Carnethy Hill Race

SAT 17 FEB
There was a great turnout of 24 Westies for the classic gem of a race that is the Carnethy 5 Hill Race, and a record field of 484 finishers. The weather was kind to us and more akin to a spring day than mid-February. Almost 500 runners took part and they were led home by Rob Jebb in 47m 59s with Angela Mudge 1st female in 56m 09s. Border Westie Damon was first yellow W home making the top 20. As for me, in my 18th race I ran my slowest yet, but felt just as hard as all the rest. The usual sprint across the marsh had me gasping for breath, but the queue at the gap in the wall at least gave a welcome rest before the heathery trudge up to Scald Law. Fighting the urge to try and get past people by coming off the trod and into the heather I contented myself by the thought that it would do no harm to have a steady 1st climb and then see if there was scope later in the race for pushing the pace a bit. There were plenty of Westies vest around me at this point, with Tom, Graham, Val and Rob all close by. Off Scald Law and round to the Kips I managed to start picking off a few bodies and just nicked ahead of Val at the turn on West Kip. The descent off here wasn’t too slippy and I picked off a few on the descent before settling into a steady pace along to the Howe, hoping to conserve some energy for the long climb up to Carnethy. I had spied Rob, Garry and Shona not too far ahead and wondered if I might be able to haul them in. Shedding my thermal for the Westies vest I took some energy drink down me before settling into a steady rhythm. The slog up proved as hard as ever but I managed to pass Garry half way up and by the top was not too far behind Rob. In the horrible deep heather I managed to sneak past him and had Shona just ahead. I got just behind her at the bottom but flagged a bit across the marsh and had resigned myself to taking a beating, when a few yards before the line on the slight uphill Shona flagged ever so slightly and I decided to ungraciously sprint past her on the line – sorry Shona!

Westies finishers -

19- 55:02 Damon Rodwell
22 - 55:49 Manuel Gorman
24 -56:04 Nigel Scott
26 -56:26 Chris Upson
111 - 64:18 Steffen Gorgas
140 -66:47 John Donnelly
141 -66:48 Shona Robertson
149 -67:04 Rob McQuater
165 -68:01 Murdo Macleod
169 -68:09 Val Houston
170 -68:10 Graham Kelly
176 -68:38 Gary Tompsett
189 -69:17 Tom Bertulis
194 -69:25 Hamilton Semple
208 -70:32 Brian Brennan
258 -73:40 Keith Adams
274 -74:50 Jane Robertson
330 -79:19 Katherine Kirk
335 -79:41 Jason Kaushal
342 -79:52 Elspeth Scott
409 -87:07 Pauline McAdam
444 -93:33 Drew Turnbull
451 -94:24 Patricia Mclaughlin
474 -109:27 Graham Benny