Walking in Yorkshire

24 & 25 November 2007


A weekend in Hawes with the Glenmore Club. Great Shunner Fell in the wind and rain on Sat with Gill and Arthur; and a nicer day on Sun for Dodd Fell with Gill, Arthur, Sue, Gordon and Francis.

Photos

Cycling Holiday in Cuba

I had a fantastic two weeks in Cuba, covering about 400 miles in 10 days and enjoyed a catamaran trip and some snorkelling on one of the days off, and ended with a tour round Havana.

Photos

Meall a'Bhuachaille Hill Race

17 November 2007
10KM 610 metres

My umpteenth bash at this end of season race. I felt surprisingly good after my two week cycling holiday in Cuba. I was still in the top half of the field with my 67 min 04 sec, and was even half a minute quicker than when I last ran it in 2005. The end of season prizegiving and disco was held later that night and was great fun.

Results
Westies reports

National Cross Country Relays

Cumbernauld, 27 October 2007




Results
Photos

A nice wee blast round the grounds of Cumbernauld House. Central A.C. won, Inverclyde 2nd and my old club Shettleston Harriers were 3rd. Westies two teams were pushing them all the way.

WESTIES A TEAM
Steffen Gorgas - 17:05
Don Reid - 16:34
Scott McKendrick - 16:04
Johnston Orr - 17:29

WESTIES B TEAM
John Donnelly - 17:16
Dave Calder - 16:39
Ian Struthers - 21:16

WESTIES LADIES TEAM
Val Houston – 17:31
Jane Robertson – 19:29
Muffy Calder – 20:24

Westies New Lanark Trail Run, 21 October 2007

One of my all-time favourite runs. From Crossford in the Clyde Valley, up through Kirkfieldbank, round the New Lanark loop and back down. Managed to just about keep up with Steffen and Nigel for 2 hrs of the 2hrs 10mins. Rounded off, as the best runs always are, by a tea shop at the end. A great way to spend a Sunday.

Photos

Dunbartonshire Cross Country Relays

Saturday 20 October 2007

DAVE'S REPORT=In the end we had a good turnout of 9 men and 3 women racing at Garscube on a fine Autumnal afternoon. Don, Steffen, Nigel & David R made up the men's 1st team, finishing about 6th overall, with Hamilton, JD, Simon and Paulo making up the second team. Rob ran the 1st stage for our third team! Val H, Muffy and Pauline came 6th in the women's race. Over and above that we had a good turnout of marshalls, with Drew, Margaret, Isabel, Laura, Pat, Christine and Myra all doing their bit for club and county! I'll leave it to the runners to provide commentary on the race itself, as it all went by in a blur to me. In particular we want to know how Don managed to run into a tree?
MINE= It was a great day out Dave, well done to you and all your helpers, it was a good day out, especially the tea and sticky buns at the end. As for my run I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, with the legs feeling not too bad for a change. Lovely varied course, parkland, woodland and riverland - excellent, and great underfoot too. Got caught out a bit though by the finish arriving sooner than I expected and might have squeezed a few more seconds off my time.



Photos

Perthshire Cycling

Sunday 14 October 2007

A fantastic 56 mile cycle round Perthshire. Starting from Dunkeld heading out on back roads to Dalguise, Kinnaird, Logierait, Pitlochry, Linn of Tummel, South Loch Tummel, Tummel Bridge, Glengoulandie, Keltneyburn, Weem, Strathtay, Balnaguard and back down to Dunkeld. perfectly rounded off with tea and a cheese and mushroom pie. Scotland at it's best .

