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