The weather at 10 am , as Nick Mac and I walked up the hill, was not too bad. The odd bit sleety snow, but not much wind. We put out the markers and wandered back to the Ranger Station. Mary and Matt arrived and Matt was put in charge of the teams.
We had 5 teams in the end, and here they are in finish order with total times – leg details below:
1 “The Burnettes”, with James, Charlie and Neil 1:18:19
2 “The Best”, with Andrew Nash, Graham Nash, and Digby and Keith Burns 1:29:35
3 “The Tie Fighters” with Ronnie Jones, Ina Donat and Gordon Cameron 1:37:24
4 “The Burns Unit”, with Emily, Euan and Paul 1:39:42
5 “No Passport Required” with Solly Jones(plus Matt), Kirsty Cameron and Mary Lye 1:45:31
We wandered up to the start and as it was rather cold everone set off fairly quickly. Nick was rushing to try to get to his, Point The Kids The Right Way Back, position.
Then there was Manus, who arrived late and tried to catch up with Mum in hot pursuit.
Andrew ran well to be first back in 15:57, with James a minute behind in 16:56, Ronnie was third in 22:10, Solly was 24:42 and Emily came in at 26:05. Well done to all the kids. The weather had deteriorated somewhat so the kids evacuated back to the ranger cantre.
Charlie was first back on the medium leg in 27:39, with Graham second in 30:54 and Euan third in 32:23 (he took a circuitous route to the biscuit van). Ina and Kirsty came in close together in 35 minutes.
Neil was first of the long leggers back in 33:44 to give his team the win. Gordon was second in 40:14 with Digby next in 40:19. Paul was fourth in 41:14 then Mark and Keith last in 45:49.
We were all a little warmer by the time we held the prize giving where juice, sweets and flashing bouncy balls were handed out along with the precious cups to the winning team.
Well done to all that took part and coped with the challenging conditions. Special thanks to all the child free adults that gave up their time.
There was an age spread of 65 years between the youngest and the oldest. That is what the Junior Senior Relay is all about.
Willie Gibson
Well I didn’t think the weather would be as bad as last year but by the time the ‘long leg’ runners got to the top of Turnhouse the wind was so strong it made forward progress quite difficult, with the added pain of gale force snow flakes in the eyes. The junior (Andrew Nash) in our team was faster than all of us (Graham having done 30miles yesterday) and dived off at the first leg turn having failed to drag any of us up the hill (protest from Keith). Paul of the “Burns Unit” skipped gamely past after the top and promptly set off the wrong way from the col, dropping down too far, which pleased me enormously as I contoured round on the high path. Gordon half followed Paul so I gained time as the wind blew us back to the finish.
Digby