Photos

Manor Water Hill Race

Saturday 13 October 2007
10 miles 2200 feet

Results
Westies photos
Ian Nimmo's Photos


What more could a boy need - a hill race in the fab Scots countryside, Scotland winning at the football and even England winning at the rugby! Well, I could have done with feeling less than dead on the climb up to The Scrape.Never mind, as soon as we turned at the top and out of the headwind I perked up and sped away from that young scoundrel Triger, and tried to regain some of the many places I had lost on the dreadful climb. With Simon pushing me on and trying to catch Keith Burns ahead I really enjoyed the descent, though not enough to get anywhere near Ellie who was far far away. Even further away were David and Chris pushing each other on to the giddy heights of 3rd and 4th place. A great wee race, combined with the local sheepdog trials. Every runner got a free bottle of Greenmantle Ale courtesy of Broughton Ales and David even won a bottle of Port in the raffle. I eventually finished 43rd of 77 runners.

Pentlands Skyline Hill Race

17 miles/1885 metres
SCOTT'S REPORT =thought i would get this one in early before chris got wind of the results. the race officials recorded me as finishing in 76th place over 1 hour fifteen minutes behind the winner, but this paints a picture of an ill prepared runner, low on fitness, not fit to wear the covetted sunflower yellow 'w' vest, which i may add caused a few problems on such a scalding day, with a burning 'w' etched into my back on the 2 hour home straight. I entered this race on the back of some serious training/preparation, having spent 2 hours the previous night folding my inkjet printed map to fit into my small sandwich bag and so appointed myself as the unofficial pentlands team manager. my plan/goal was to secure our 3 man/ 1 woman team of chris, 8th/2:49 ellen 29th/ 3:11, JD 57th/3:32 and myself top 100/sub 4 hours into the spot prizes. unfortunately my pre race plan to run the race hand in hand went out the window as chris somehow managed to make 4 minutes on me in the first 2 minutes before i could relay my plan. after i allowed ellen to pass me at speed, before i could suggest the hand in hand bit, on the climb to turnhouse and monitored her progress into the distance i comfortably set into my shuffle walk inviting most of the runners to reel me in and pass me... but where was JD! fuelled by the free portions of dried fruit, by black hill he was on his 2nd or 3rd wind and it was here we ran together for a few seconds, again not hand in hand before i decided he was ready to kick on and so i eased off the pace/ slowed my walk down further and gifted him 13 minutes or so. all i had to do now was finish the race to be in with a chance of the spot prizes. this was easier said than done as by now my burning 'w' was causing me major discomfort and with no first aiders in sight, i found myself slipping even further down the pack and right out the prizes. well done to chris and ellen for a fine run and thanks to JD for not laughing aloud at my feeble descending. maybe the mcandrews next year...

As for me = Scott's race seemed to mirror my own, unlike the Golden Couple's great race - well done you two. Chris only 2 minutes off his PB and Ellie with a great debut. I had a shockingly bad first half, with my legs absolutely dead on the climbs and only negative thoughts in my head, mainly focusing on dropping out as I simply couldn't envisage completing. I managed to convince my poor wee legs and head to stutter on to half way, with the promise that at least it was a lovely warm sunny day for a nice slow walk, if nothing else. Fortunately I perked up during the second half and reeled in a dozen or so runners, including poor Scott. At the finish I was actually really chuffed to just get round, even though it was my slowest time in 13 attempts, and I even managed to keep in the top half of the field. A grand day out.

Results

Mountain Bike Orienteering on Arran

Alan's report of our mountain bike orienteering race on Arran =
JD & I teamed up to compete in this 3hr mountain-biking & orienteering competition in Arran. The start/finish was at Auchrannie. The course stretched from the lower slopes of Goatfell in the north to the forest at Whiting Bay in the south and west.
We headed out of Brodick into the Clauchland Hills to pick up 3 controls. The going was quite hard and we seemed to spend more time pushing our bikes than riding them. Crossing the Brodick-Lamlash road, we picked up our speed and collected a few higher value controls. Annoyingly, we missed a wee 10-pointer which would cost us later. Back through Brodick, we headed up the String Road before screaming back down and into Glen Rosa for 2 final controls. We had to hammer back to finish within the 3hr time limit. We made it with 4mins to spare. Once the points were totalled up, we were 2nd team, 9 points behind the winners. Remember the wee 10-pointer.....
A brilliant day out with great views over Brodick and Holy Isle. Highly recommended.

