Wonderful views and fast running for last night’s handicap. Euan ran so fast he overshot the turn for home and ended up amongst the manicured lawns and tennis courts of Portmore House; Fraser ran so fast he ended up in a field and embarked on his own cross country route with barbed wire obstacles, but did eventually finish. Nobody felt inclined to run back and look for Euan so a few piled into a car, on the supposition that if he found the loch he’d find the finish. Happily he was located on the main road and returned to the fold.
Afters was a BBQ amongst the pines in the wonderful garden of Jasmin & Konrad at Gladhouse reservoir. Superb. Well done to Helen for organising. Mike’s photos here and provisional results below.
Digby
Euan’s report…
Well, it didn’t start well.
A slow puncture coming in from Edinburgh left me pushing the bike for the last couple of miles up to the start. When I finally arrived I was hoping to negotiate a halfway sane handicap, but everyone decided that after a year or so off hill races, and no training, I must be faster than them.
So, after half an hour of toiling up hill, while being savaged by flies, I ended up running on my own with only distant (and fast disappearing) specks where my club mates should be. Then the low evening sun and dark shade kicked in and I couldn’t even see the specks anymore. A map, compass, GPS or elementary knowledge of the route/area would have helped at this point. I had none.
The Moorfoots are a beautiful place in the sun and almost perfectly quiet. The run began to take on a surreal aspect at this point, as I wandered through sun dappled woods there were cows, sheep, hares who leapt so high I thought they were deer, and grouse exploding from under my feet. I begun to laugh. This carried on for a while and I was pretty contented jumping over fences, running through little valleys and generally going in circles. Then emerging from a wood I suddenly found myself facing a stately home, croquet pitch and a pond with a working fountain. Hill races don’t normally have fountains in them. The laughing began to take on a manic, questioning-of sanity-tone.
Eventually I found a rose covered cottage, a nice lady kindly explained that I was so far from Portmore Loch that she had no idea how to get there. She suggested I take a left turn to the Gardeners Cottage. There was no Gardeners Cottage. I was in another forest. At this point I begin to seriously consider the possibility that I had entered some kind of fairy tale and the old lady had sent me into a magical wood to be captured by the faerie people, the laughter gave way to crying. I tried leaving the woods and crossing a sheep field, the sheep STRONGLY objected. Thought then it might be sensible to head for the high ground to get an idea of where I was. The problem with the view from the high ground in a forest is that there isn’t one.
Eventually after another dozen or so fence/field/stream/forest crossings I gave up on trying to get back to the start cross country and headed for the sound of the A703. It was a well timed choice, after 30 seconds running up the road the first car I met turned out to be full of Carnethies sent to rescue me.
I didn’t have a GPS on but I’ve tried to give my best guess at where I went!
Euan Innes
Results here
Runner | Predicted Run Time | Handicap | Finish time | Race no. | Run Time | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chris | Busby | 26.39 | 80.20 | 9020 | 53.41 | |
Iain | Whiteside | 38 | 80.20 | 42 | 42.20 | |
Harry | Gilmore | 47.19 | 32.38 | 80.38 | 14 | 48.00 |
Allen | Flockhart | 53.18 | 26.39 | 80.41 | 46 | 54.02 |
Matthew | Jones | 56.51 | 23.05 | 80.51 | 61 | 57.46 |
Bob | Johnson | 49.57 | 30 | 80.53 | 670 | 50.53 |
James | Hardie | 47.39 | 32.18 | 80.56 | 80 | 48.38 |
Andy | Spenceley | 52.04 | 27.53 | 81.31 | 8 | 53.38 |
Win | Rampen | 60.32 | 19.24 | 81.43 | 25 | 62.19 |
Steve | Best | 45.46 | 34.11 | 81.46 | 138 | 47.35 |
Neil | Burnett | 48.16 | 31.41 | 81.55 | 123 | 50.14 |
Gordon | Cameron | 52.1 | 27.47 | 82.03 | 3 | 54.16 |
Philippa | Ivison | 65.48 | 14.08 | 82.07 | 194 | 67.59 |
Andrew | Shepherd | 49.13 | 30.44 | 82.19 | 302 | 51.35 |
Jamie | Taylor | 75.03 | 4.53 | 82.56 | 429 | 78.03 |
Lorna | Ascroft | 63.03 | 16.54 | 83.24 | 206 | 66.30 |
Michael | Andrew | 45.38 | 34.19 | 83.28 | 44 | 49.09 |
Mary | Lye | 52.06 | 27.51 | 83.31 | 176 | 55.40 |
Hilary | Spenceley | 70.01 | 9.56 | 83.45 | 9 | 73.49 |
Nicki | Innes | 64.4 | 15.17 | 83.49 | 410 | 68.32 |
Sally | Best | 69.44 | 10.13 | 84.06 | 505 | 73.53 |
Helen | Wise | 59.03 | 20.54 | 84.12 | 198 | 63.18 |
Alex | McVey | 46.14 | 33.42 | 85.04 | A10 | 51.22 |
Irene | Schierloh | 71.58 | 7.58 | 85.25 | 208E | 77.27 |
Shane | Bouchier | 57.51 | 22.05 | 85.32 | 48 | 63.27 |
Cameron | Murray | 46.26 | 33.31 | 85.43 | 55 | 52.12 |
Mark | Hartree | 52.22 | 27.35 | 85.57 | 47 | 58.22 |
Digby | Maass | 54.38 | 25.19 | 86.31 | 99 | 61.12 |
Willie | Gibson | 55.07 | 24.5 | 86.55 | 45 | 62.05 |
Alistair | McGowan | 73.03 | 6.54 | 89.39 | 253 | 82.45 |
Joel | Sylvester | 49.48 | 30.09 | 90.45 | 82 | 60.36 |
Fraser | Gibson | 48.1 | 31.46 | 96.24 | 43 | 64.38 got lost! |
Euan | Innes | 120 | 49 | 90 lost & rescued by car! |