Carnethy at The FRA Relays
17th October 2010

Kate Friend/Joan Wilson Leg 1 - ladies B team

It was lovely to run for a change with Joan rather than battling against her in a race. We were out to enjoy this first leg, no pressure, we left that to the A team. We set a steady pace through the grassy field and nettles and out on to the tussocky moor towards Maiden Castle and out along a very narrow path to a steep gully where our first checkpoint was. Couldn’t believe one pair had missed the two dibbers at the first checkpoint having reached West Lomond…oops! Thick mist awaited us at the summit, but we soon popped out into clear weather and Joan sped down to Edge Head with me hanging on. We followed the ridge up towards ‘Apache land’, said a quick ‘hi’ to Colin, and rejoined Leg 3 of the Devils Burdens, up over West Lomond again and down the track east before retracing our steps to the event field and passing on to Lorna. We were both chuffed with our time and if you get a pat on the back from Andy you know you’ve done OK!

Leg 4 ladies A Team -Fiona Mackinnon

When I offered to be part of a Carnethy team in these relays I did not realise I would be on the last leg of a pretty rapid women’s A team......No pressure!
Having never been to one of these events before, I was surprised and made even more nervous by the number of people at the start. I knew I would have a long wait till my run so after we saw our first runners off I went back and tucked into some food and tried to remain calm.
Angela and Jill had a great run turning up first ladies team home in the changeover. The pressure had just got worse. Joanne, Jacqui and Jasmine all did great runs keeping the pressure on. By my turn we were in 2nd place. HBT team being about a minute ahead. A catchable distance I wondered?
My tactic was to go as fast as I could the whole way and not look back. I did not want to know if someone was about to over take me as I probably could not have done much about it. I hoped this would be enough. There was a small panic as a girl did pass me but she kindly shouted that she was in a mixed team. Phew!!!
Heading up the last steep bit to the East Lomond, annoyingly I could see the HBT girl getting further away from me in the distance. My goal now was to hang on to silver. I was glad to reach the top knowing that the next bit was easier with only one more steep ascent before a great downhill all the way home. A brutal head wind all the way round the back of the hill, however, did not make it that easy.
I reached the top of East Lomond again and started on the last descent home. This was the first time I looked to see who was behind me. There seemed to be a decent gap so I felt confident that I would be able to hang on in there.
Back on the road and into the woods at Maspie Den my legs were getting a bit weary but a surge of adrenaline caused by Angela shouting that I “was not finished yet” and KEEP GOING” helped to reenergise them!!!
I reached the field and got a last burst of energy to sprint to finish.
Wow, I had managed it. Dead chuffed, a silver medal and great day out with a great bunch of Carnethy folk.

Leg 1. MV50 - Keith Burns

JBF and I had the daunting task of setting up the rest of the MV50 team with a good Leg 1 performance. Precise calculations led us to a central estimate of 120 minutes at our (well, my - - ) race pace. The first km or so up the start pasture was more like a national cross country race, leaving me gasping in the cool air as we rounded the first bank of forest. Our paces seemed well matched at this stage, with JBF breaking ground and me hanging in behind, as usual. There was no time to admire the impressive bank and ditch of Maiden Castle and we began the winding trail between the upper and central crags of the Lomonds scarp slope. On our reccy we had gained height too early and missed the hairy ledge into Craigen Gaw gully, so this precipitous line into the gully was new and exhilarating. It was fortunate that the field had sorted into pecking order because any attempts at overtaking here could have had dire consequences. The steep climb out of the gully provided scope for imaginative delayed overtaking using the boulders and suitably disposed bodies of adjacent competitors. Schadenfreudous delight was provided by an anxious descending team that had climbed almost to West Lomond summit before realising they had missed Craigan Gaw.

The cloud and wind on West Lomond summit took us into the middle game, with great entertainment as we stacked almost on top of each other trying to get down the Edge Head gully into the depths of Glen Vale. The re-ascent out of Glen Vale was the point where legs began to protest, and I struggled to maintain contact with JBF. Little did I know that Kate and Joan had me in sight not far below. The descent into Apache Country provided some attractive scenic diversions to the ominous realisation that we hadn’t yet turned for home. Then we joined the familiar leg 3 Burdens line off Bishop Hill to limber up for the second ascent of West Lomond and back into the cloud. We were more or less holding our position with the odd intermittent place swap as pace wobbled on the steep ascent. We still weren’t aware that Kate and Joan were stalking us just below. Last climb complete and we enjoyed a few bumslides out of the cloud and down to the big track. Into the end game we made a feeble attempt to catch Tom Bowie and partner not far ahead, but all we could do was hang on to our position and concentrate on damage limitation (i.e. not get caught by Kate and Joan). The ghosts of Maiden Castle must have had their best day of entertainment for a thousand years as we rounded the western ramparts again and headed for home.

