With the prospect of missing another Borders cross country (what will Digby say?) I ventured to the outskirts of Beijing yesterday for the Dajue Temple – Haidian Three Peaks Race to, in the words of Google Translate, “experience the most pure cross-country race”. I had assumed entry on the day would be possible but discovered on the Saturday night that in China insurance must be purchased for each individual person and therefore pre-entry was the only way to race. Still, I showed up at the startline hoping my English charm might sway them and sure enough I was permitted to start, but would be ineligible for any prizes should I be so fortunate.
The race itself took in three peaks that if Google translate is to be believed were Miaofeng, Sangfeng and “the northern tip of radish”, all above 1000m in height and was a bit further than the course at Berwick being 21km in length. A small group led out with me tucked in just behind for the 1000m climb to the first top. Warm sunshine on the climb was quickly replaced by a bitter north-westerly wind for the majority of the race as we sped along rocky single-track and dusty paths. A happy miscount of the climbs meant I was surprised to find myself at the top of the final descent still expecting another climb and not too far behind 3rd place who passed me while I struggled to negotiate a particularly low-hanging section of tree branches. Still an unofficial 4th place and “first foreigner” meant that, with prizes down to 8th had I entered I would have returned weighed down with a hefty collection of goodies that by my reckoning easily doubled your entry fee. Probably a good thing I didn’t though as my suitcase is pretty close to weight as it is and the 5km jog back to the station would have been even more unpleasant.
Again I have no idea where results are, although perhaps if someone has a smattering of Chinese they can decipher their location from the website http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/QSrli2ZDNTw7e3waiKiMKA or perhaps Google translate works more effectively for others.
Alex
Archives for 2017
Borders XC – Berwick
Stunningly cold day with looming snow clouds and low dazzling sunshine, and the sea whipped into foam. A laborious run along the sand then on frozen turf and path, out and back. Last time I did it a few years ago we started around the corner of the spit, but now the start was on the beach to the right of the spit making it even shorter at 3.7 miles. V60 finish order the same, except Gordon didn’t turn up, so everyone shunted up a position.
Eóin Lennon continued his winning run – 3 out of 3! Robin Sloan was first Over 70 and Rachael Newstead 2nd Senior Woman. Bill Gauld took one look and went home.
The drive back very dodgy on the A1, with many obviously frozen screen washers and the low sun causing sudden queues of blinded drivers and frequent pulls in to the emergency laybys to clean screens.
Results here and series positions after 3 races here (Carnethys leading both Senior Men and Women with Eóin Lennon and Elisabeth Leason, and the V70s with Robin Sloan).
Digby
Carnethy results:
Place | Bib | Name | Category | Time | % Back | % Winning |
1 | 513 | Eoin Lennon | MS | 21:12.6 | – | 100% |
6 | 708 | Graham Nash | M40+ | 22:50.1 | +7.66% | 92.88% |
9 | 493 | Nigel Shekleton | MS | 23:22.3 | +10.19% | 90.75% |
16 | 782 | Jonathon Marks | MS | 24:11.2 | +14.03% | 87.69% |
24 | 676 | Will Normand | MS | 25:08.7 | +18.55% | 84.35% |
32 | 699 | Noel Tomnay | M40+ | 25:47.5 | +21.60% | 82.24% |
33 | 673 | Rachel Newstead | FS | 25:48.6 | +21.69% | 82.18% |
42 | 758 | Elizabeth Leason | FS | 26:43.0 | +25.96% | 79.39% |
50 | 741 | Andrew Spenceley | M50+ | 27:18.9 | +28.78% | 77.65% |
68 | 582 | Digby Maass | M60+ | 28:44.9 | +35.54% | 73.78% |
116 | 559 | Kenneth Fordyce | M40+ | 31:50.9 | +50.16% | 66.60% |
122 | 603 | Richard Chandler | M50+ | 32:26.8 | +52.98% | 65.37% |
131 | 737 | Hilary Spenceley | F50+ | 33:00.8 | +55.65% | 64.25% |
134 | 505 | Billy Elliott | M50+ | 33:12.0 | +56.53% | 63.89% |
143 | 703 | Robin Sloan | M70+ | 34:28.7 | +62.56% | 61.52% |
154 | 501 | Dorothy Elliott | F40+ | 35:25.1 | +66.99% | 59.88% |
158 | 618 | Catherine Forrest | FS | 36:25.7 | +71.75% | 58.22% |
163 | 587 | Sandra Chandler | F50+ | 36:49.6 | +73.63% | 57.59% |
189 | 689 | Ian Nimmo | M70+ | 47:53.2 | +125.77% | 44.29% |
Obituary – John Littlewood
It is with great sadness that I have to announce the death of my friend and long time Carnethy Member – John Littlewood.
