Broughton is a small village in the Scottish Borders on the A701 Edinburgh to Moffat road. Most travellers speed past on their way North or South. Lovers of the outdoors, appreciate the surrounding hills and will visit to hike, run or bike. The 2022 staging of the FRA relays for 2022 were held in Broughton.

The only reason i have ever gone there is to run or hike on the wonderful surrounding hills. It is the venue for the New Year Broughton dash, a short sharp up and down hill race . The village is also the finish of the Two Breweries Breweries race, a longer eighteen mile race through the borders from the village of Traquhair near Innerleithen.

In 2022 the FRA relays were held in these hills.

Courses for the 2022 FRA relays

The border hills may lack the grandeur of The Lakes or the Highlands, but are still underrated. Their many official and unofficial paths and tracks can beguile you into a false sense of security and the offer of an easy enjoyable day out. It is true many of there trails and paths are totally runnable but for those of you with that wicked sense of adventure or often misadventure they can pack a punch with impressively steep climbs. Added to that, although lacking the challenge of moving at speed over the rough scree covered tops and slopes, that can be more than matched by an abundance of bog trotting and heather bashing making for exhilarating and challenging terrain in equal measure .

182 teams of 6 were entered

182 teams of 6 from all over the Uk this year enjoyed themselves. The traditional format is 4 legs.

Leg 1 is a solo marked leg of approximately 8km in length. Leg 2 is run in pairs over 12 km. Leg 3 is also run in Pairs but is a navigation leg with map and checkpoints only notified at the start of the leg. Leg 4 is another different shorter 8km leg run solo.

The location of the FRA relays moves around

The event does not have a fixed venue but rotates around the UK between venues as diverse as Snowdonia, the Lakes or the Howgills. In Scotland, the geography of travel dictates that to attract a healthy entry form England it is usually held in the Central Belt with the Ochils, Loch Lomond at Luss and the Falkland Hills in Fife being recent Scottish venues.

This years host club,Edinburgh based Carnethy, opted for the Scottish Borders at Broughton. While Edinburgh runners know the area well, maps were no doubt perused for many hours by potential visitors to familiarise themselves with the local contour. Local hill names like Trahenna, Clover Law, Brown Dod ,Pike Stane Hill and Hammerhead were no doubt talked about at club training sessions in the lead up to the event,

Volunteers make it happen

Over 100 volunteers ensure the event runs smoothly. The vital Checkpoint and hill top Marshalls, general event stewarding, First aid from Moffat Mountain Rescue Car park control .Registration, start and finish control ,results, commentary and refreshment tent. Not forgetting the all important set up and take down crews.

I found myself working with my old friend John Duncan in the refreshment tent. John organises the popular Highland Fling 53 mile ultra. His expertise and experience along with his equipment store were being utilised by the relay organisers this year. It was a fun day as well as a long day, arriving before sunrise at 7 am and leaving after the take down of the main marquee in the evening twilight over 12 hours later. It is what many of us do with our weekends!

The sense of belonging and community, at such a well established and well supported event was apparent all day. Whether that was helping, running or spectating. It is one of the genuine grass roots events, organised over the years, in the main, by the clubs and for the clubs. Current internationals like Chris Richards, Scout Adkin and others compete for team or individual medals while rubbing shoulders with mere mortals of all ages challenging them selves in their own way, and having a fun day out in the process.

Judging by all the positive comments in the “echo chambers” of social media, the venue proved a popular one. A few more visitors will hopefully be tempted back to explore more of these expansive open spaces that make up the Border Hills.

For the Stat geeks the full 2022 results from SI entries are HERE

You can find a post race report from Carnethy HERE

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