The mark of a good leg 1 performance is to leave your team mates a stimulating challenge with lots of opportunity for place recovery and no excuses for slacking. Ronnie picked up the role with great diplomacy and gusto; 89th place (30secs inside our estimate) and everything to play for - - - .

Male V50 Leg 1 John Blair-Fish

Keith and I did a recee of leg 1 two weeks before and we were out for three and three quarter hours. We set ourselves the target time of two hours. The speedy gentle uphill start featuring just over two hundred runners reminded me of starting cross country races at Parliament Hill 40 years ago. We were out of breath then suddenly we came to the heather and everyone slowed. It did not seem worth the effort to get out of the narrow trod to pass. We came to the traverse into the gully below Craigen Gaw which we had missed in the recee.

It all seem rather precarious looking down. I tried to relief the stress of being hemmed in climbing fast out of the gully but realised I was leaving Keith behind. I started a discussion with Ian Campbell and Claire Ward about jobs and retiring. Ian is a fellow resident of Buckstone. I could see behind me sometimes training partner Jane Robertosn wotj Ellen Homewood and felt we need to keep ahead of them. Descending from West Lomond both Keith and I fell and we missed our receed descent through the outcrops. I had to wait again for Keith on the ascent to checkpoint 3. We found a wonderful route through the Apache Country missed on the recee. All this time I realised I must have a pee but unusually I was running alongside lots of ladies teams so had to wait till the second summit of West Lomond. Looking at watches 2 hours seemed tight.

I cut the corner to the big track, felt I was road running and then I was glad when we were back on the grass and the tussocks. We had a final bid to get past a Calder Valley Ladies team and I could see Jane and Ellen closing it. We made it in 1.59.31 being passed by Edinburgh University leg 2 in the finishing field.

Leg 4 MV40 - Adam Ward

Leg 4 means a long wait…..and I mean a long wait….I have time to watch the start, get back to the event field, jog up to the top of the trees with Leg 2 runners Paul, Bruce and Ronnie to suss out the best line through the trees on the way up, wait around to watch the leaders on leg 2 appear, noticing that no-one seems to be cutting the corner through the trees. Fine tune my descent route to the east of the trees, leaving a broken larch branch as my cut off down to the trod through the bracken – hell, I’m getting more like Bill Gauld every day!!!
Back to the event field, have a sandwich, numerous cups of tea, visit the toilet for the umpteenth time – by now lots of people have run and are sitting around our tent having a laugh and a chat – I start to feel distinctly unmotivated to run!
Then the navigators on leg 3 start to arrive – Shettleston still in the lead, which is great – its is still though a half hour wait with Tim and and Fiona in the holding pen – Tim goes out, but its over 8 minutes before the old gits arrive, at least I have a target of Coylie who has set off about 4 mins in front, but claims not to be training!
After about 5 mins running Nick Swinburn whooshes past – he runs the fastest leg of the day – I sneak past Clare Whitehead by the sneaky through the trees route but cannot shake her on the climb – Angela kindly points out ‘Clare is catching you’!!! – its freezing cold up top, but I’m not there for long, don’t see anyone else until the 2nd climb of East Lomond, and wait who is that in front? – looks like an Ochils vest and John Coyle!!!.....to the summit and I yell don’t follow me as I am the only one heading for the east of the trees….I find my larch branch…soon it will be stepping stones in the Braid Burn! – through the bracken and there is Coylie just going over the stile…or is it style! – mine isn’t as I fall over trying to leap it!
John is around 20 secs in front and keeps looking round……right I’m having you me old mucker I think….catch him in the trees…sprint past and keep it up all the way in to dib…..thanks John -wouldn’t have beaten Paul by 3 secs if I wasn’t chasing you!
A great day out…and success for the Scottish clubs, and a much better venue than anticipated.

Leg 2 MV40 -Bruce Smith

and it all started so well.
Actually that's a lie as I'd been choked with the cold all week and hadn't run since last Monday. Still with no other takers to fill in and a week of hot toddies to try and clear the cold I drove up to Falkland on Sunday morning. I got there just in time to see the main start disappearing over the horizon which meant I had 80 or 90 minutes to check out the start of my stage along with Paul,Ronnie and Adam who were doing the same route for different teams/legs.

It looked reasonable - the weather was quite warm in the woods but with a cool wind higher up so I settled on a helly. The big debate centred around how much we could cut off the woods and even which side to run round. We took a look but the rest just looked a slog - Adam reckoned he could gain 10 seconds or so by going down the East side, but the rest of us were unconvinced it was worth the risk
.
When it came to the handover the first club in were Scottish team Shettleston, with Jethro Lennox looking like he was struggling to keep up with team mate Tom Owens, they had a minutes lead over the first of the English clubs. The first of the Carnethy clubs came in about 12th and Paul was off and not longer behind that my 1st leg pairing of Stewart Whitlie and Steven Fallon popped into the arena and I was away.