John died peacefully at home last week. He had been living with cancer for many years but had carried on playing tennis and climbing until very close to his death.
John has been a member of Carnethy since 1996 ad had taken part in many Mountain Marathons. He was a regular on the Esk Run until a couple of years ago.
There will be a non-religious funeral for him at Mortonhall crematorium at 10am on Saturday 9th December, followed by an informal gathering from1-3pm at Alien Rock, 8 Pier Place Edinburgh EH6 4LP.
Our sympathies go to Margaret and his family.
Willie Gibson
Arthur’s Seat lunchtime Handicap December Results
Well done to Mark Dymond who won December’s slippy handicap with the most consistent run.
Everyone else was affected by the West 12 kt breeze on the crags or the surprise tourist congestion on the peak.
A welcome return to Andy Wadsworth who came and bought me a drink after so he gets a big hello.
First World Problems and Flat White Porter were Andy’s selections.
Start Time Dec | Actual Dec | Fin Time | Time Order | Fin Order | |
Mark Dymond | 12:23:52 | 00:37:07 | 13:00:59 | 4 | 1 |
Neil McLure | 12:27:57 | 00:33:13 | 13:01:10 | 1 | 2 |
Andy Spenceley | 12:25:28 | 00:35:56 | 13:01:24 | 3 | 3 |
Digby Maass | 12:22:48 | 00:38:49 | 13:01:37 | 5 | 4 |
Cameron Murray | 12:28:32 | 00:33:34 | 13:02:06 | 2 | 5 |
Gordon Cameron | 12:22:20 | 00:40:20 | 13:02:40 | 6 | 6 |
Andy Wadsworth | 12:14:34 | 00:50:00 | 13:04:34 | 7 | 7 |
2017 Special Awards
Arthur’s my Uncle Award for most appearances (11) Gordon Cameron
Arthur’s Arrow for fastest time Don Naylor (27:04)
Optimistic Arthur for most Improved PB (2016-2017) was Digby Maass an improvement of 5 minutes down to 36:21.
Have a good break,
See you Monday 8th Jan 2018
Neil McLure
Map http://carnethy.com/club_training_sessions/lunchtime-handicaps/
Results page http://carnethy.com/category/mon-arthurs-seat-handicaps/
Strava Segment https://www.strava.com/segments/1641212
Wed training
Montane Cheviot Goat Ultra
On Saturday I raced the inaugural Montane Cheviot Goat Ultra in Northumberland. The route was approx. 85km with 3000m of climb and took in a section of the Cheviots ridgeline along the border with a few other hills thrown in for good measure.
The weather conditions on the day were as good as we could have hoped for but underfoot the going was tough with layers of soft snow and slush on top of thawing peat bog and heather. I managed to hold onto the lead group until the halfway point at Barrowburn farm (the only drop bag/aid station checkpoint on the route) where Jim Mann and Andy Berry started to open up a big lead on the rest of us. From Barrowburn to Windy Gyle I stayed within sight of Pavel Paloncy, occasionally running together and having a chat before he pushed ahead on the rough ground towards the Cheviot – home turf for him from his previous Spine Race completions.
The final few hills between the Cheviot and the finish at Ingram were tougher than expected and seemed to go on forever but the beautiful sunset and fun, snowy descents kept me going. In the darkness I could see a few headtorches not far behind which gave me the push I needed to keep a speedy pace up towards the finish line. I ended up in 4th place about an hour behind Jim and Andy who finished together in joint 1st place.
The race was well organised and had just the right level of self sufficiency to feel like a proper winter challenge. It’s ideally timetabled for people running the Spine Race/Challenger in January but also makes a great training race to keep the motivation up in midwinter when the event calendar is a bit sparse.
Results here http://live.opentracking.co.uk/cheviotgoat17/
Photo of me from Martin Ellis http://www.martinandjohnphotography.co.uk/, others by race marshals.
