Oh fickle memory! How could I possibly have forgotten the awfulness of the
Pentland Skyline? I mean, how could a 16 mile hill race with 6,200 ft of
ascent in October's fickle weather ever be thought of as "fun"?
(You can see the general route at
http://www.zen31010.zen.co.uk/images/Pen...sroute.jpg and a few pictures I took last year in the same folder)
The early signs of impending awfulness (other than the obvious clues above)
were decidedly muted. The sun shone encouragingly & the skies were blue as I
drove through from Ayr. It was cool but not unpleasantly so and I elected
to run in shorts and a long sleeve Helly Hansen. My uk.rec.running friend Bob meanwhile seemed unduly pessimistic as he was dressed in all his winter woollies and I confidently experted to find him in a sweaty pile within a mile or two. ;-)
After a full kit inspection (which seems to be becoming common practice in
hill runs) the race started just after 11:00 am. Mindful of the way Bob
utterly trounced me on Ben Nevis I set off up the first slope with a bounce
in my step and reached the first top ahead of him. Naturally being a
sensitive and considerate person, I then let him past. ;-)
Whilst there had been no obvious wind at the start line, the skies had
darkened and once we reached the top, a powerful south-westerly wind had
sprung up, which was a great shame as we were heading more or less head on
in to it for the first half of the race. Not long after that the rain
started. Never that heavy but driven horizontally with such strength it
felt like being stitched with icy needles. Over the next few peaks I
endured it until I began to worry about getting hypothermic. Stopping to
put my jacket on cost me several minutes as I struggled with the wind that
seemed determined to tear my jacket from my hands and send it spinning off
in to the valley below. I probably wasted another minute struggling to turn
my new buff into a hat with chilled wet hands.
A tiny bit more comfortable now, I resumed my slog up and down hill after
hill after hill. It was with a great sense of relief that I passed to top
of the last peak of the outward loop. The wind was now howling across the
route and as I struggled to keep my balance going down the hill, I made a
mental note to be extra careful not to slip and twist an ankle. Someone up
there evidently heard me, no sooner thought than done. ;-)
As I sat on the grass waiting for the pain to subside I wondered (indeed
hoped) that I could now retire gracefully. Alas, it was not to be and
within 30 seconds I was hobbling down the hill again and within a minute I
was running (well, sort of running) again. Curses! Still, at least now the
wind was more or less at our backs and an easy stretch of running was very
welcome. Up till now we had been running on well delineated paths. The
next hill (Hare hill) sees and end to obvious paths and involves yomping
though heather. As I descended from Hare hill, I managed to go over on the
same ankle not once, but twice. The second fall left me lying on my back
in deep heather enjoying a delicious moment of complete rest only slightly
spoiled by my throbbing ankle.
By now the quickest way back was to simply carry on so it was I staggered on through the heather and once more made a mess of getting off of Hare hill,
finding myself at the top of a slippery steep stony gully, exactly like last year. ;-)
Having been passed by every man and his dog, I found myself in a line of
legdead (and probably braindead) "runners". More by luck than judgement (or
possibly the influence of a bar of Turkish delight and several gels) I found
I was marginally less legdead and actually started to pass runners. As ever
though, the peaks on the return leg just never seem to finish. Every time
you think you've topped your last peak, there's another fecker!
Still all good things (or should I say "nightmares") must come to an end and
at long last I was running down the hill to the ski centre trying hard not
to do a face plant in front of the spectating crowds. Bob was there to
cheer me on and I crossed the line a humiliating 3 hours and 58 minutes
after I set off. 3:58 to "run" 16 miles! Once Bob confessed to have taken 3:50 I felt a lot happier though. ;-)
I ran it in 3:40 last year but I really do think the conditions were much
tougher this year. Having said that, I finished 100th out of about 125 this
year (as opposed to 119 out of 169 last year) so maybe I really am getting
slower. :-( It will be interesting to see how the times of the other
runners compare.
Anyway, 4 hours after finishing, I'm already thinking that it wasn't so bad.
Must do better next year! ;-)
Tim
(More pictures and results on
http://www.carnethy.com)