I got about 100m up the road when Dan Whitehead of the Cosmics came flying past and into the wooded section. I did my good deed of the day by shouting him back onto the correct route when he was still within hailing distance and then settled into trying to keep him close until the first climb. He then vanished in front of me and as we progressed along the short tarmac section I could hear a couple of English/Welsh guys closing me down. There was a nice touch with a young lad piping us round one of the corners (or was he just keeping the wildlife at bay?). We hit the open hill and I more or less held my station to the guys who'd just passed me, partly due to a slight shortcut I took that shaved the edge off the woodland. First checkpoint was at the top of the woods and I could see I was gaining on a Corstorphine runner, and I closed in and just nipped by Graeme Fletcher at the summit. After the second CP I then flew down the path to the carpark (pity the gate wasn't open) to CP3 and then to the long flat slog round the track. I could see that I was holding the three guys in front which bode well for the descent. CP4 was along a nice wee trod to a boundary stone by a wall, before a slog back up to the summit. At this point I could see the runners in front heading back down the main descent with Carnethy A man Paul well placed (and well in front). I lost another place on the final drag up to a Wharfedale runner but just as I was planning my revenge as I dibbed at the top disaster struck.

It felt like someone had wrapped barbed wire round my quads and every step downhill was agony. I started off, hoping it would wear off, but instead whoever it was decided to tighten the barbed wire. I made it back to the top of the woods, any thoughts about which was the best route had disappeared - for me now the best route was a flat one that meant I didn't have to put any stress on my quads.

OK, this wasn't funny now - I stopped for a minute to try and stretch off in the vain hope it would cure it. That didn't really work but it allowed me to get a bit further down before having to stop and stretch again. At this point the Corstorphine runner Graeme I had passed earlier stopped to check I was OK which was noble but sadly there was nothing anyone could do, short of getting me a bike to freewheel down. I managed to get down to the stile and across before donning a frankensteinesque stride pattern back to the finish. A pathetic attempt at a finishing spurt failed to avoid another place lost round the field before eventually handing over to Adrian and Mark for the navigation leg.

I think I've now discovered a new running phenomenon called IMS - it's an Instant form of DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness - the feeling you get when you can't walk down the stairs two days after a marathon).

Looking through the stats later I realise I lost probably 8 or 9 minutes on that descent - definitely enough to lose us the bronze medal and possibly even the silver, and even worse the chance of beating the youngsters. I guess the adage is true "auld age disnae come itsel"

sorry guys!

Leg 1 MV40 Steven Fallon

Stewart and I were up first for the Vet 40 team and had to contend with the mass blast up the start with 200 other runners trying to avoid being stung by patches of nettles on the initialy climb. We kept Andy and Sam in our sights heading past Maiden Fort onto the ground below Craigen Gaw - not a place to have a slip with the steep ground off right. A steep climb up through the gully - no time to admire the crags, then up to West Lomond in thick mist, trying to keep with the runners in front so as we didn't need to get compass out. The run down into Edge Head was a hoot and I blasted past several runners who were taking a more pansy approach to descending the steep and loose ground. Checkpoint 3 ticked of, we followed a wall uphill and briefly into more mist before turning onto part of the Devil's Burdens relay leg3 route back up to West Lomond - there's something quite warming about familiar terrain, knowing how much you need to leave in the tank for the last pull uphill. We could see Andy and Sam ahead, I timed us less than 2 minutes adrift. Over West Lomond and onto the track for the return, we were passed by two teams - tall guys with long legs, but I suppose I can't use that as an excuse, as Stewart legs are probably shorter than mine, but somehow just go round faster !

FRA Relay Leg 1 - Sam Hesling

Leg 1 has the makings of classic hill race route. No flat starts here with the gradient kicking in from the off. The ascent through the field gave way to a mercifully short section of tussocky ground before the single track trod wound us between the crags. An ascent on hands and knees through the gully and romp up West Lomond saw us bowling along steadily. Descending off the top we were quickly out of the mist and heading for the valley floor. The short sharp ascent led runners out to the farthest point from the start.
The return journey essentially consists of a romp back up West Lomond followed by an awesomely fast downhill and flat section back down the tourist path. Marshals were on hand at all of the critical locations which ensured that brains could be switched off and the focus handed over to legs and feet. Thundering back down the tarmac to the changeover stripped what was left of the grip from my x-talons (making them even lighter!).

The remainder of the day saw dinner tickets "kept aside for safe keeping", plenty banter and some awesome runs from Carnethys and other clubs alike. An awesome day out with an awesome bunch of folk. Perfect.