Thank you to new(ish) member Marcel van Oijen for writing up his impressions of a great day out at the Comrie Relays:
Comrie, Perthshire. Sunday 11 September 2022.
Today was the SWCHR: the Simon Wake Comrie Hills Relay. It’s an annual event brilliantly organised by local club Strathearn Harriers in memory of their clubmate Simon Wake, who died of cancer in 2008. They donate all proceeds to charity.
I joined Carnethy this year and this was my first ever hill relay. I am used to relays, but only in Flatland where I’m from. A sensible country where the motto is: Why go over a molehill if you can go around it? Every autumn I go back there for a race over civilized terrain in a team of twelve old friends. Each runner has a cyclist next to them who carries their luggage and makes sure they stay on course. We plan it all meticulously, we know weeks before the race where we and our belongings should be at any time, and how to get there. Here in Comrie everything was less flat but far more relaxed and easy-going. No accompanying cyclists, yet people and stuff seemed to move around smoothly. I had arrived in Comrie in Ken’s car but somehow later got a lift into the hills from James, and my luggage was taken back to Comrie by Rosie. Impeccable improvisation by all!
Start and finish of the whole event were at Laggan Park, where everyone got together. There were a hundred runners from 25 relay teams and a bunch of happy children for shorter races. The Carnethy contingent consisted of 13 people and one dog. We had three teams: fast men, fast ladies and my more sensibly paced mixed team. Let’s call them team 1, 2 and 3, rather than quick, quick, slow. Two of the runners in team 1 had dropped out and were replaced at the last moment by Ben and Alex, the latter being bumped up from my team. Stella stepped in to make us complete again. Graham provided logistical support, and James’ dog provided lots of entertainment.
The race began with a minute silence for the Queen. Nobody moved a muscle except for a small boy on a tiny bicycle slaloming through the forest of fifty leg 1 legs. Then the teams were off, with Ben, Rosie and Stella running for our teams. The rest of us magically ended up in different cars to go to our various starting points in the hills. I believe that Iain jogged to his leg 2 start, probably believing that 7 km racing was not enough exercise. James drove Alex and me to the start of leg 3, where we frisbeed with the dog and waited for the incoming runners. Iain arrived among the top teams with Morag and Sean arriving a little later, all looking tired but satisfied.
Legs 1 and 2 had been tough with lots of climbing but leg 3 was the really beastly one: long, remote, unmarked and passing near Ben Chonzie where clouds lingered all day. Lizzie and Ken navigated the route safely but James got lost in the mist. He mistook one wall for another and went astray, adding many meters and minutes to what was already such a tough leg. He still was ridiculously fast though (like everyone in teams 1 and 2)!
After seeing the leg 3 runners off, Morag and I walked to the starting point of leg 4 which was less than a mile away. Fellow final leg runners Alex and Esther were already there. Alex and I kept telling everyone that we were the slowest in our respective teams, so nothing should be expected from us, but nobody seemed to listen. I was happy with being on this leg which promised the least climbing and clear waymarks. Still, for a flatlander 370 m climbing is a lot! The highest Dutch hill is 322 m (and it’s not even our own: we share it with Belgium and Germany). Also, I did not really know what gear to take, so I had packed too much – I discovered the “Guide To Race Kit For Utter Beginners” on the Carnethy website too late. So I had beginner’s worries about packing too little and causing team disqualification. I have since learned that kit-checks are sensible but not draconic. Fortunately, just before I started running, Rosie told me that I did not need to carry a liter of water, and she kindly took my excess stuff to the finish in her car.
I started my run too fast. I stupidly thought that I needed to keep up with Esther and managed to do that for the first kilometer after which I collapsed, she and others disappeared into the distance, and I entered a phase of walking-jogging. Luckily the second half of my leg was mostly a gradual descent that allowed some recovery. I finished in Laggan park later and more tired than most but equally happy. It had been a wonderful race over a beautiful route!
Race winners were the Howgill Harriers in 3:11. Our team 1 finished 42 minutes later in 7th place. Team 2 were 14th in 4:36, the second-fastest all-female team. My team 3 finished 19th in a very respectable, civilized, mostly well-paced 5:27. I think Lizzie won a prize for being so fast on her leg, and initially Rosie got one as well but she refused the prize and informed the organisation that they had overlooked a faster finisher.
After the race there was fantastic food and drink in Laggan Park. I loved the veggie burger as well as the home-made cakes. Mostly I loved resting my legs. When it was time to go Sean and I again got a lift from Ken. We enjoyed our chat about the race, Carnethy, and world affairs so much that Ken took the turnoff to Glasgow instead of Edinburgh, to make it all last a bit longer. Unlike James, we had no mist that we could blame for this!