Finding myself heading north on the road past Inverness on Saturday afternoon and noticing that the Fyrish Hill Race started a hop and a skip from our route, it felt rude not to pop in. On the football field at the back of Evanton amidst the cake stalls, portable climbing wall and obstacle course, a race was being organised by Highland Hill Runners. It later transpired that HHR contributed 32% of the entries that day, which is probably a record. (And probably the only one that day – it was a very hot day.) 3% of the runners were Carnethy Runners and I can proudly confirm that I led the Carnethy squad home. Sad to say I was also the Carnethy back-marker. From which you have probably deduced that there was not a huge attendance at the race.
The race itself looks fairly innocuous on the map and I was imagining a bit of a romp along leafy woodland tracks up to the modest summit. However, sneaked into the middle of the race is a veritable wall of death. A 45 degree struggle through thick bulrush type grass in the baking heat really sapped the energy and I faded a little on the long run-in back through the woods. A splendid little race though, passing through an extraordinary arched monument on top of the hill based on a gate in Madras, apparently created to give the locals work in 1782. It certainly felt as warm as Madras, sweating over the summit and spitting grass.
wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fyrish_Monument
Dave Wilby, the organiser, was also the victor (referee!) and sheepishly awarded himself the cup. It turns out 11% of the runners were called Wilby so the odds were in his favour. Megan Bee was first lady, and another Wilby was first V40 (referee again!). Sadly when he got to the V50s, the scorers hadn’t yet worked out the first arrival so the proudest moment of my entire hill-running career passed unnoticed. Sigh. Mind you, the cakes were delicious.
Results on shr as usual.
Alec Erskine