Back when I joined Carnethy and found out what the Scottish Long Classics were, it became immediately apparent to me that the Arrochar Alps race was the one most likely to kill me. So I spent a couple of years hauling myself around the ones I deemed less likely to kill me. And somehow survived. Luckily, until this year, Arrochar always clashed with other races like Glamaig and Dollar. Then I was chatting to Mary and Matt one evening and they said they were doing Arrochar as a warm up for the Wasdale race in the Lake District (a race Jonathan Whitehead said really was likely to kill me). At this point, I ran out of excuses to avoid signing up and saying I would do it.
So it was with some trepidation that the three of us headed up the M8 on Saturday morning – conversation in the car centred around rating hill races in tears per pound of entry fee, avoiding climbing the Cobbler by accident and Jasmin and Konrad’s amazing achievements in Wales that week. Finally, talk switched to the important issue of in race nutrition. I was jealous that Mary and Matt had brought samosas to enjoy en route.
At the hall, we signed up, and met Stewart and Chris and then headed for the midge infested start. It was drizzling and ominously misty. The race is 16 miles with 2400m of ascent, taking in Ben Vorlich, Ben Vane, Ben Ime and Ben Narnain. Most of the section from Ben Vorlich until the top of Ben Ime is completely trackless with steep ascents and descents, and lots of chances for someone as navigationally inept as me to go very wrong indeed. The run to the foot of Ben Vorlich was unexpectedly lovely – a nice track through the forest, and it spread the field out considerably. I think there were about 50 starters – often there were one or two people in sight, but mostly people were on their own. The weather improved for the first climb, and it then seemed a long way to the Sloy dam and the foot of the next climb. Lots of slightly different route choices here, and also on the run down to the foot of Ben Ime. From the summit of Ben Ime was my favourite part of the race – a lovely grassy descent to the start of the Ben Narnain climb. Lovely views of the Cobbler, a clear route up Ben Narnain and marshals with jelly babies. The descent from Ben Narnain seems to go on for a very long time, and is pretty rough – I was glad to hit a track, and even gladder to find that the last mile or so had been marked! I got to the finish only just before a grinning Mary and Matt crossed the line – and that really sums up the day.
It’s a brilliant route that I enjoyed every minute of (apart from some of the minutes spent descending Ben Narnain and falling over!). I especially enjoyed benefitting from poor Matt’s in race low point, which meant the samosas had made it back to the finish and could be shared. Along with the whisky Mary had carried the whole way round. Our bubble was only slightly burst when we asked at the finish who had won, to be told Joe Symonds had finished “quite some time ago”. Indeed he did – in a brilliant time of 3.21. Stewart finished 4th, and Chris 19th. A perfect day on the hills in brilliant company, and it even made running at Wasdale seem like a grand plan. Results and photos from Arrochar can be found on the SHR website
http://www.shr.uk.com/NewsItems.aspx?NewsItemID=1831
Helen Wise