Maybe downhill running is not for the faint hearted but it is brilliant fun if you can keep on your feet. It may be a subtle blend of insanity and a blind faith in friction but the Nebit race managed to attract eight Carnethy Runners five of whom won prizes. The route was explained to me by Brian Brennan who took great delight in showing me the section on which he broke his leg in a previous race. Unperturbed by this we all threw ourselves down the hill on a fine if somewhat wild and windy evening. The course is on a marked path that was easy to follow with one or two technical sections where you had to be careful and some smooth grassy slopes where you could throw caution to the wind. The race was won by Andrew Gilmore in 5m 02secs. In second place was Gary Fraser of Ochils and in third place was Iain Gilmore who is the course record holder some eleven seconds behind Andrew. There were some good performances in the V40 section by Mark Johnson, John Hammond and Duncan Davis all in Carnethy vests. Steven Fallon turned in an excellent performance to be the first V50. The V60 prizes were won by Bob Waterhouse and Cali Ingham who were both on their first attempt at the race. The next race in the three race series is the Bishop Hill Downhill Race on the 3rd of September. It was good to see so many Carnethy vests at such an insane event.
Bob Waterhouse