Read all the reports here
Senior Women
Burning lurgy lungs, snot inducing calf screaming ascent, bum muscle pulling descent and painful shuffle back.
BUT: great to see so many friends and FANTASTIC results! (Other than mine)!! And, it made my day to see Bill running so strongly as I hobbled back to the start of my leg. He is a Super Hero, never mind a Super-dooperd-vet!
Kate Jenkins
Men V40 Leg 4
Coming into this I didn’t really know how much my efforts on The Spine would have taken out of me. I’d had a couple of runs and felt OK, almost spaceman like not being burdened by the weight of a rucksack. But it’s not until you have to race that you find out whether there’s any zip in the legs. A gentle jog over helped to loosen the legs and fine tune our route choice. Standing around at the start we were caught slightly unawares when Craig came flying down the road. So that was it, bang, we were off, some “kids” flew by us more o’less at the start. We didn’t panic as we definitely new they had another 20+ years before they’d be classed as vets and so we watched them disappear. I for my part assumed my position sitting on Olly’s shoulder concentrating on keeping up and getting the required oxygen to keep me going. It was good team work, with Olly setting the pace, both of us shedding clothes as we went, he sorting out the CP’s and allowing me to to concentrate on keeping going till we got to top of East Lomond. Where he then urged me on for the downhill to sort the CP duties out. In contrast we did have company in the first third of the leg with another V40 team but they certainly weren’t working together and as such it felt we had the upper hand especially on the climbing.
It’s nice to do well, but I think I was more relieved at the finish not to have let the team down after they’d done such a great job on the previous 3 legs and put their faith in me. I’m sure we were all wondering what I’d be like, like I say I know I was. Relays are interesting they bring that added dimension of team sport to what is normally an individual pursuit.
Matt Davis