Goatfell Hill Race

17th May 1997

7am on a dreich Saturday morning! Whose idea was it to bring the start time of the Goatfell Race forward? Automatic pilot got me out of the house and down to meet Chris at Central Station for the 8.30 train to Ardrossan. Not much to be seen out the train windows except misty hills and just a large black cloud where Arran should have been when we reached the coast. Transferred to the ferry and most of the usual suspects started to appear. Looked like being a good Westies turn out, only the mad souls in the Boat Race were missing, but the Westies' "sore knee" seemed to be reaching epidemic proportions as one after another declared themselves to be just going to spectate or to cycle round the island. As we approached Brodick the cloud seemed to be lifting as forecast and the rain was almost off. But the bad news was that the course was the same as last year with the start/finish down by the beach thereby adding at least a quarter mile to the course.

Almost 120 starters shot off towards the still mist covered Goatfell and I settled into a leisurely pace near the back of the field. The transition from the tarmac to the first climb up the forest track always comes as a shock to the system and with the high humidity I soon became a shambling, sweaty wreck. The cooler air after the deer fence was very welcome and with the cloud level down to the back of the corrie hiding the upper part of the hill I also got a psychological boost. Not for long though, as just after I overhauled a couple of stragglers the leaders started to appear out of the mist. Unfortunately it was quite a while before any Westies came down, firstly Gibby followed by Don then Murdo and Pete then a bit of a gap before I encountered Jean, Ian, Chris and Tracy a wee bit below the summit. Tracy and her pal had cruised past somewhere about the deer fence but the old mountain goats were in their natural habitat among the rough stuff and were able to open up enough of a gap to maintain their places to the finish. I picked off a couple more stragglers on the descent and then had a solitary run back to the finish seeing only one other "runner" on the tarmac Dick Wall heading the opposite way since obviously Boggies have still not mastered the literary skills to work out start times from the calendar.

Gibby was first Westie home and third supervet. He had been fourth SV but the guy in front crashed into a fence at the last corner coming round the tennis courts. Gibby claims that no elbows were used and his rival dived, honest ref!

Rehydration therapy followed, starting at the Ormidale and for those of us waiting for the last ferry a minor pub crawl passed the time.

No pots this year but still a good day out. Oh, and the first sheep tick of the year thanks Arran!

Posted by Graham Benny on Wed 30 Nov -0001 | comments are closed

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