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Manor Water 2007
It warmed up just in time, having been damp earlier and a little chilled. Chris started off at a stiff pace, followed at a distance by Colin Donnelly, leading all the way up the valley to Glack Hope and onto the ridge to the first top. A posse of Moorfoot runners sat further back, fading a little before the march wall. Brian Marshall took me up to Chris, then set off to track Colin across the undulating moorland.
Chris and I worked together from thereon, pulling each other along, taking turns to push the pace, Chris edging it on the steeper stuff. The ground was fast with no rest on the easy gradients on soft grassy tracks and trods, nearly running all the way to the top of The Glack. Pity the poor marshal sheltering in the fence corner from the biting cloud. No rest on the way back either, plummeting off the top, then the fast trods with a few small uphills to check our efforts. Ellie was comfortably third Westie in the pack coming up, despite feeling under the weather..
I knew I had to get away and pushed ahead before the final slight top with two miles to go. The sunshine broke through just then but no time to take in the views trying to batter downhill not knowing my lead. Into the field and sure enough, Chris was rapidly bearing down on me, releasing a do-or-die charge for the line. But too late. I held him by a second to finish third. Very pleased !!.
Ellie held onto second Lady and third Westie, showing JD and Simon how to run a hill race. Brian Marshall won two minutes clear from Colin Donnelly. Veronique Oldham was first lady. A bottle of beer for all and the enjoyment of the associated sheep dog trials and its tea marquee in the autumnal Borders setting rounded off the event.
Posted by David Riach on Sun 14 Oct 2007 | 2 comments
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Comments
jd said...
What more could a boy need - a hill race in the fab Scots countryside, Scotland winning at the football and even England winning at the rugby! Well, I could have done with feeling less than dead on the climb up to The Scrape.Never mind, as soon as we turned at the top and out of the headwind I perked up and sped away from that young scoundrel Triger, and tried to regain some of the many places I had lost on the dreadful climb. With Simon pushing me on and trying to catch Keith Burns ahead I really enjoyed the descent, though not enough to get anywhere near Ellie who was far far away. Even further away were David and Chris pushing each other on to the giddy heights of 3rd and 4th place. A great wee race, combined with the local sheepdog trials. Every runner got a free bottle of Greenmantle Ale courtesy of Broughton Ales and David even won a bottle of Port in the raffle. I eventually finished 43rd of 77 runners.
ResultsWesties photos (edited from Ian Nimmo's)Ian Nimmo's Photos
Sunday 14th October 2007 10.00pm
Chris said...
A great little race in the quiet Manor Water valley, and a Westies team of myself, DavidR, Ellie, Simon and JD. I decided not to waste my time running slowly at the start, so set off immediately in the lead and held this for the first 15 minutes until we were up on the main ridge. First to go past was Colin Donnelly, who I tried to stay with him for a while, followed by Brian Marshall who I also tried to stay with for a while, but couldn't match his loping effortless style. David Riach was next to arrive and drifted past on the descent to Dead Wife's Grave, but I dug in and tracked him. From that point we repeatedly swapped leads until the final descent where David pulled away. I'd almost given up but decided to give it a do-or-die to catch him at the line. I thought I'd timed it just right, and gave it one last shot on the finishing field, taking my heart rate to 186, and giving David a wide berth so he wouldn't hear me coming. But David sensed me on his shoulder and did just enough to hold me off by a metre or so.
Next Westie was Ellen as 2nd lady, for her 5th race in row, followed a couple of minutes later by JD in his shredded lycra shorts and Simon Triger bounding into the finish.
Some photos (mainly Ian Nimmo's)Results at Scottish Hill Racing
Monday 15th October 2007 9.06am