At this time of year we usually congregate as a bunch and run and swim, either clockwise or counter clockwise, around the (almost) route of the 7 Reservoirs Race (pentland7reservoirs.org.uk/route.htm). This year, that wasn’t possible, so it was decided (on the back of some recent other club relays) to do it as a distanced relay for two teams, clockwise and counter clockwise. After a bit of wrangling, begging, cajoling and smoothing, I managed to line up two teams, albeit one team doing a couple of double legs. They were:
CCW:
Leg 1 – James Burnett (Bonaly Car Park > Swim Torduff > Midway round Clubbiedean).
Leg 2 – Neil Burnett (Swim Clubbiedean > Run to Ranges Road).
Leg 3 – Gail Donald/Megan Davey (Ranges Road > Run to Harlaw > Swim Harlaw > Run to first beach at Threipmuir).
Leg 4 – Megan Davey/Gail Donald (Swim Threipmuir along dam to far beach > Run to gate at Green Cleugh).
Leg 5 – Mike Lynch (From Gate at Green Cleugh > Run to Loganlea > Swim across to corner beach > Run to edge of Glencorse near cattle grid).
Leg 6 – Tracy Ballinger (Swim across Glencorse > run to gate on Phantom’s Cleugh).
Leg 7 – Rachel Normand (From Gate at Phantom’s > Run to Bonaly > Swim Bonaly).
Leg 8 – Nicki Innes (run only) From edge of Bonaly down Scalextric to Bonaly Car Park.
CW:
Leg 1 – Gordon Cameron (run only) 6pm run start from Bonaly Car Park to Bonaly Reservoir up the Scalextric.
Leg 2 – Maggie Creber (Swim Bonaly > Run to Gate at Phantom’s Cleugh).
Leg 3 – Willie Gibson (Run to from Gate at Phantom’s > Swim Glencorse and exit at cattle grid).
Leg 4 – Lucy Colquhoun (Run from edge of Glencorse near cattle grid > Swim Loganlea from corner beach to middle).
Leg 5 – Lucy Colquhoun (Run from Loganlea > Swim across Threipmuir at beach along dam to other beach).
Leg 6 – Sarah Ormerod (Run to Harlaw midpoint > Swim across Harlaw and run to Ranges Road).
Leg 7 – Sarah Ormerod (Ranges Road to Clubbiedean > Swim Clubbiedean).
Leg 8 – Olly Stephenson (From midway round Clubbiedean > Run to Torduff > Swim along dam > Run to finish at Bonaly Car Park.
We also had Mark Hartree doing the whole thing solo, CCW, attempting to break his own mythical record that exists only in his own head.
We were blessed with good weather – it was previously planned for the day before, which was awful – and in the end it went off without any rain. Generally it all went to plan, with a few (not unexpected) blips along the way, but really it was just a good, fun night out. CW powered home in 2hours 3minutes, ahead of CCW in 2hours 39. Mark came home in an excellent 2hours 32 minutes, only missing his own record by 3 minutes (apparently the list of excuses was so long I haven’t room for them all here, but they included ‘a tall person got in my way’ and ‘I put my mum’s size 4 shoes on by mistake and they were far too big’).
Hopefully next year we can go back to the norm – but who’s to say this won’t be the new norm? Anyone interested in open water swimming that currently isn’t a member of Carnethy Outdoor Swim Group on facebook, or in the email loop, then please get in touch on michaelpeterlynch@hotmail.co.uk
Mike Lynch
*Please always distance yourself according to current government guidelines.