Caerketton Hill Race

Another lovely evening in the far east for this mental wee race of lung busting proportions. Me & Brenda drove for 2 hours ,down from the far north, for 14 mins of ecstacy, but it was worth it, really!

I hadn't done this race for about 10 years so had a good reccie of it beforehand, going over the whole course and confident I had a good line.

The start was a ridiculously fast uphill "sprint" to get to the fence stile before a queue formed, and I managed this in about 10th place, wishing I could lie down and sob.

My route choice & game plan went all to pot, by following the wrong people (HBT) instead of staying with Steve Fallon, who lives at the bottom of the hill - me & some trotters choosing the soft, spongy, heathery, direct line to the top whilst Steve took the slightly longer, well worn path, which by the top had given him & Brian Marshall a good 200 yard advantage - there was no way back!

There were still plenty places to fight for on the run out & back to the race summit, bursting my pooper to keep running fast with dead legs, and eventually reeling in Jamie Thin on the steep grassy wall. Flying past him I was immediately on top of Dan Gay, not entirely confident on the steep decent, and passing him just before the stile.

As we 3 came crashing in together towards the fence, there was a 3rd Boggy, Ray Ward, stepping over the stile. I made a split second descision to hurdle the fence at the side, narrowly missing a broken leg on the old rock wall just on the otherside, hitting the ground running and blasted away from the 3 Trotters behind, thus bagging all 3 places in one go!

The final mad sprint down the grassy slope to the finish was intense with thundering hooves behind me, but it was in the bag, much to YP's (Trotters drinking coach) dismay, shouting at me to slow down from the side!

My route error at the top had let Steve & Brian get an uncatchable 30 second lead, with Brian just pipping the win by a single second!

Another great Westies turn out for a short evening race, with Graham, Murdo and Rob all coming home in a 30 second burst. Johnston & Donald sneaked under the 20 minutes with Brenda trotting in a couple of minutes behind, but still smiling...!

Well done Westies!

1 Brian Marshall HELP 13.35

2 Steve Fallon Carnethy 13.36

3 Manny Gorman 14.04

27 Graham Kelly 16.50

29 Murdo MacLeod 17.01

35 Rob McQuater 17.21

52 Johnston Orr 19.11

54 Donald Smith 19.56

63 Brenda Paul 23.28

65 finishers

Results at

http://shr.uk.com.95.seekdotnet.com/RaceResults.aspx?RaceID=RA-0090&RaceYear=2007

Posted by Manny Gorman on Thu 9 Aug 2007 | 4 comments

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