Bishop Hill Race 2004

Bumper Beer Fest as Westies Avenge D.B. Humiliation

A thumping victory by the mens team at the Bishop Hill Race yesterday accounted for only a small fraction of the total prize-haul, with westies of various ages and hues dominating just about every section.

Manny had chosen this as the second race in the Summer Hill League, which this year seems to have caught the general imagination, and this resulted in a cracking Westies turn-out, from the pre-teen Victoria Reid to the pre-Cambrian Donald Smith, both of whom took individual prizes in their age-groups.

First Westie home, after a right old ding-dong was Ronnie, taking third spot in 18:31, just two seconds behind Annesti Davenport and half a minute behind race winner Brian Marshall. Hot on his heels, a tortured four seconds adrift was Damon, who barely had time to turn on his camera before Manny hurtled, grunting and sweating across the line in sixth place a further 20-odd seconds back. Chris Upson, fresh from a top-50 run in the National Vets the previous day made it 4 in the first 8.

Unfortunately after that I lost track of who was coming in where, preoccupied as I was by the racking coughing fits that afflicted me for the remainder of the day. It's a little gem of a race - short and sharp to the point of sadism with no respite anywhere on the 3 mile course. I finished feeling like I'd been on the receiving end of a bloody good kicking, and had clearly used parts of my lungs that had remained undisturbed for some years. Indeed, I'm pretty confident that I recognised some of the sludge I coughed up as the remnants of a fortnight I spent in the smog of Mexico City in 1993!

Other Westies finishers, in no particular order, but all contributing to a comprehensive Westies rout were Don Reid, Gordon (who didn't make the photos as he wasn't sporting the regulation black and gold), Steffan, who managed to storm around the course at an impressive lick and then turn his ankle on the warm-down, Blair, finishing arms aloft like the champion he is(??), Murdo in a silly hat, Anna (the meat in the sandwich between Don's two juniors), Pat (see below for photographic evidence that her brains were unravelling at the end) and doubtless several others whose faces failed to register as I fought for breath at the finish. Take no offence, please!

I wanted a shot for the website of the mammoth Westies beer haul (we could have opened an off-licence), but would have had to retreat half-way up the hill to fit it all in.

Ronnie and Manny set off to hunt for Ronnie's DBs dibber (a likely story!), dropped during our humiliation just a month ago on the very same hill. If a week is a long time in politics, a month is an eternity in hill-running... And it was warm and sunny to boot.

Posted by Damon Rodwell on Mon 8 Mar 2004 | 3 comments

Category summer league