Screel Hill Race

12th April 2008

The long journey south to Dumfries and Galloway took me past snowy Lowther hills and on to slightly more favourable conditions for this short and steep race. However, it was damp underfoot and this made the course more treacherous than usual, with wet rocks and damp roots and stumps ready to claim casualties.

The only other Westie present was Scott "Leg End" McKendrick, ably assisted by Irvine's Tommy "Lightfoot" Begley, previously featuring in the Westerlands "C" team at the Burdens.

The race started very oddly, with no-one wanting to step up to the front of the pack, so after 2 pairs of runners had made a break for it, yours truly was in an unaccustomed 5th place as we headed up the track and into the trees. I passed this glorious position on to McKendrick (and about 5 others in a group), who failed to capitalise on my hard work as pacemaker. I am working with amateurs...

Meanwhile, I continued my expected negative progress up the first steep climb then between the 2 summits (which had been moved further apart since last year, I swear it), and down into the trees again. The final climb back up the side of the hill is truly brutal, with some big steps up required. Sometimes it's good to be tall. "Lightfoot" Begley lived up to his assigned moniker, skipping by me with ease as I skidded on a tree root on the final downhill.

I'll leave it to Scott to provide details of who won, as I've forgotten (Adam Anderson, maybe?). Young Nick Emsley from Arran had a great race (finishing 3rd, I think), with father Paul finishing shortly after me. Scott was probably about 10th out of 39, with me perhaps just scraping in to the top 20, at around 43:30. Anyway, it was a huge improvement on last year's 47:42 for 38th place, so I'm delighted with yet another PB.

Posted by Johnston Orr on Sat 12 Apr 2008 | 4 comments

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