Ben Rinnes 5 Tops

Given the promise of a cooler day ....at last..... I decided to head up to Dufftown Highland Games to do the Ben Rinnes race. Got there in good time and got entered and sorted out route etc ......weather wasn't too bad although given my horrendous experience at Moffat two weeks previously I was worried what lay before me.

Nigel was there and soon Dave and Muffy turned up .....followed about 5 minuted before the race by Hamilton ......he had only left Glasgow at 9:20 to get to Dufftown before 12 noon ......let's hope he still has a licence.

Great start to a race in the arena of the Highland Games with a very enthusiastic commentator and crowd .....the commentator really goes to town describing what a tough race it is and what a fantastic bunch of athletes are assembled etc etc

The race starts on farm tracks then cuts through edge of a golf course and then very narrow trods up and over Little Conval ......decided to not even try to stay with Dave for long but try to get my pacing right for once. 1200' climb up and over Little Conval then great descent of 600' then same climb up Meikle Conval and descent of 800' to the road crossing ( and a very welcome water station ) before heading up the long 1700' climb up Ben Rinnes on pretty good tracks. With about 800' feet of the climb to go the leaders start to come past on their way back ...... 4 of them including Ronnie Gallagher within 40 seconds or so of each other and then Nigel a couple of minutes further back.

Keep on going, great cooling breeze as we climbed, and get to the top and at last can stride out a bit passing a couple of guys on the way down to the road crossing .....then back over the 2 Convals managing to pull back another 2 places and then the long descent back to the Highland Games arena. I almost caught Gary Gutteridge of Cosmics but he was just too strong and he got away near the botom.

Finished in 2hrs 51 and a bit, not sure about Nigel's time but Hamilton was 2hrs 41 something, Dave was 2hrs 43 and Muffy was 3 hrs 5mins. A really great race, well organised and marshalled and a great way to finish going round the arena getting your name announced and being applauded by the large crowd......plus the relief of not running in a sauna and also managing to keep running for majority of the race.

Race was won by Colin Donnelly in a time of just over 2hrs 3mins with Ronnie G about 20 secs behind then a gap of a minute or so to Dave Cummins.

Posted by Brian Brennan on Sun 30 Jul 2006 | 2 comments

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