The 10 zones on the Loanhead Ferret Run* are spread over a distance of around 2.40km and can easily produce times well under 10 minutes, even as low as 7.00 minutes. However, its located in Roslin and while that’s only 5 miles from home in Bonnyrigg, I wondered if there was anything similar locally. And there is, or rather, might possibly be.
The Dalkeith to Penicuik cycleway runs through Bonnyrigg and looks, if you factor in zones in the adjacent Hopefield estate, to have the right spread of zones to become another location for getting good times for taking 10 zones in under 10-minutes. Might even become the Bonnyrigg Ferret Run.
In comparison to the Loanhead Ferret Run, it’s around 2.60km long, some 200m longer. But does have the added benefit of some steep downhill sections, though any time gained might be lost to one main and one minor road crossing (though not an issue at silly o’clock) and a few kinks and twists in the route at junctions.
It’s interesting when you start looking into the details of taking 10 zones in under 10 minutes. The first thing is that the first zone does not count as the timer starts after you’ve taken the first zone. So, it’s really 9 zones in under 10 minutes.
Then there the bonuses you can have. The GPS bonus, that’s gained when you leave your GPS on between zones, reducing each take time by 5 seconds. There’s also the Region Lord bonus and you get that by holding the highest number of zones in a region. It can be any region not just your home region or are located at the time. This would also reduce your take time by 5 seconds and your turf man icon can wear a crown.
Rank is the next thing that affects your take time. This ranges from 30 seconds at rank 0 – Newbie to 18 seconds at rank 60 – Turfalicious. So, the higher your rank the less time it takes to take the zone. My rank at the moment, and for much of the foreseeable future due to requiring some 10,000,000 points for the next rank, is rank 58 – Turf God. This gives me a take time of 18.4 seconds. Deduct from that the 5-second GPS bonus and we get 13.4 seconds. Every little helps.
Now, keen to give the potential Bonnyrigg Ferret Run a try, I hope to get out around silly o’clock tonight and see if I can at least produce a sub-10-minute time. In theory, given the distance, my take time and the terrain, I would guestimate something between 8 and 9 minutes is likely. A time below my 7:45 for the Loanhead Ferret Run is theoretically possible but not all that probable. Fingers crossed. Wish me luck. Hope to try the run in the next few days.
I’ve been thinking about just what the actual benefit of an e-bike would be for something like a Ferret Run, regardless of where it takes place. During a Ferret Run you essentially sprint between two points, the zones. So, as you start pedalling from stationary, the electric motor would give you a welcome boost, which would certainly save you time.
However, once you reach the UK e-bike legal speed limit of 15.5 mph or 25 km/h, the motor stops providing assistance and cuts out, leaving you with pedal power alone. I’ve been trying to calculate just how much of a benefit this would be but getting no-where. Physics is not my strong point.
And to finish. I was turfing around Dalkeith Country Park this morning and encountered a fine excuse for not hearing, or possible simply ingoring, me ringing my wee bicycle bell. One lady said she thought it was her phone. Yea, right! The other lady, she thought it was a bird calling, a bell bird. Yes, could be a starling, which is a well-known mimic but I think not. However there’s actually the white bell bird, that holds the record for the loudest bird call ever recorded. Well, it must be bloody loud as they are found in the Brazilian Amazon. Back soon.
*Since the addition of another zone just after SkippingZone, the 10-zone run is now shorter than before. So, if you start your run at zone BilstonGlen and finish at zone GraffitiZone, you can save around 400m off the total distance. And that means faster times!
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