Aonach Mor 1st January

This race should be renamed "Achnot Mor Rain".

I'm not saying it was wet but on the drive up to the gondola station we passed a queue of 2 sheep, 2 deer, 2 squirrels, 2 pine martins..........

After getting drenched between the car and the cafe, getting all the usual "Happy New Year" alcohol fumed kisses and hand shakes out of the way, and changing into oilskins and sou'wester the field (or pond) of 69 runners took to the start line and stood for a few freezing minutes whilst John Hepburn tried vainly to shout out the description of the "bad weather" route.

All I heard was the roar of the monsoon battering against my hood and the knocking of my frozen knees.

Someone must have shouted "go" because everyone buggered off and I struggled to hang onto a mid-field position for the first quarter of a mile as all the Roadie types made the most of the very runable forest track instead of the usual vertical assault straight up the hill.

When the road gradient at last steepened slightly and I eventually caught them up, it was damb near impossible to tell who was who in the pack chasing front runner Davie Rodgers. Most sensible folk were buried under full waterproofs, gloves, hats, snorkel, flippers, air tanks, etc...although there were one or two souls who braved bare legs and even one who went in just t-shirt and shorts!

He wasn't hard to spot as he turned florescent pink after a few minutes.

By the time we left the main access road and onto the steep uphill bike track, I had whittled a few more places back but was completely unaware of any positions from within the sanctuary of my hood.

Alan Smith's pink legs made life difficult as usual before I got past him and opened a gap and was slightly surprised when Adrian Davies grunted encouragement (I think?) at me as I passed him. The bike track made for good uphill running and I kept the pace steady, and even took my hood down, before reeling in Eryri's Chris Near just before the deer fence. A scramble over the stile and a glance up the last 200ft of track showed me Davie Rodgers was the only person now in front of me!

I dug deep and pushed hard to the top and was relieved to find a good gap back to Chris when I turned at the frozen marshal (who deserves a Vistoria Cross) and started the very fast drop back down a very wet technical descent.

The nervousness for my dodgy ankle was not neccessary as the running required full-on concentration (I usually wreck it when I'm not paying attention!)Scooting past the other runners on such a narrow/fast track was a bit hairy but once clear of them I really stretched out and pressed hard to the line, having a quick glance over the shoulder to avoid any sneaky challenges.

No one in sight - I was safe!

As I crossed the line I had at last warmed up!

Anna and Catrina had made a trip up from the Big Smoke just to do this white-water rafting race, so Dave, I reckon they deserve a few extra points for sheer stupidity!!

Adrian Davies cheered up a lot when I later opened my gift wrapped 2nd place prize to find a pair of socks and some choccies whilst he in amazement found he had been awarded 1.5L of Ben Nevis whisky for 1st Vet in 5th place!!!

We both reckoned that Davie Rodger must have got a shock when he got home to crack a dram of 1st prize Matey bubble bath!!!

A memorable race folks, so make a point to try it sometime.

Posted by Manny Gorman on Tue 4 Jan 2005 | 2 comments

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