Carnethy 5

Great day out at the 41st Carnethy 5 race, weather was fantastic with the sun shining on us at the start, a bit of a cold wind but no problem as we were able to shelter in the special THR windbreak !  Scones were sampled at the start with Ken's being declared a bit "dry", more honey next time maybe ! Ken and myself were interviewed by Mr Vipond for the Adventure show (due to go out in April) so maybe we will get a bit of publicity from that !

I had not done the race since 2004 so as I had not been doing a great deal of "hill running" in the last few years I knew it was not going to be easy, had a good battle with Paddy and Colin for most of the race with Paddy passing me on the descents and Colin on the ascents then I would pass Colin on the descents and Paddy on the ascents !!  managed to pull away from them both on the big last climb as it had taken me until then to get fully warmed up !  Had a good exciting plunge down the heather and sploonged through the bogs to finish in 1:21:01 which was only 49 secs slower than in 2004 so pleased with that.....

Ken managed to haul in his big brother and beat him to the line by 2 secs with Paddy coming in soon after, Kenny followed a wee bit later complaining that he had "started too fast " and Clare bringing up the rear in under 1:50.  Steven had a great time for his first hill race of 1:12:47 so all in all a good result  for THR....

Next Race:

Tinto Hill Race..... 13th November 2010.

Home of the Tinto Hill Runners, and broken bones. A race not to be missed.

Report to follow.

'Run of the Mill' Hill Race.

'Run of the Mill' Hill Race. 24th Oct 2010.

We very nearly missed this new race, organised by Chris Upson, and have to say sorry to everyone held up at the start. Many thanks to the marshals and Chris for holding the start for us. I was still doing my laces as everyone ran off. A very quick sprint was required to catch the back markers and Eve. Not a good start to an excellent race, next year I'm going to give myself at least 2hrs to get through to Alva.

The race route is an absolute cracker with a good warm up over a couple of km of track followed by a straight up onto the hill and a fairly steep climb. Fortunately, being the Ochils it levels out and become more gentle as height is gained. The only problem was the wind picked up instead the higher we got. The first checkpoint was manned by Cammy Scott, who was fully layer and with tent (he still looked damned cold).

The plod continued after seeing Cammy and the general cursing and swearing increased as the weather grew colder, there was snow up top. I vaguely remember seeing JD taking pictures at one point, Chris was also seen, however, he sickeningly jogged past me. I told him to trip Eve up when he saw her, by this point she was out of sight. Eve had been running with Alison West and we're a good 100m in front until the half way point. My effort to catch failed

My plod continued, as did the swearing. I've got to say it stepped up a level when I saw the track we'd to follow down the last hill.......there was a slight easing when I found a short cut at the hairpins, but was short lived as I fell on my backside when my baldy shoes gave up grip. A bum slide proceeded in the direction of some nasty jaggy rocks. I only just managed to regain my footing in time.


The rest of the race was fairly uneventful. Apparently I was awarded the grumpiest run of the day prize !

Great race though, and a big thanks to everyone involved.

Kelty Night Run.

Kelty night run trail on garmin

We had an excellent bit of night training last night over at Kelty forest, Fife around the mountain bike trails. It was a case of headtorches and knees up to avoid trees roots and rocks, that didn't stop either myself or Eve taking a header or near header, or ending calf deep in very muddy puddles. Sliding all over the place was definitely part of the amusement. All great fun and 8 1/2 km was run in the pitch black.

The nights are now fair drawing in and head torches are very much necessary for winter training, especially if your trail running. Myself, Gregor, Steve and Cammy are out regularly around the trails of Lanark during winter. If you fancy joining us, drop an email to the club address above.

Ken.

Tinto Hill Race 13th Nov 2010. Get your entry in quickly.

The Tinto Hill race takes place on the 13th November this year. Entry is only by on-line booking and places are limited, its half full as I type this and that's after only 1 day being open. The link is below for SI-Entries:

Tinto Hill Race Entries

Ben Venue Hill Race. Sunday 3rd 2010.

Ben Venue Hill Race 2010

This has got to rate as one of my favourite races of the year, to say I enjoyed it is an understatement ! I'd say it has the lines of classic, with virtually every type of terrain : tarmac - forestry path - walkers path - rough heather climb - rocky sections of assent and descent - dirty great peat bogs  and a good wet slide down again. Absolutely excellent. If you weren't there this year, you've got to do it next year.

My race started slowly whilst I tried my damnedest to get my watch running, the wet weather had gotten to it. Once it started I attempted to get the legs going and the lungs breathing, the last proper outing being the Devil's Beeftub, it took me probably the first 1/4 of the race to get going and well into the forest, possibly onto the hill.

The plod up the hill was the usual hands on knees, whilst chatting to another foolhardy type. Fortunately the rain had well and truly stopped by this point and the jacket was off. The chap very kindly offered a mouthfull of his Lucazade, which can only be described as rocket fuel, I got an instant hit from it which spurrred me on to the summit.

The summit route kind of follows a horseshoe before descending back to the forest and makes for some great running with nice rocky sections to test your footing. A big grin was spread across my face as we all strung out and made our way. The rocky part eventually turned to grass and heather, intersperced with large and sometimes deep peat bogs. Quite a few runners were seen to be very muddy at the finish ! Most of this part was following the fence which had ribbons tied at suitable intervals. There was a rough trail in places that meandered, however, I went for the straight follow the fence rule, until the check point and turning point for the main drop back to the forest.

