As part of the Hillend Mini-Mountain Marathon weekend I’d organised a group start time of 9:45 on Saturday. This coincided nicely with heavy snow and thick cloud on the hill. Carnethys are a hardy bunch though and fourteen runners set off towards Allermuir with various objectives. Two solo runners were aiming to complete the long course, a pair were doing a short course+ with everyone else (another pair, a trio and a group of 5) targeting the short course. The introduction to navigation group made their way round the short course working on a mixture of the 5 ‘Ds’ (description, direction, distance, duration, don’t/danger) with the twin objective of finding the controls and developing our navigation skills. The various groups met up in Cobbs afterwards to warm up, eat and chat of controls found and missed.
Over the weekend 30+ Carnethys completed the courses with many choosing to head out with friends later on Saturday or taking advantage of the sun on Sunday. Thank you to everyone who came out despite the conditions. The next event in the mini-mountain marathon series is pencilled in for the weekend of the 6th and 7th April and will likely start at Red Moss carpark to allow us to enjoy the less visited south-west Pentlands. A similar format will apply with a group meeting up on the Saturday morning to run and then head to the pub for lunch. For those members who are developing their navigation skills (absolute novices welcome) there will be a group(s) you can join heading round the short course. Everyone else will be free to head out and enjoy the courses in their own time over the weekend. If you have any questions, or suggestions on how the format can be improved, send them to me at captains@carnethy.com
Mairi Brown’s photos from Saturday morning can be found at https://photos.app.goo.gl/MriYsQtZvSzgyhCJ8
John Busby