Ross Christie
Harmeny Pentland Runners Seven Reservoirs Half Marathon
Sunday was a superb day in the Pentlands for a race- cold and sunny with blue skies.
The route, starting at Threipmuir Reservoir, was mainly low level with a few climbs. We passed Loganlea, Glencorse, Bonaly, Torduff, Clubbiedean and Harlaw Reservoirs on mixed terrain.
Beautiful views, great support from the marshals and a good atmosphere all round. A highlight was the hot soup on an open fire and a fine spread of baking at the end, which was I was certainly ready for!
At least four Carnethys raced:
James Britton 1h 21m 57s (1st overall)
Rachel Newstead 1h 38m 50s (1st lady)
Abigail Robertson 1h 45m 21s (2nd lady)
Nick Goldfinch 1h 53m 40s
Provisional results: http://www.pentland7reservoirs.org.uk/Results2017.pdf
Abigail Robertson
Foxlake Nocturnal Ultra
A load of Carnethies made the journey along to Foxlake last Saturday for the inaugural Foxlake Nocturnal Ultra. A simple idea, one of the few as-many-laps-as-you-can ultras, consisting of a 5k loop and time limit of 6 hours. I’d entered a while ago as a means to getting a long run during the winter, which is something I always struggle to do. Also, my workmate, Roger, managed to persuade me that 5k laps would be fun and we should totally do it. I’m really not an ultra person, as I always just buckle at an early stage and withdraw. It seems that I can happily run ultra distances, as long as there’s alcohol involved and nice stops at country pubs. I have no idea why this is. So it seemed only sensible that I ask the organisers via facebook if there was a bar, and if it had beer, and if I was able to have a pint on the way round, but they laughed it off thinking I was joking. Em…haha!(?) A subsequent race-prep email confirmed that if anyone turns up drunk they’ll be ejected from the event. Sob.
So to the race itself. The route was actually really good. Lovely single-track trails through forests, and edges of fields, over bridges and weaving through farms. Coloured lights lit-up sections of forest, people whizzed overhead on zipwires, and they even put a “rave barn” on the route to run through which was great fun. FYI: it was more of a disco barn as I didn’t hear any of the Old Skool Anthems I was expecting. It was all great fun and had a brilliant atmosphere.
At the leading end of things, Carnethy heroes Dave Hanna, Matt Curry and Nicola Duncan were all pushing hard in the solo event, followed not far behind by Phil Humphries and my workmate Roger. In the teams, Eoin, Aisling and John Busby had formed a team for Aisling’s work and were always out in front, but Alan Renville also had a Carnethy team in who were also running strongly. During the race it was very hard to tell, because the live timing results were nothing short of incomprehensible, so for the entire thing I had no idea who was winning at anything.
In the end, Nicola won the Ladies’ event, Dave Hanna was second male, Matt third male, Phil 7th male, and Roger 10th male. I withdrew as expected, obviously. I chucked it on the 8th lap, after confirming 8 times that there was no bar, and I just fell apart. Eoin, Aisling and John won the mixed teams prize, with Alan Renville and co in third place.
I thought that the results presentation hid some of the outstanding runs involved. For the presentation the solo males and females were separated, as were male, female and mixed teams. So, I thought I’d pool some of them together. It was pleasing to see that in the top 6 overall included three males and three females. Also, the overall team results were dominated by mixed team, not a male-only team, setting a high bar for any team in future.
Solos
Name | Laps | Time | Fastest Lap | Category |
Stuart Paterson | 14 | 6:05:57 | 21:37.3 | Solo Males |
David Hanna | 14 | 6:28:41 | 23:50.3 | Solo Males |
Nicola Duncan | 13 | 5:51:09 | 23:27.6 | Solo Females |
Matthew Curry | 13 | 5:59:38 | 23:30.8 | Solo Males |
Ali Wyllie | 13 | 6:06:00 | 24:43.4 | Solo Females |
Jo Newens | 13 | 6:10:52 | 26:32.4 | Solo Females |
Teams:
Team | Laps | Time | Fastest Lap | Category |
Team Lennon Busby Allum | 18 | 6:14:52 | 0:17:07 | Mixed Teams |
Team Ross Pollock Parks | 17 | 6:11:11 | 0:18:44 | Male Teams |
Team Griffin Saunders Peacock | 17 | 6:21:45 | 0:19:51 | Male Teams |
Jim