Sunday’s sunshine seemed a long time ago as a band of already bedraggled runners huddled together in the rain before the start at Cort-ma-Law, the latest Bog-and-Burn series mid-week hill race, and probably the one that delivers most fully on the advertised obstacles. A quick kit-check, which didn’t take long since most people were wearing everything, and we were off. Joe Symonds and another similarly athletic looking person disappeared rapidly into the clouds, leaving the rest of us to make our way up the long starting climb at a more leisurely pace.
I was moving fairly well and was pleased to find myself closing on Don Naylor in third, before he turned to me to ask if I knew where I was going. I did not. There followed a long spell of meandering slowly around the hill side in an ever-growing group of people we had led astray, punctuated by regular face-plants into waist-deep bog. After some comedic attempts at navigation (top tip: the top of the map is only north if you’re holding it the right way up) we found our way to some marshals and the race started again (complete with a second “HBT” shout).
From there there was a plunge down a valley, through a stream, up another boggy climb and then a mad dash downhill to the finish, where I was pipped on the line by someone, for a position, presumably. Andrew Gilmore came in shortly afterwards, followed by Harry and Steven Fallon. I didn’t see any other Carnethies, but that might just be because Mike hasn’t persuaded us all to buy red and yellow cagoules yet. A superb race for anyone who wants their hill races to feel as far removed from jogging round Edinburgh as possible. Results will no doubt appear in one of the usual places in due course.
Andrew Normand