carlisle went well and when I got there the train to Brampton that I was timetabled to miss by 5 minutes was sitting waiting along with the one before it.  A signalling issue had made a mess of things and to make things worse for Network Rail the line was being used to get round a closure on the east coast line between Morpeth and Dunbar.

Hallbank Gate "local" shop, worth the stop even if not scheduled; Café open until 2

I hopped on and we set of 35mins late, the announcements weren't working on the train until after Weatherall where it told me the next stop was Haltwhistle rather than Brampton... Slightly concerning but the National Rail app still had us booked to stop at Brampton so put it down to user error.

Riders ready

It was a warm day and I was kitted out for night riding so was a bit too warm as I rode up the hill to Hallbankgate from Brampton Station which is in the woods about a mile from town.  I rolled into the shop with over 2 hours to wait for the start.  I first became aware of this shop on the Borderlands Explorer 600 in 2018 when I saw the "Local Shop" sign, though I didn't stop.  I finally stopped here on the Alston and Back 300 in 2019 and was pleasantly surprised at what was on offer in the small community Co-Op so knew I'd be able to get a reasonable lunch, which I did in the form of the day's special a Chicken Wrap.

Andy arrived and the woman on the counter told him I'd been there for hours (I had!), he got set up then handed me my card, other riders soon arrived some caught up in the train issues others had arrived by a more reliable form of transport. Andy said he had 25 entries but was down to 17 riders at this point and expected a few others to DNS.  As we gathered to start he gave us a warning about the level crossing at Milton which I know well and about the road down to Dumfries from Monaive which I don't.

Down from Brampton

When 3 O'Clock came I shot off along the gravel path to the road and then set off down the hill rather hot, the tail wind and gravity combining to push me along, a rider passed me on the way into the level crossing having obviously not understood the warning and nearly crashed into the side of a car when the off camber left hander the crossing drops you onto came on him. As I descended my eyes and nose started to stream, I put it down to accidentally taking too much nosal spray for my Rhinitis, it's not hayfever season after all is it?

Down from Brampton

Some of the riders behind caught us at the Brampton bypass but I was back up to speed on the descent through town and held my place up the hill out; as the road to Longtown levelled off my speed dropped majorly and everyone else sailed by.  As he passed Dave suggested I grab his wheel so I tried to hang on.  Another rider passed us in town telling us his chain had snapped, I suggested if he needed it there was a shop just over the bridge, though a chain a couple of links short should be fine.

Lockerbie

Dave dropped me on the road to Gretna and I started to feel a struggle on the short sharp bank into Springfield; though I kept a good pace up the hill to Lockerbie where Dave and another two riders were stopped in the petrol station eating.  I decided to bounce the control grabbing some basic food as I reckoned I'd eaten enough to get to Gala.

Out of Lockerbie I was on a new road to Boreland and on to Eskdalemuir; I started to feel the struggle more and found myself out of the saddle a lot more than I should be; but it's a good rolling road and my average was still showing ok.
The other two riders passed me and then Dave did too, by now I knew something wasn't right and started to wonder if I'd made the wrong decision in the morning.
Down to Eskdalemuir and I was feeling ok again, it felt strange riding right past the community bistro where all of the Gala rides stop.

Samye Ling

The hill up was ok and I was over and onto the descent comfortably, but then on the descent as darkness fell I was feeling wrong again and getting sleepy and worse coughing too, I was pedalling down hill into a breeze but was on and off the saddle to do so, and my legs ached, not the usual exercise leg ache but a "you've got a cold or flu" ache.

Down at Bowhill I knew I was back on the flat and I felt better again and forced myself to stay in the saddle as much as I could to Gala, when I got to McDonalds Robbie was just leaving and Dave and the other two were sitting eating.  I ordered and decided I'd make a decision once I'd eaten, but as I stood waiting for my tea my legs started turning jelly like.

I checked the train times and found out that the last train that would let me get home that night was in 20 minutes.  I asked the server for a bag and told the other guys that I was going home and set off for the late night party trains to Fife.

On the party train to Edinburgh