At the weekend thirteen Scots travelled to be part of Team GB at the World Master Uphill Championship in Slovakia.
Carnethy was represented by Stewart Whitlie, Irene + Nick Schierloh and myself. This was the 14th WMRA/WMA Masters Mountain Running Championships and the race was held in the Ilava district of Slovakia at the foot of the Biele Karpaty Mountains.
On Saturday more than 600 runners representing 22 countries stepped up to run the 9.6k course with a 606m of ascent. A course designed to suit the fasties with very runnable grassy climbs. The route had a short road section around the town of Purske before heading into the hills on primarily mountain paths and up the slopes of Vrsatec Mountain to the finish line.
Stewart ran an excellent race and finished 3rd in his category claiming the Bronze medal. As Des Crowe and Stewart both placed well they also claimed Silver Team medal just behind Italy. The boys did well on the Podium and made a memorable celebration!
Nick and Irene had great runs coming 31st and 8th in their categories.
In my race I managed to hang on for the whole race and was delighted when I finished to find my two GB colleagues had great runs so we claimed Team Gold with placings of 1, 7 and 9th just ahead of Slovakia, Czech Republic and Italy.
A great weekend with some fun racing and the opportunity to enjoy a European event is definitely worth considering for those lucky enough to be over 35 and upwards. We also managed to sample plenty of local beers post race and I felt our group enhanced the very long presentation ceremony with our input.
Next year it is Slovenia in June 2018 so well worth going if you can.
Link to results here http://www.hrdosport.sk/Online?CompetitionId=192&DisciplineListId=5869&DisciplineCode=6&Code=RES
Michael Reid