Oban Games Hill Race

Results

Last Thursday I went up to take part in the Oban games hill race. The weather was great and there was a big crowd at what looks like a well established highland games.

At the start line I noticed the club colours of Shettleston on one young buck and a few other lean & mean runners, and when I saw Colin Donnelly dashing over to the starting line I realised it was a pretty competitive field of about 30 runners that had assembled.

As the race was only a few kilometres long the start was fast and before leaving the field to hit the hill 3 youngests were already 20 yards clear of the chasing pack.

Heading up the hill I tried to hold onto Colin Donnelly and Tom Smith for as long as I could but they more surely than slowly moved away from me. Before reaching the summit, another 3 runners overtook me, as I seemed only to be going backwards in what was a very run able climb of merely 100m ascent.

I overtook Natalie Sharp on the descent, though the next runner in front of me from Law & District had a sizeable gap that with my limited descending skills, I couldn’t close. So think I came 8th in the end.

Andrew Douglas ended up winning the race and breaking the record, that had been held previously by Andrew Wright for the last 6 years.

There was another Westie in attendance, Jo McGuire who claimed 3rd in the ladies race. Jo modestly told us after that one or two of her rivals veered off course on the descent to help her claim her top 3 place. Well that’s all part of the game! Well done Jo.

Posted by Owen ONeill on Wed 31 Aug 2011 | 3 comments

Category Hill Race