Callendar / Cruim Leacainn / Aonach Mor combined report

I promised Drew I'd write the report for Callendar crags earlier today - I've added in two other recent races, should have done them earlier

Callendar Crags

Just myself and Drew from Westies in this cracking wee race up over and around Callendar Crags. Around 40 or so in the field and they all charged off like mad men although quickly settling in to the correct order as gravity exerted its influence. I clung on to the tail of Ron McCraw of Ochils for as long as I could and then tried to keep Pete Buchanan of Ochils in my sights ,,,,,,,up the hill over a fallen tree and then a really slidy short descent down to the road .....came out on the road only 30m behind Pete but that was as good as it got as he pulled away from then on in the long road descent .....then I got passed by a couple of guys on the short undulating section to the finish although pulled one of them back and beat a guy on the finishing straight .....came in on 30:10. Race was won by Prasad Prasad of Clydesdale in 23:40 Ithink .....next 3 places were John Stevenson and his son Jamie then Stewart Simpson all of Ochils. Drew came in just over 39 minutes looking windswept and interesting with not a hair out of place and looking like he'd just had a stroll in the park.

Aonach Mor - New Year's day

Myself, Steffen, and Manny were the Westies contingent for this uphill only race near Fort William. A really high quality field turned up and you could see Manny getting more and more distressed as he recognized yet another of the top guys appearing to make his life harder up near the front .....so much easier being crap near the back of the field.

Conditions were not too bad ......wind had died down and it was quite mild with some snow only on the top 400' or so. My master plan this time was to use Davie Duncan of Ochils to set the pace and that worked great for the first 8/9 minutes and then I basically couldn't keep up with him ....from then on it was just a case of keeping on going as quickly as possible trying to stop as many people as possible from passing me and keep the gap to Davie as small as possible. Great course and its only in the last 5 minutes or so that you can see the end point ....I managed to keep on going and even lurched into a run for the last 2/3 minutesand to narrowly beat the 2nd lady Nicola Forster of Lochaber.

Winner was David Rodgers of Lochaber in 24:06, 2nd was Colin Donnely in 24:26, then Dan Whitehead and Stewart Whitlie. 1st lady was Dawn Scott of Lochaber. Manny was 7th or 8th I think. The results still aren't out so don't know his time. Steffen was just over 30 mins and I was about 32:45 or so. Great course, great race, and good organisation with soup, roll, and tea laid on at the top cafe then a nice wee gondola run back down.

Cruim Leacain - Boxing Day

Beginning to fade into the mists of time but another great wee Lochaber race organised by the inimitable Roger Boswell. Billed as a hill race but really somewhere between cross country and a hill race ....the course is changed to a new route which is about 6 miles long with only 800' of climb. If you like mud you'd love this race ....lots of undulations, occasional flat bits, then a patch of foot deep mud ...and so it goes on ....and on. I died spectacularly on this race ....or at least that's what it felt like because I got passed by 3 guys in the last half mile when I'm usually able to mount some sort of riposte ....not this time.

Anyway David Rodgers won it in a record ( new course ) of j41:36 with Dawn Scott 1st lady in 50:38 ....I was back in 19th in 55:20 but 1st Westie

Posted by Brian Brennan on Sat 6 Jan 2007 | 2 comments

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