Aonach mor uphill

After failing miserably on a recce of Stuc a Chroin several weeks ago I was relieved to find that there was an alternative race on Saturday and it was much shorter……Aonach Mor uphill. Quite a few of you will have done the New Year uphill race at Aonach Mor and, while the start and the finish are the same, this route has very little similarity to the winter version. After the first few minutes of climbing it diverts right and takes a really beautiful track to the top ……sometimes granite sand, granite boulders with, almost no mud and frequent long sections of duckboard ( on interesting cambers aimed at descending mountain bikers not ascending runners). A select field of around 30, including 3 Westies ( myself, Manny and Brenda ), set out just after a nasty little squall had passed through. Manny had been up another hill earlier in the day but soon disappeared from view. Farther back I struggled to keep up with Julia Conner while being hunted down by Trevor Shaw and Nix Forster. After climbing about a thousand feet or so the route slackens off and much of it is runnable though with large loops. I’d been advised by a couple of Lochaber guys to take advantage of any and all opportunities to cut these loops wherever I saw the possibility ……Brian Brennan …..short cuts!……perish the thought …..OK I cut just about every single corner but then so were most of the other runners. Despite this I couldn’t keep up with the three more youthful types already mentioned but had a good run, coming in just over 40 minutes in a short hailstorm half way down the field. The winner was a young lad from Portugal in just over 30 minutes and our Manny was third overall and first M40 …..first lady was Nix Forster just ahead of Julia ……and Brenda also had a good run. Prize giving in the restaurant at the top cable car station was relaxed and friendly with pieces of birthday cake being passed around …..then, rather than go back down on the cable car, I ran back down the route with Trevor and Julia to have a more relaxed look at it. If you get a chance to do this uphill race route in future then go for it.