The descent back down proved to be a blast and I overtook a couple of chaps by taking a different route. I suspect my pure hill running stance as apposed to their road running background helped, well it helped up to the point when they hared past me on the forest track. Anyway.... the descent was great and a near couple of bum slides  due to loss of footing proved amusing. It was just a shame it was all over to soon and the reaching  of the deer fence brought the rough running to trail status and a less interesting part.

The remainer of the race was following forest tracks back to the car park. It was good to see Dougal Ross walking off of the hill and even better to beat him, unfortunately he wasn't racing, but marshalling.....tzzzz. I must say "thanks" to the lovely female runner, who had retired due to a sore knee, who very kindly pushed me up a small hill section.....excellent !

My finish time was 1.54, in 74th place... not my best result, but probably about right for the distance and conditions. The cake and coffee tent was a welcome sight and once refreshed the normal post banter began. Brian Brennan was on usual form, while Johnny Weir told us tales of being flashed the night before in a Perth nightclub.

A big thanks to the organisers Bella Road Runners, and to the Mountain Rescue also. Great job in somewhat wet conditions.

I've appended the race report from the organiser below:

Report from race organiser Andy Birnie:

After last year's gale force winds, the weather gods were slightly kinder to the 95 runners at the Bella Ben Venue Hill Race today, with a torrential downpour on the start line and only 30mph winds on the ridge to contend with. But the weather did not stop some fast racing, with the lead changing hands many times between the top group before Matt Sullivan (Shettleston) and Peter Devenport (Bellahouston) used local knowledge for a good line on the final downhill on the open hillside from the ridge into Gleann Riabhach, and managed to pull away from the others. Matt held off Peter to win in a time of 1hour 10 mins for the 8 mile course, but if Peter had not been forced to stop and tie a shoe lace in the run-in, the finish could have been even tighter. Finishing close behind this pair were the Shettleston duo, Tom Owens and Jethro Lennox.

In the ladies' competition, Jacqui Higginbottom (Carnethy) used her speed (and long legs) on the steep trail section to overcome Shona Robertson of Westies, while Ellie Homewood, also of Westies finished in third.

In a tightly-fought male vet race, the eventual winner was Bruce Smith (Carnethy) from Will Manners (Strathearn) and Alan Gilkison (Westerlands). In the ladies vet competition Fabienne Thompson of Carnegie held off the Carnethy pair, Joanne Anderson and Joan Wilson. The team prizes were split to the east and west of the country, with Shettleston winning the men's (Matt Sullivan, Tom Owens, Jethro Lennox) and Carnethy winning the ladies' (Jacqui Higginbottom, Fiona McKinnon & Joanne Anderson).

Being a new race, not everyone took the optimum route today, and I'm sure everyone knows of places where they can shave off a few seconds in the big race next year, but spare a thought for the runner who took a very non-optimum route, and ended up at Kinlochard, resulting in a 12 mile taxi ride back to the finish!

Ben Venue is one of the SHR championship races in 2011, so with this being the first race over the full course, we are keen to learn from your experience, so please send any comments or suggestions for improvement to benvenueATbellahoustonroadrunners.co.uk

The race doubles as a fundraiser for the Lomond Mountain Rescue Team, so many thanks to all the runners, marshalls & helpers who helped raise £500 for team funds.

Hope to see you all next year!

Andy Birnie

Next race is Manor Water.

Devil's Beeftub Hill Race. 11 Sept 2010.

The Devil's Beeftub race is one of the steepest races that I've done. Its hands and feet almost from the start, followed by some very lumpy running thereafter and then a very steep descent down to the Tub's floor. All followed by sticking your feet in the handily placed burn to cool them down.

One of the good things about this race is the run in warm up from the farm registration. Although nothing prepares you for the initial climb. Anyway, Eve McCurrich and I headed down for this race on a sunny Saturday. It was Eve's 1st hill race and my 2nd time running the Beeftub. There was the usual pre-race banter and the usual faces were all there, including Tilly Smith who I'm always battling with for placings.

We were all promptly called to start and the shout was giving and the slog up the side of the valley began. There's not much like it for a start, if any ! I set into my usual grind and watched as Eve edged ahead, and we all worked our way to the top. Blessed relief was had at the top and then the very lumpy run round to the trig point started, via a very wet bog. Lots of rain in the proceeding days had left it calf deep. A quick descent followed to loosen the legs and the final climb was next. It was at this point Eve veered off in the wrong direction following another runner, a couple of shouts resolved that and she cut over and joined Tilly on the correct path. I meanwhile was following a good 100 yards behind counting down the distance to the downhill and the assistance of gravity and momentum ....!! That wasn't far away. On reaching the top, it was good to see Cammy Scott with camera in hand shouting "you're a bit slow today, Ken".

The descent began....! Dropping into the Beeftub is not for the weak of ankle, even though I did it with a cracked bone in mine last year, it does really test your footing and balance. Mine was not brilliant and the heals of my Mudclaws  are a bit baldy, a few bum sliding moments were had. My aim on the descent was to catch both Tilly and Eve. Tilly was over taken on the last section prior to the burn, but Eve was just a bit far ahead and giving it all not to be caught. 11 second separated us at the line..... you can go right off some people.

After a bout of hyper-ventilation and dipping of feet in the burn, not to mention the stragglers making it back, the prize giving began. Standing looking at the other runner, it dawned on me that quite possibly Eve had won the Ladies. Needles to say when the results were announced she was presented with a bottle of wine for her 1st place. Tinto's 2nd win of the year...... result. Well done, Eve.