Glasgow Hash Day Out to Isle of Cumbrae

Glasgow Hash House Harriers' annual "Not the Isle of Arran" Away Day. A cracking 1 hour 40 minute run round trails and country roads, followed by lunch and beers in Millport.

Photos

September Holiday Weekend

Headed up north on Friday morning and did The Fara (a Corbett), overlooking Loch Ericht near Dalwhinnie. On Saturday ran the Morven Hill Race on Deeside to complete my required 4 races in the Hillrunning Championship for 2007. I ran 59min 52sec and came 50th of 100 runners. After the race I bagged Carn Ealasaid (another Corbett) from the Lecht ski area on the way back - starting at almost 600 metres it only took an hour there and back.. On Sunday did Creag Mhor (yet another Corbett) and the Munro Bynack Mor - 4 hours, windy on top but bright and amazing granite tors. Popped in to see fellow hillrunner Alan Smith who owns the Cairngorm Reindeer.

Photos
Morven Race Results

Merrick Hill Race

A great not-so-wee race in a rough but beautiful area of the country that we rarely visit. It had been many years since I had been down here, 10 years ago for the KIMM when, with George Reid, I reached the dizzy heights of 7th in the B Class, earning £20 for hours of trudging round tough wet terrain. Well this year it was still tough and wet and I reached the not-so-dizzy heights of 37th of 84 runners, costing me £4 and gaining juice, raisins and a Mars Bar. And, of course, 1hr and 50mins, worth of effort. At the foot of the first climb I was jostling with Nigel and Murdo for a few seconds, before being passed by many others as we all sorted out our places on the steep, muddy and heathery ascent. Things eased off after a bit, but the terrain was still rough underfoot at first before getting a bit more runnable near the top. The clag made you concentrate on the flags, and the following wind helped up to the turnaround at the 843 meter summit. The initial descent was nice and grassy, though cold and breezy into the wind. I caught Brian Howie of Carnethy soon, but my old rival Dave Duncan of Ochils shot past me and while I held the gap for a while I just had to watch him head off. The terrain down near Buchan Hill was dire - boggy, heathery,full of holes - and up on the ridge it only got slightly better. There was a trod, but it was again full of holes, mud and generally hard work towards the end of a race. I could see Dave D in the distance closing in one one of his V50 rivals, but our own wonder V50 Murdo was well ahead. I had a good race in with a few other runners, even managing a few somersaults on the last descent right in front of Roger Boswell, who promptly told me off. The course had a proper old sting in the tail - 2 or 3 mins steep uphill to the finish, turning those legs that had been descending so well only seconds ago into mush as I scraped my way up. A grand day out and we even found a Forestry Commission tea shop nearby for some tea and scones, excellent!

6 Nigel Scott MS 01:31:08
16 David Riach M40 01:36:25
19 Luke Arnott MS 01:41:22
29 Murdo Macleod M50 01:46:25
37 John Donnelly M40 01:50:26
49 Hamilton Semple M50 01:58:41
59 Brian Brennan M50 02:03:01
62 Peter Baxter M50 02:05:07
70 Elspeth Scott F40 02:10:49
82 Pauline McAdam F50 02:36:47

Full results here

Straw-baling at Damon's New House

A different, but enjoyable, weekend down at Damon Rodwell's housebuild near Kelso, stufing lots of straw bales into the walls for insulation.

Saturday

Sunday

Julian Alps Holiday

A great week in the Julian Alps of Slovenia with some friends from Carnethy Hillrunners, including climbing the highest peak - TRIGLAV 2684 metres high.

Lots of great photos here

Westies Kilpatricks Run

A great warm sunny evening for one of our regular routes, scene of the Kilpatricks Race in June. This time we went round anti-clockwise. Up to The Slacks first, down to and round Greenside Reservoir, up to Duncolm, down to Loch Humphrey, and then down the landrover track. A top(less) night!

