Carnethy 5 2011

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The ‘(Tiso) Carnethy 5’ 2011- an experience to behold; the hill-running equivalent of the King’s Speech with flags, and bag pipes and kilted Carnethians painted with the blood of war, Dougie Vipond stammering at the rolling cameras which captured a certain stripy-legged Gibson leading the charge…and that was all just to get on the buses to the start of the race…(might have hallucinated the bagpipes). Anyway, it was quite a to-do.

Westies were spewing from the necks of nearby woods in the nervous minutes leading up to kick-off, with the old stalwarts including Amy Pitch from the deep south, Brenda, this year without bump (bump- now baby- gained a good view of her parents’ frolicks from the shoulders of Elsie Scott), new daddy Steffen, and newbies Paula, tall Peter and whipper-snapper Sam Alexander.

So off we went with a battle cry- which lasted approximately thirty seconds until sharp intakes of breath signalled arriving at the bog. Elbows jammed out along the path blocking progress until we crunched into the bottom of Scald Law- heaved and huffed up through the heather to breathe again briefly before the next three Pentland bumps, covered in quick succession. A surprising amount of deep mud on the paths sapped the legs a bit and the final climb up the gully toward Carnethy top was, to be honest, a bit of a drag. Although it wasn’t as demanding as the descent through thigh deep heather covering sharp rocks which slowed me to a snail’s pace.

Ah, but after passing the gate, those glorious flags drew me home, and the freezing bog on the way out was now a refreshing trickle through the toes. I nearly stopped for a wallow. Pushed on toward the finish line I was tempted over it by a dangling Toffee Crisp. Later, feeling overwhelmed by the intoxicating fumes of the school canteen, the glinting trophies, plentiful naked flesh on show and the clinking sounds from the SHR coffers, I retired to the carpark with my pocketed gingernuts to reflect quietly on the sunniest day of 2011. I’ll let someone else update with the interesting bits involving numbers.