Last weekend one team of six made the trip down to Llanberis for the British Fell relays. Apart from being far away, Llanberis is pretty much the perfect venue. It is surrounded by steep hills offering great running and views (when the cloud clears); this is proper fell running country.
The Carnethy team was ably led off by Andy Fallas, who on his way back from injury, started steadily but then moved through the field to reach the top inside the top 10, a position he maintained on the descent to hand over in 8th. On the second leg Harry Gilmore and I ran well together over a great route, loosely based on the reverse of the Maegswm Muddle route that was a British Champs race a few years ago. As with the 3 following legs, the route finishes with a helter skelter descent back towards the disused quarry that serves as the changeover for all legs.
As leg 1 used this on the ascent, by the end of the day well over a 1000 runners had turned the bottom of this into a runner swallowing bog – all good fun. I was pleased with our run, and amongst stiff competition, we did well to hand over to Iain Gilmore and Alex McVey for the nav leg somewhere in the 30’s. This was probably the toughest leg and the pair of them looked on their ear when they came in. They navigated cleanly and used the mandatory crossing points, which involved an additional 300 m of ascent to the summit of Moel Elio. Some other teams, who should have known better, took a contouring route that involved jumping walls, contrary to the instructions given at registration, but never mind it’s just fell running. The team was brought home by Liam Braby running a solid final leg moving us back up from 38th to 28th. Thanks to Jasmin for sorting the accommodation and Alex & Harry for driving a llong way.
Next year’s event is (I think) to be hosted to by Ambleside AC in/around Grasmere (scenic). As this is a bit handier for Edinburgh, maybe we can get some faster runners out to give the younger guys in the club a chance to be competitive, and to allow Harry and I to revert back to vets teams.
Edinburgh University had 3 teams out, their men managing 3rd overall; Shettleston 2 teams, winning both the vets and the mixed; HBT had 3 teams out, their ladies coming 2nd and their men 6th, one place behind Orchils in 5th.
Simon Titmuss