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.
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