A spectacular inversion treated all the runners bar the unfortunate leg 1ers, who never emerged from the mist. Great running conditions, and a great run. Carnethy results were 3rd place for the senior ladies team, 1st places for Carnethy Mens V40 and V50 teams. When the results are out we’ll update the comparison chart and the final composition of teams will be revealed. Really nice soup awaited in the hall. Send in your reports and we can make a page like last year’s. For the moment keep checking below for new reports.
Results
Willie’s photos here Devils Burdens West Lomond
Leg 3 FV40, Fionna Mackinnon and Phillipa Ivison
A quick recce up the slope at the start of the hill from Kinesswood gave us a glimpse of the glorious cloud inversion and views we would get for the rest of our leg. Navigation not being my strongest point and having only run leg 2 in the past I was glad we would see where we were going. Straight up through the crags and hard left seemed the best route, and we found a decent trod all the way to the 1st check point. A slight deviation round the wrong side of Bishops Hill then back on track for a lovely run over undulating ground, then downhill to the bottom of West Lomond. Nearly lost Phillipa in a bog at one point but fortunately her shoes stayed on. The second part of leg 3 is downhill and on trail so it felt great and helped by amazing views of East Lomond that looked like an island and support from Nick and Willie. Back into the fog for the last steeper trail into Maspie Den… and then handover to… would you believe it we were so fast we made it there before our team mate did… 🙂
A great day out.. thanks Phillipa for your company and well done team mates Maggie, Joanne, Dorothy and Patricia… Massive thanks to Konrad and Jasmin for organising
Fionna Mackinnon
MV50+++ team Leg 3
Our V50/60/70 scrap team had been progressively emasculated by drop-outs and inter-team transfers during the week, leaving a less than finely tuned racing machine after the patch-ups. A careful early-week reccy of leg 3 led to rejection of all the tempting-looking short cuts on the map. A last minute rejection of local knowledge about a traverse below the Kinnesswood crags was also left alone after consultation with Cali and Margaret at the top of the first climb, where we saw that no-one else was taking it. Emerging into the glorious sunshine above the inversion made it a pity to rush the pace, with stunning distance views to far horizons, the foreground masked by the cloud sea with sunny East Lomond emerging like a nunatak on the Greenland icecap. This was a wonderfully bracing cruise across the moor. There were occasional pleasant chats with other runners drifting ahead or back in equal measure, suggesting my pace was well measured: probably no net position gain or loss, no falls, no fluffed choices of line, and a recklessly fast descent down the Maspie and back into the fog and cold. There were at least three reasons to disqualify us, but we covered all the checkpoints and we’ll probably get away with a reprimand. It was a new experience to run with a personal photographer.
Keith Burns
Mens Senior C Leg 3
The leg 3 start had everyone staring pensively up the steep hill at runners appearing and disappearing in the mist hoping for their team to arrive – all whilst hearing promises of golden sunshine on the hill tops. Unfortunately on leg 2, David and Noel at the top of West Lomond for CP4 realised they’d missed CP3 and had to go back down but initially mistook a sheep for the missed checkpoint…
So it was down to the last few teams remaining until Konrad, who with James had already run leg 2 in the fourth fastest time and hopefully might be tired to my fitness level, and I set off. Emerging from the mist below the White Craigs and it was perfect sunny day for running with no wind. The hills were now barren of other runners but we moved apace until the second climb to CP11 whereupon I really need to improve my hill climbing endurance. Perhaps time to start running with the fasties on a Wednesday now? :-O
Fortunately, my strength is flat running so from CP12 we were able to storm down the path for the final 5K until, for me, the last little kick up at the finish. After the finish, Konrad was discussing with Jasmin about doing more speed training so I maybe, hopefully, helped stretch his legs – though he had still run two legs!
Alan Swanson
V50 A leg 1
Surprising to me but there were only 55 starters for leg 1 at 10.30 as 100 teams had started at 9.30. It used to be the other way round. But 8 Carnethies lined up and 4 of us stuck together jostling for places in the fog. Good ground conditions meant dry feet and a 30+ minute blast through the woods. At one point Ali Mary and I blocked the track to prevent anyone passing us with Matt just in front leading the way to the finish only for Ali to beat him to the line. I handed over to Bob and Steven although we managed to drop the baton in the hand over – but fortunately that didn’t stop us from going on to retain our title from last year. A great effort from the team who got the sunshine whilst I had the fog.
Gordon