I’ve taken a good look through the comments from the 2nd pandemicap. You are clearly a kind-hearted club, not wanting to write too much about the moments of loathing. A lot of people used the word ‘fun’ although more in relation to the route than actually running it. Many of you mentioned again being surprised to find new paths you hadn’t run before. I particularly liked the highly random curving path down to Duddingston. Some ran in the haar so did very well just to get around. Others enjoyed racing again (if you want to race for the next one, sign up here).
But it was good to see a few people speak honestly: ‘Definitely prefer the Edinburgh Park Run’. Others with a good dose of irony may be giving away their true thoughts: “Really enjoyed the section from the bush to the sleeper steps.” “I thought the part through the car park was a bit easy”.
We can certainly say it was an excellent, demanding, lung-busting, rollercoaster course – thank you to Eóin.
Since time immemorial, there have been Handicap excuses (“I did reps yesterday”, “just had my dinner”, “the handicapper has it in for me”, etc.). We now have the new “I had my jab yesterday” excuse to add to the list, and even pre-run acupuncture – not sure if these two refer to the same thing. Others seem to be claiming they should have had a better handicap due to short legs in relation to the sleeper steps.
And then there’s Hyman’s Knoll and the descent to the car park, which clearly had its challenges. Andy Spenceley came across a wedding party on its top, and Hilary Spenceley kindly sent in some background information which confirmed another source saying that it is name in honour of Martin Hyman, who passed away recently. Hilary writes:
“I’d hazard a guess that Hyman’s knoll is named after Martin Hyman who died recently. He planned the courses for the World Mt Running Trophy in 1995 [information here] and the knoll was visited by at least some of the courses. In recent years Martin has been best known for the Tues Intervals session on the Meadows which he organised for over 40 years, for young- junior races eg at Tinto and Chapelgill, and he was on the HRC. Going back 30 years he organised Thursday evening interclub training form Meggetland, and several great interclub challenges eg 2 Breweries Relay from Broughton to Cockermouth and I think a Speyside Way relay.”
Also, a welcome to Kit Craig, this was his first Carnethy Race. Quite the race to start with!
Finally, the photo competition on the theme of Going Wrong. Entries rose by 300% from the first one, so that was three. Two of them deserve points/prizes: Nikki Dunn and Kathy Henly and their dog putting a lot more effort into their photos than their run, and Stephen Croft demonstrating the challenges of recce-ing this route. And finally no points for the third entry from El Presidente whose ‘Going Wrong’ appears to be submitting the photo to the wrong competition. (Mark, how about this Tulip Fest?). Of course, any captions for this photo are very welcome, and apologies if you find it a bit disturbing.
Next up is Digby’s Carnethycap, yet another fabulous route.
Kathy, Nikki and Dogs
Stephen’s recce-sheet
Caption needed?