Manor Water HR 2011

8th October 2011

Results

Another new race for me and certainly one with some aspects I found amusing. Notably, the race shares the bill with sheep dog trials. The sight of sheep dogs and men in flat caps brought back childhood memories of One Man and His Dog on the telly. Would such a subject be showcased on the box these days? How would Sky cover it? A head cam on the dog? Celebrity judges, pundits?

Registration took place in the back of a horse box which was sensible given the constant downpour but also slightly surreal. Outside, a gathering was staring at the route map pinned to the box. It stated the route would not be marked and the main topic of conversation was a concern about missing the advised short cut given the claggy weather. The anxiety was heightened by the race instruction also warning about missing the turn to The Glack on the way back. The warnings proved unnecessary as the route was easy to follow. The short-cut was obvious with an alternative that would have involved climbing over a wall, gaining unnecessary height and passing through closely planted spruce. On the return, there was a high stone wall blocking the path beyond The Glack. I should have thought this would have indicated a problem to an errant runner but apparently not as I heard someone did get lost at this point and that it happens most years.

The race was sponsored by Broughton Ales and so I was in line to collect yet more of their fine produce only a couple of weeks after the Two Breweries. I was feeling quite good, experiencing a brief respite from a constant stream of colds gratefully passed on by my little boy. The target of the run was a hill poetically named The Scrape and the route cheerfully passed a point called Dead Wife's Grave. It was generally muddy and slippy underfoot. We set off at a high rate of knots given the presence of juniors and other overly enthusiastic youngsters but things settled down and I found myself sandwiched between two Moorfoot runners for most of the ascent before one of them slowed and dropped back. The route was very runnable and the only steep part was the final ascent to the summit of the Scrape. What an unremarkable summit! It is marked by the convergence of three fences and the satisfaction of reaching this point could only be lifted by a view but there was no visibility on offer. On the return I quickly overhauled a Portobello runner and kept my eleventh place to the finish with a good lead over the next finisher.

My weekend pass didn't extend to the Pentland Skyline the next day but I think I may give the double-header a go next year. Either that or I'll return with a Collie.

Posted by Alan Gilkison on Wed 12 Oct 2011 | 1 comment

Category Hill Race