6 Carnethies made the trip over to the kingdom for the annual Black Rock 5 race, out of the massive 900 runners that registered for the race. I’ve never quite understood why this race is so undersubscribed by Carnethies – it’s mainly offroad, there’s loads of beer and there’s good public transport back into Edinburgh. Williams Bros kindly donated the prizes (beer!), the free bottle of beer for every runner at the finish line (beer!!), and also provided the 4 kegs for the beer tent (beer!!!). Really, how can I tempt you more? All I can say is that you’re missing a fine evening out after work.
The start bustled and heaved with 900 runners being squashed into a small road under the railway bridge. The layout and congestion means that you can’t really move around, trying to look for people of a similar speed. You should just pick a spot and try to hold your ground. Thankfully the herding was brief, and we were off battering down the coast road to the beach. It took a while to get properly into the run, trying to sneak past various people between parked cars and the crowds of support, but eventually the lungs relaxed and the field stretched. The soft sand sapped the energy from your legs, and thankfully this year the wet sand seemed a bit easier to run on (smaller sand ripples, I think). The water round the rock was shallow this year, enough to run over easily, and back along the beach. Back into town for the final stretch, past the starting point and round for the cruelest sprint finish in any race I’ve run.
The rest of the evening is a blur of beer, which is never a bad thing. The only problem with the race these days is that Scotrail no longer allow you to drink on trains after 9pm, so it’s a tad dry on the way back. Thankfully Chris Henty took us to an old sauna now converted to the Mad Hatter Bar (formerly “Fingerprints” for those familiar with the saunas of Edinburgh) for a night cap. Cheers Chris!
Congrats to Nigel Shekleton for leading the Carnethy charge home.
1 ROSS HOUSTON 0:22:20 (Central AC)
28 NICOLA DUNCAN 0:26:10 (Porty)
40 NIGEL SHEKLETON 0:27:01
61 JAMES HARDIE 0:28:18
69 RODDY MCRAE 0:28:32
129 PHIL YOUNG 0:30:34
140 CHRIS HENTY 0:30:46
561 IAN JACKSON 0:39:08
605 SALLY CROSS 0:40:03
Jim Hardie