After a gap year, the SLCR was back on, and back to teams of 6 after an ill-conceived attempt to push the teams up to 8 in 2016. Everything was the same – the same format, transitions and thankfully for the race, the same great weather. This year we had 9 teams up from 6 in 2016, which made for a better feel to the race. There was one key change actually, and it was a positive one, and that was the introduction of ‘mass’ starts at every transition (if needed). This was to allow for bunching of the race and to prevent marshals from standing out for very long periods of time. These worked well and didn’t negatively affect the feel of the proceedings.
We started things off at midnight in Kincardine-on-Forth and teams progressed through the 116.5 mile route as a relay of 6 runners through the transitions of North Queensferry, Dysart, St Monans, St Andrews, Wormit Bay and to the finish at Newburgh.
Chris Russell of Leven Las Vegas (the only two places in the world that you can buy sex with chips, apparently) stormed through the first leg in a new record of 1.50.34 to hand over in the lead. There was quite a gap to second (over 12 minutes) before Stonehaven Top Dogs came in. Leven maintained their lead through Leg 2 to Dysart with HBT moving into second place, ahead of Stonehaven. A new leg record of 2.25.10 from Jason Kelly put Stonehaven into the front at St Monans and they never lost the lead from there on in. Leg 4 to St Andrews is always a tough one and there were some big gaps developing in times, which justified the mass starts. A great run from Nicola Duncan of Carnethy on Leg 5 put them into 4th position here, but there was another record leg of 2.19.26 from Michael Barker of Stonehaven to consolidate their lead. The final leg to Newburgh saw Stonehaven come in for a total time of 14.45.06, which is a new record both for the race itself and for a run by teams of 6 around the route. HBT came home in 2nd with Leven Las Vegas 3rd and Carnethy 4th.
So a successful running of what is a long event, but the feedback was positive so looking forward to 2018.
Fastest times on course:
- Stonehaven Top Dogs (2017 race): 14.45.06
- Fife AC/Wormit Runners (2014 Challenge run): 14.58.00
- HBT (2015 race): 14.59.36
- Carnethy (2013 Challenge run): 15.10.00
An album of pictures here: Scottish Long Coastal Relays 2017 147 new photos – Album by Mike Lynch
Some more here: here – 19 new photos by Victoria Shanks
Results:
or view/download as pdf
Carnethy Team report
A call for club members to form a Carnethy team Scottish Long Coastal Relay along the Fife Coastal Path returned a mix of folk, some known to me and some unknown. I didn’t argue, since anyone volunteering to start a relay at midnight or 0300 and to run 16-22 mile legs is good for me. I even had two reserves so hoped I could extract myself from a leg and let others do the work. Early planning, and getting a rough time schedule agreed with everyone was helpful and kidded-on to the team, hopefully, that I might know what I was doing.
As it turned out, a reserve crooked his groin playing Frisbee (can you guess who) and another needed childcare planning while her husband Neil ‘marshalled’ at the same race, so short notice changes to the team were tricky for her to accommodate. I emailed everyone a few times to remind them to turn-up and finalised lifts and pick-ups…sort of. As of the day before, we didn’t need substitutes and I resigned myself to running the last leg and even printed maps since Neil Burnett advised that it would be helpful since the route had lots of turns.
Viv Busby, our secret weapon, who was going to smash the record on Leg 4 (the longest, remotest and roughest leg) in under 3hrs (or so he forecast), thereby giving me leeway for a slower last leg, admitted to a knee problem at 1400 on the Friday that he had picked up on Weds night. I only noticed the email at 1615. Pooh. A quick panicky series of phone calls, Facebook appeals and perhaps divine intervention and Neil Burnett volunteered to let me do Leg 4 while he did my shorter and final leg. Double Pooh, I get the toughest leg. Still, it was a solution.
Our run times are in the table of Mike’s report. Most teams or leg runners went wrong at some point along the way. Most were suitably tired at the end of their legs. I had to lie down! Later on, thankfully, I happened upon Nicola Duncan from our team heading out of Wormit on the wrong road and figured how to steer her to the change-over point with Neil, saving more lost time which could have slipped us a place. One team DNF’d which helped us achieve 4th position which I am pretty pleased about since my leg time wasn’t great. Thanks to Sean, Alex, Noel, Nicola and Neil for a great team effort, and to Mike Lynch and all his helpers. Next year, let’s get a few more Carnethy teams together for a great event.
Mark Hartree