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Goatfell Race

Having had my Islands Peaks hopes dashed by the skipper's flu, and then being mighty relieved when I saw the weather forecast, I joined the Westies trip over to the lovely Isle of Arran for the Goatfell race. The ferry breezed over to Brodick from Ardrossan, full of many hillrunning buddies. The weather forecast had been pretty dire, but actually turned out not too bad in the end. We couldn't quite see the summit of Goatfell and there were plenty of squalls coming in at regular intervals too keep us on our toes as far as bum-bag gear goes. This year we were starting near the castle, missing out on the 1st and last road mile of old. The ascent was a mixture of running and walking for me as usual, and rock climbing towards the top, with gale force winds and sleet thrown in for good measure. I had a steady start, just keeping ahead of Gordon Robinson and Jim Hall, and just passing Murdo near the summit. From there on my race went "downhill" literally, as I pussyfooted down most of the descent, singing wee songs out loud. I waved past Gordon, Jim and Brian Brennan on the technical stuff as I was more concerned about not tripping and breaking bones than beating the Westies OAPs. As we passed the deer fence lower down the path was far more runnable and I realised that I should start to try and make up some of the gap. I hared off along the forest paths, catching one of the Abrams brothers and trying to catch a sight of some Westies vests. We came on to some tarmac for the last half mile and they all came into sight. I tried to hunt them down but those old gits were too far ahead, and I only caught Brian just as we entered the finish field, with Murdo a few seconds ahead. Overall pretty pleased with my run, though just missing out on finishing in the top half of the field was a bit of a disappointment. Chris was first Westie home and Cat first Westie woman. Plenty of tea and goodies back in Brodick cheered us all up, as did a beer in Macs Bar before heading for the ferry. Well done to Paul Emsley and all who helped out, particularly the mountain rescue and the marshalls on the summit, and of course to all the Westies for a fine day out.

1 Jethro Lennox Shettleston Harriers 01:04:29

28 Elke Schmidt Bellahouston 01:16:15

30 Chris Upson 01:17:12

39 Scott McKendrick 01:21:09

64 Gordon Robinson 01:28:14

65 Murdo Macleod 01:28:17

67 John Donnelly 01:28:26

68 Brian Brennan 01:28:32

78 Hamilton Semple 01:33:01

87 Jason Kaushal 01:36:44

104 Catriona Miller 01:45:02

120 Drew Turnbull 02:00:02

122 Patricia McLaughlin 02:02:23

Results

Scott in there somewhereChris fights off the Bella boys and girls

Posted by John Donnelly on Sun 20 May 2007 | 5 comments

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  1. scott said...

    i specifically chose not to run in a yellow vest to avoid such photos...

    Monday 21st May 2007 10.56am

  2. Jim said...

    Thanks for the beer John (a first surely), Cat and Pat. The Ormidale was an oasis of ale and tranquility - real Arran Ale, Blonde and Killellan, with no pole-dancing hen-partys or TV's. It's a pity yous didn't stop for the later boat (or better still camp) but I suppose Westies have to be first at something, even if it was first home!

    Monday 21st May 2007 11.49am

  3. JasonIPlod said...

    Not sure I agree that the weather wasnt that bad, as we had gale force winds, scary gusts in every direction, horizontal rain and hail, but yes apart from that it was alright. A good turnout of Westies made the friendly ferry trip to Arran with a boat load of equally mad people.

    The race was always going to be tough given the weather and I had run a bit too much this week, however I felt steady until the top third of the climb and am begining to see some climbing ability developing in the small pattering strides style. I was genuinely scared when knocked about in all directions by various gusts.As ever on the descent I began to pick up some places, and I quite like the technical fairy steps approach to running. For those of you who don't work with children fairy steps are like walking on points in ballet (sometimes I worry about my frame of reference!) but I turned with an Ochills runner and could never get closer to him. In the end he got slightly ahead on the road but, by which time my legs were too heavey and I was knackered.

    JD and I stood to await our ladies capt. who was having a bad day, but we all have them and well done for trudging on Cat. a few people seemed to struggle this time, and even Jethro didnt have it all his own way, taking a battering on the Goatfell hill race when he fell.

    In the end I am happy with my run. Down in one piece is a good un. Now a few weeks without hill racing for me, but some zippy 10ks! Smile!

    Monday 21st May 2007 12.05pm

  4. Chris said...

    Dreadful run for me. Easily my worst race since Two Breweries 2006. Legs and body not functioning at all. Gave up racing halfway up the climb and just bumbled along, slipping further and further down the field.

    Finished about 5 minutes slower than I'd have expected based on Ben Lomond and Stuc a'Chroin - but I had been feeling completely done-in for the past few days, with a chronic feeling of fatigue and desire to sleep.

    Momentarily got into racing on the descent after passing Bella runners Elke and Matt, but once we hit the fast runnable forest section they both tore away from me, showing why they ran such great times at London Marathon.

    Felt completely washed out and barely able to keep my eyes open on the ferry back, but at least I hadn't wasted my time with the abandoned Scottish Island Peaks Race!

    Goatfell Photos

    Monday 21st May 2007 5.10pm

  5. Chris said...

    Try again.....Goatfell Photos

    Monday 21st May 2007 5.12pm

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