Photos

Lomonds of Fife Hill Race

The new improved Lomonds of Fife route attracted a good turnout of Scotland’s and Westies’ finest hillrunners for the 3rd championship race of 2007. Courtesy of the Miller-mobile I was chauffeured to the village of Strathmiglo, at the foot of West Lomond. At the start it was straight uphill to West Lomond, a runnable section through the fields to begin with, then a backache-inducing steep walk up to the summit. I wasn’t feeling too great at this point, but that wasn’t unusual for me early on. Turning at the summit for the steep descent down to the checkpoint I spied Murdo and Steffen zooming away in front of me, and had a slipping sliding contour down across to the woods. The runnable forest tracks were a bit of a slog, but I was feeling OK, helped by Ellie catching me up and forcing me to up the pace on the narrow trod to the monument. It was a slow plod up but when we reached the monument I managed to pull away slightly from Ellie and chase Tommy Begley of Irvine A.C. I passed him but Tom Bowie of Fife A.C. also caught me up and together we headed for Stevie Bell just ahead. Crossing the road at Craigmead I passed Stevie and we were in turn passed by the leader who had already been up East Lomond and back! On up to the summit and back with big gaps ahead, but trying to raise my pace a little. I reeled in a couple of runners on the way to West Lomond, just spying Dave Duncan and a wee group ahead of me near the top. I donned the Manny-inspired waterproof cut-offs for the mad descent down the green wall, though they did not fully prevent some sore grass burns on my backside – some modifications still needed to the design. The bum-sliding technique definitely worked as I power-slipped my way past a Boggie, but not quite quick enough to catch the group ahead. I finished in a shade over 2 hours, just failing to beat my pre-race target of improving 7 seconds on last year to break the 2 hour mark, but still there’s always next year. Chris led the Westies men home, I think, and Ellie had a great run to lead the women home and finish just a few minutes behind me as 3rd lady. In between and roundabouts were Nigel, Manny, Steffen, Murdo, Stevie Bell, Brian Brennan, Cat, Elsie, Jason, Pauline.

13 Chris Upson Westies M40 01:39:49
14 Nigel Scott Westies MS 01:40:11
15 Manny Gorman Westies MS 01:41:50
38 Steffen Gorgas Westies MS 01:54:02
42 Murdo McLeod Westies M50 01:57:06
54 John Donnelly Westies M40 02:01:09
58 Ellen Homewood Westies FS 02:04:45
59 Stephen Bell Westies M40 02:04:57
76 Catriona Miller Westies FS 02:11:28
89 Brian Brennan Westies M50 02:17:44
98 Jason Kaushal Westies M40 02:24:18
101 Elspeth Scott Westies F40 02:28:05
124 Pauline McAdam Westies F50 02:54:25

Full Results
Full Photos

Red Moss Hill Race

I really enjoyed this new trail race organised by HBT. I had a great tussle with Dave Duncan all the way round, each of us having a few goes at the front, till I thought he had beaten me as he sped away across the top of the reservoir with about a mile to go. I dug in though and hauled him and a few others in somehow, and staggered over the line, knowing that I had given it my all. After there was soup and good beer.
I finished in 43m 59s,40th of 80 starters.

Results

Some Westies reports =

JOHNSTON-This was the first-ever running of this race, and the last in the 10-race Bog and Burn series. There was a good turnout, dominated by HBT, but with a decent presence from the Westies too. The 19:15 start helped those of us who were stuck in horrendous rush-hour traffic at the Glasgow end of the M8.

The race started with a section of tarmac, gently downhill at first then more sharply up to the house at the top of the drive, before heading out onto the track over the moor. I decided to give it some welly out of the start, reasoning that I should run well on the bits I could, even if it was just downhill tarmac! As ever, Manny and Chris disappeared towards the horizon pretty soon after the kick-off. I maintained a higher-than-usual position as we gradually gained altitude across the moor, although I was wheezing and grunting like a pervert who's late for a meet at the strip club by the time JD passed me just before the gate to Hare Hill.

