Ben Lomond Race

This years Ben Lomond race took a lot more work and planning due to the extra burden of putting on several junior races for the SAL championships as well. The Rowardennan area, due to the roughness of the terrain and the arboreal proliferation, did not yield suitable routes for a junior race easily, that would also include down hill running. However, with the expert help of Martin Hyman, after 3 wet trips to the area during Jan & Feb, we finally came up with, what we thought was a course that would not only be testing, but the mixture of terrain would be entertaining and most importantly, reasonably safe for juniors to run downhill on.

The day of the races was a cracker, with sunshine, but not too hot at the start, and a pleasant cooling breeze on top (you know if it’s cold on the hill -Ronnie G will actually be wearing his vest!!).

JUNIOR RACES

The junior races kicked off at 11.30 am (& not at 13.10, as advertised in the SHR calendar, but more on that later), with a fun run organised by Martin. This was won by Alexander Coubrough aged 11 of Central & first girl was Jennifer Stokoe of Westerlands. This was fairly easy to organise in that it started and finished at the same point. The U14, U16 and U19 races proved more of a challenge in that the finish was approx ¾ km from the start!

The U14 race had 15 boys & 8 girls, and was won by Jamie Stevenson of Ochils by over 1 ½ min, & the 1st girl was Alice Haining of Gala harriers.

U16 :- 1st boy was Robbie Cammack of Moray, and 1st girl officially was Laura McTaggart of Girvan AC. Unfortunately, due to the mix up with the start times for the junior races, 3 girls from Kilbarchan turned up and thinking that they still had plenty of time after registering, went on a warm up only to find out that they had missed the start of the U16 race. Martin sensibly set them off with the U19 runners to give them a time but by the time they had finished, the medals had been given out to the 1st girls in the U16 race – a knock on effect of the finish being remote to the start. I can only sincerely apologise for any disappointment caused to the individuals involved. This was the first time junior races have been run at B L in this format, & if I decide to run them again in the future, I will try harder in future to avoid a re-occurrence of this incident.

The U19 race went without incident and was won by David Phee of Giffnock N, & the 1st girl was Jennifer Kibble of Fife AC.

A total of 69 runners took part in the junior races which I thought was a reasonable turnout – WELL DONE TO ALL OF YOU!!.

THE SENIOR RACE

In comparison to the junior races, this was easy to organise, the biggest hassle being what to do with all the vehicles!! Many thanks to Helen & Gillian of Westerlands, & Ally Stokoe for telling people where to stick their cars!! The Hotel was getting annoyed with runners using the car park, so please next year guys, try not to use it.

This year, the Park Ranger Alasdair Eckersall, kindly agreed, on a one off basis, for us to increase the numbers to 200, provided we made some modifications to the route. This seemed to work out ok, so thanks guys for following the flagged route. I took entries up to 234, but only 194 turned up on the day, quite a high drop out rate. Many thanks to all those who took the trouble to let me know that they would not attend – it allowed several people to get a run who otherwise would have been disappointed.

Despite the withdrawals, that included some top runners like Tom McGaff & Esmond tresidder, it was still a pretty classy field that started. The race was won, not surprisingly, by Jethro Lennox, who came storming in to the finish funnel like he was finishing a 100m race. Seconds after he crossed the line, he threw up his arms in elation with the realisation that his efforts had allowed him to break the course record by 1 second ( time 65.59)!! Two minutes and 5 seconds later, Dave Rodgers of Lochaber came in to claim 2nd prize with a time of 68.04, closely followed by a tired looking last years winner, Brian Marshall of HELP (68.16).

First male V40 was Stuart Whitlie of Carnethy, in 9th place in a time of 70.30, followed by Colin Donnelly in 10th place (71.48). The race for the V50 prize, I had anticipated as being one of the most interesting battles in the race but at the last minute, Tom McGaff had to pull out of the entry list with a hamstring injury, and so the 1st prize went to Ewan Paterson of Moray RR in 30th place with a time of 77.51, with Tom Scott of Fife AC 2nd (82.52, 55th ).

First V60 was Gareth Bryan-Jones of Ochils who made it worth his while getting an entry at the very last minute. Gareth finished in 93 position with a time of 90.50. We even had a V70 with Bill Gauld finishing in 140th place with a time of 103.00!!

And so to the women. I’m not sure if this is the first time Angela Mudge has entered the BL race, but she certainly stamped her authority on it by breaking the course record by 1.35 minutes!! In a time of 76.12 in 23rd pos overall. Second lady was Clare Gordon of HBT in 82.01. First V40 was Helen Murray of Lothian 91.52 (98th), and first V50 was Jocelyn Scott of Fife AC in 94.08 (110th).

Carnethy scooped both the men’s & woman’s team prizes.

Now to more serious issues. It was brought to my attention by several runners that 2 runners from Greenock Glenpark ran without carrying the appropriate kit (in fact they ran only wearing vests & no other gear!). One of them, apparently was abusive to another runner when he was challenged about it during the race, and the other either disqualified himself or quite rightly was disqualified by an official on the hill. It is only due to the fact that I was concentrating on doing the head count prior to the start of the race, that I did not notice their lack of kit, or I would never have let them start. Ignorance is no excuse for this behaviour. It was quite clearly stated on the entry form & at the registration desk, what was required. The fact that the other 192 runners were not just carrying bum-bags as a fashion statement obviously never occurred to them. Anybody who does this is putting their own life at risk, and technically it’s cheating – the mountain rescue had enough to do, without dealing with exposure cases if the weather changes suddenly (as it did at the end of the prize giving!!). It will not be tolerated in the future. To the 192 people who did comply, thank you!

Finally, I would like to thank all the people who helped on the day, especially the marshals, also the Lomond Mountain Rescue for coping so well with the casualties (including Michael Divers who suffered a blow to the head when he fell & was stretchered off the hill -just as well he had kit with him!). Michael was later allowed home, I’m pleased to say, but on this occasion in a car!. Also, a special thanks to Alasdair Eckersall, the park ranger for allowing us to increase the number of entries.

See you all next year,

Don