Goatfell Hill Race

19 May 2007

Having had my Islands Peaks hopes dashed by the skipper’s flu, and then being mighty relieved when I saw the weather forecast, I joined the Westies trip over to the lovely Isle of Arran for the Goatfell race. The ferry breezed over to Brodick from Ardrossan, full of many hillrunning buddies. The weather forecast had been pretty dire, but actually turned out not too bad in the end. We couldn’t quite see the summit of Goatfell and there were plenty of squalls coming in at regular intervals too keep us on our toes as far as bum-bag gear goes. This year we were starting near the castle, missing out on the 1st and last road mile of old. The ascent was a mixture of running and walking for me as usual, and rock climbing towards the top, with gale force winds and sleet thrown in for good measure. I had a steady start, just keeping ahead of Gordon Robinson and Jim Hall, and just passing Murdo near the summit. From there on my race went “downhill” literally, as I pussyfooted down most of the descent, singing wee songs out loud. I waved past Gordon, Jim and Brian Brennan on the technical stuff as I was more concerned about not tripping and breaking bones than beating the Westies OAPs. As we passed the deer fence lower down the path was far more runnable and I realised that I should start to try and make up some of the gap. I hared off along the forest paths, catching one of the Abrams brothers and trying to catch a sight of some Westies vests. We came on to some tarmac for the last half mile and they all came into sight. I tried to hunt them down but those old gits were too far ahead, and I only caught Brian just as we entered the finish field, with Murdo a few seconds ahead. Overall pretty pleased with my run, though just missing out on finishing in the top half of the field was a bit of a disappointment. Chris was first Westie home and Cat first Westie woman. Plenty of tea and goodies back in Brodick cheered us all up, as did a beer in Macs Bar before heading for the ferry. Well done to Paul Emsley and all who helped out, particularly the mountain rescue and the marshalls on the summit, and of course to all the Westies for a fine day out.

67th of 129 finishers
heart rate max = 190; average = 153 bpm (85%); 1045 cal; 895 metres ascent.
Results
Chris' photos
Photos
Carnethy photo report
Westies reports