The ascent to Hare Hill was also runnable, and another Westie (didn't notice who!) passed me here. I went over the summit at the same time as Megan Mowbray from HBT, so I figured I was still doing well by my standards here. The downhill took us through some rougher stuff, with paths and trods petering out into heather and bog. As the heather got higher, I tried bounding through it, which was tiring, then I tried mincing through it, but failed to get in touch with my feminine side, so ended up walking out of it, gubbed and defeated. Sad when you can run the uphill bit but need to walk down! Both male and female Westies passed me here, but as I'm the new guy here, you'll need to fill in the names yourself.

I was glad I wore my hill shoes for the steep muddy descent to the bog before Black Hill, as it was a real "tea-tray for yir erse" job. I heard the guy behind me fall a few times. After a short but steep climb onto the Black Hill track, it was a long fast downhill trail run to stretch the legs, then a left turn across the end of the reservoir. Or not. Y'see, I went straight on...only to be shouted back by the Carnethy guy who had been following me. Cheers mate! I managed to regroup after a couple of minutes on the homeward trail (and it was a long run back, or so it seemed), and re-took Carnethy Bloke in the wee section through the trees. Quite rewarding when you can find the extra strength. I had another flirtation with navigational disaster when I almost went through the wrong gate, but thought better of it. I have a feeling an AL race in the mist might not be ideal for me. Who says these routes are obvious?

As I got to the finish, Chris was already looking relaxed and taking photos of later finishers, and Manny reckoned he might have been in the top 10 home. Well done to all Westies who ran. Good sprint finish by Donald! I reckon I took about 46:30, in what might turn out to be one of my better hill runs.

I thoroughly enjoyed this course, being of the more runnable variety, and having all sorts of terrain. Sadly I didn't make the pub afterwards. I had donated a lot of blood to the midges, so I made a bolt for home.

MANNY-Will somebody get Johnston a vest!
Running incogni, incognet....disguise, is not on you know - we need to have targets to aim at during races and a white t shirt doesn't count!
I only had to win this race to take the Bog & Burn series title and spent the week working out the million & one variations of what would happen if Dan Gay & Steve Fallon were to beat me, not turn up, finish in different positions etc, but on the start line the assembled field looked more like a race for top prize of a life time supply of beer, and therefore it didn't really matter - John Stevenson's lead in the series was secured, because we were all about to get humped by an outrageously good field and thus fail to improve on our points position.
I set off rather mischieviously at full pelt, just so I could be 1st for 400m, then exploded in a fireball on the first and only steep climb up the tarmac road to the open hill. My nonesense cost me good bit of time, and I took to the top of Hare Hill to recover and start reeling in Dan Gay, Chris, Elke Schmit etc, but once I got going again I ran well, even along the purgatorial long, flat, reservoir side track to the finish, where my calf went TWANG with just 200m to go, forcing me to give a place to a Lothian runner, which I believe cost me 3rd place in the B&B overall.
Ho Hum
The rest of the good turn out of Westies were not far behind, with Val H coming home to claim 3rd (&1st V40) in the series, and Donald 2nd V50!!
Soup & beer in the pub before the prize giving, then the long, long drive home!


CHRIS-Indeed - the top turnout of runners blew Manny's plans of Bog and Burn victory out of the water - despite his spirited charge for glory at the start.
Manny did well to finish 10th behind Donald Naylor, Al Anthony, Kenny Richmond, Graeme Campbell, Ian Wellock, Al Hart, Duncan Coomb, Adam Ward and Ross Milne.

A good fast runnable course apart from the section of knee-deep heather on Hare Hill, and the hideously slippy mudbank down to the swamp before Black Hill. This is where I dropped places to Manny, Des Crowe, Jamie Thin and Jamie Stevenson.

Full Bog and Burn results will be compiled later, but well done to ValH on 3rd female in the series after Angela Mudge and Elke Schmidt, and to Donald for getting 2nd V60!

