Dollar Hill Race

SAT 31 JULY 2010
14KM 960 metres

The lean mean racing machine that is the revamped and recently retired Brian Brennan, was bemoaning the lack of fellow Westies racers early on Sat, but one by one a few of us crawled out of the woodwork to race this British and Scottish Champs race round the Ochils, though we were all Vets!!!, where are the youngsters??. Yours truly had an averagely good race, I think, just managing to stay ahead of slimline BB, but behind Murdo and my eternal racing rival Davy Duncan of Ochils HR. Manny led us home, followed by Steffen while Pauline and Pat were the sole Westies women.

The numbers were swelled by the ranks of super fit English, Welsh and Irish runners, and this led to congestion in the narrow footpaths of Dollar Glen. We fanned out plenty by the time we hit the steep trudge up to Saddle Hill and Whitewisp Hill. It was a real effort to haul my legs up here step by slow step, but heh, it was the same for everyone I suppose. Once on the ridge the running was easier and I started to chase down a few runners in front. With the larger numbers this year there were always runners around, making for good competition, both from in front and behind. From Tarmangie Hill there was a great runnable descent to the deer fence, and a bit more effort was required for the slightly uphill traverse over to the foot of Andrew Gannell Hill.

At this point I couldn’t quite remember if we headed over to Ben Cleuch or not, so it was a relief to see runners rounding at the top and heading in the direction of Maddy Moss. I bashed down this great descent feeling great as we all do on a downhill, passing a few only to have to the reality of tired legs reappear for the slog back up to the last top of Kings Seat.

Davy Duncan was right beside me at this point, and I tried to shake him off by putting in a burst on the first part of the descent, but the old man just bided his time and raced away from me as my quads started to protest at the bashing they were getting.

A Carnethy also passed me just before the return to the Glen, as did Anita Hamilton of Cosmics, but I tracked her down to the road, where she seemed to tire. I got away from her and managed to catch one other to finish 150th out of 252 in 1hr 43m 54s. The winners' times were 72m 48s (M) and 84m 01s (F). A great spread of cakes and goodies were laid on by organisers Ochil Hillrunners.