Your reports from the 5th Pandemicap suggest there was a patch of good weather in late September. Did I miss that, or perhaps the memory has been washed away by the rain of the past few days? Virtual races over 16 days clearly create a bit of a lottery on the weather front but it seems it was mostly positive for the Bonnalez-oop!: “lovely route on a hot afternoon”, “distracted by the sunny September vistas”, “lovely calm misty morning”, “reservoirs looked stunning and nice evening red sky”, “such a beautiful evening”. A few folks were less lucky: “ferocious wind”, “lashed with rain and wind on Capelaw”.
How did Digby’s route stand up under the critical glare of Carnethy Reviews? Mostly very well with many people describing it as lovely. Perhaps the weather helped with that, but some praise was very high: “best route so far”, “favourite route yet”. One person said they ‘loved every minute of it”. I can honestly say I’ve never felt that about any race I’ve ever done. As with previous routes, people enjoyed exploring new trods and new tracks. However, before Digby feels too grand, there was some curmudgeonly grumbling about the stony path down to the pump station (“Quadzilla”). Apparently, it’s “sore on feet and on old knees”, and someone (you can probably guess who) even called it: “Tracky McTrack Face Gravel Crap”.
Other challenges included nettles (although some use them as an adrenaline kick), bracken, “slightly damp grass”, and a mud chute. As for animals, we kept the President safe and sound by steering well away from cows. A few people came across horses, someone else mentioned alpacas (not on the route, I hope), and Stuart Macmillan came across deer on Warklaw Hill. And well done on said President getting around even though “it felt like I was carrying a cow around with me”.
Again it was good to see that people continued to enjoy the random social meet-ups out on the hills that the pandemicaps have enabled. On the Selfie front, “sadly” nobody matched the Bob Johnson photo on Capelaw. But there are some excellent photos showing the full range of weather from Willie Gibson in Shades in the full glare of the sun to Steve Best in an apocalyptic blur.
There is a week to go for the final race in the series on the classic Arthur’s Seat route. Make sure you get to the correct top on Whinny Hill. The Handicapper will be inspecting routes closely, especially those of the Contenders. I’ve already given a guided tour to one Contender and another Contender has been on video chat checking out route lines. It wouldn’t surprise me to find someone out on Whinny Hill cutting back the gorse that has covered a couple of good short-cuts. You might have thought this was just some relaxed social race series but several months and a lack of competitive racing are bringing this competition to the boil nicely. I think it’ll be a busy place this weekend and hopefully with good weather as it’s not the easiest route in wet conditions on slippery rocks.
As well as the big prize of Handicap Shield, there’ll be some other prizes for participation and selfies.
Kenneth Fordyce (5th October 2020)