Beinn Mholach

A Corbett at the end of Loch Garry with Gordon. Nice run along the loch and back and a plod up the hill.

Photos

Westies Cort Ma Law Run

Wednesday 8 August 2007

About 15 Westies decided to give racing a miss, opting instead for the delights of my version of the Cort Ma Law run. Starting at Clachan of Campsie we headed up the ridge, avoiding the parascender, and on up in lovely warm sunshine to the trig point. From there the new route kicked in, heading straight down the ridge on a track leading down to Milton of Campsie, and on to the old railway track behind Lennoxtown and back to Clachan. Tea and cakes were provided at Andy and Jenny's. Approx 13K and 500 metres climb. A grand evening out.

Photos

Borrowdale Fell Race

SATURDAY 4 AUGUST 2007
A measly three Westies were all that ventured south for this classic Lakes fell race. 17 miles and around 6000 feet of ascent over paths, burns, bog, rocks, quarries and the odd bit of nice runnable grass. Taking up Andy’s kind offer of accommodation at his parents’ house near Keswick meant Steffen and I did not have a wet and windy camp the night before. The horrible weather fortunately relented for the race start at 11am in Rosthwaite, and it was mild and damp with low cloud. Up top though we were informed that the Mountain Rescue had advised of really bad conditions on Scafell Pike, and Scoffer announced to us immediately before the start that the race would be shortened by heading straight to Styhead Tarn from Esk Hause. I certainly wasn’t disappointed to be missing out the worst part of the route, the slippy rocks on the way to Scafell Pike, the scree off the top and the tricky Corridor Route. As for my wee race, I had my usual plodding first hour or so, trying to shake off my usual lethargy, and succeeding when I did a head plant into a bog when my foot hit one of the many hidden holes in the ground. I tried to stretch the legs a bit on the track down to Styhead from Esk Hause but the track was a wee bit too technical for a woose like me. By the foot of Great Gable I was feeling quite good and reeled in a dozen or so ahead of me, before picking my way down the rocky descent to Windy Gap. Along with another wee group I found a decent route down to Honister Pass, where it felt great to have the awful climb of Dalehead in front with and hour less in the legs than usual, care of the missed Scafell Pike. By now I had well and truly warmed up and fuelled by caffeine-filled gel I power-walked past loads of runners, prompting cat-calls of “heh you in the yellow top, are you on that doping stuff?” as I was obviously mistaken for Michael Rassmussen in his disgraced Tour de France yellow jersey with the big W on the back. After the initial tricky descent off Dalehead I got full steam ahead through the quarry and down the cracking grassy descent to the village. Due to the deluge the night before the infamous ford crossing was replaced by a tamer bridge, and in the last few hundred yards I raised a sprint to catch a few more places before collapsing in the usual heap in 3hrs 26mins, 3 mins behind Steffen and 25 mins behind Andy who had an excellent run in his first Borrowdale race. The weather was quite pleasant now and after a lovely wash in the cold waters of the ford and tea and sarnies, and a beer for me, it was back up north. Another great day out in the Lakes. Thanks to Scoffer and his Borrowdale team of helpers for a cracking race.

1 Ben Bardsley Borrowdale FR 02:18:29
52 Sharon Taylor Bingley 03:03:10

56 Andrew Edwards Westerlands 03:03:49
144 Steffen Gorgas Westerlands 03:22:35
155 John Donnelly Westerlands 03:26:16
(420 starters)

Results

For my “warm-down” on Sunday I joined Alan Anderson for a wet, but not miserable, 83 mile cycle from Erskine – Gourock – ferry to Dunoon – up to Strachur for tea and soup -and back again in a charity ride organised by Johnstone Wheelers. Quiet roads and lovely scenery hidden behind the clouds over the water, but busy dual carriageways and grotty Greenock and Port Glasgow to negotiate at the start and finish. Rounded off by a barbeque in the rain – just your average Sunday in the West of Scotland.