Devil’s Burdens 2013

Results | Photos

A tremendous turnout of 7 full Westies teams (5 men’s & 2 women’s).

For the first time in history, the Burdens Relay was being run the wrong way round, in an anticlockwise direction.

3 of the Westie teams opted for the earlier 9:30am start, with Ellie arriving at the Leg 1/2 changeover in 5th place, much to the surprise of Christine and Gaynor who looked less than perfectly ready.

The weather was pretty grey and driech with low hill fog offering some navigational challenges to the Leg 2 runners.

I trundled round to Strathkinness to await the arrival of David Riach and Owen, who eventually appeared down the steep final descent from White Craigs. Note – the route off White Craigs will be a new 1km downhill-only race later this year.

Anyhow, from a cold standing start I headed up the steep slope passing quite a few of the 9:30 runners. At the summit of White Craigs I caught Peter McClelland of HBT and we ran along the edge of the forest in the snow together, swapping places a few times on the section down the firebreak.  Once the track levelled off a bit, I managed to open a gap and increased the pace to the changeover, where I’d completely forgotten I needed to hand anything over to Luke and Cameron, since our punch sheet had already been lost.

Westie results:
6. Men’s A – Gregor, Manny & Brian, Anthony, Niall & Sam
20. Men’s B – Jamie, David & Owen, Chris, Cameron & Luke
28. Men’s C – John Hamer, JD & Steffen, David Riach, Rod & Ken
42. Men V50A – John Quinn, Don & Dave Atkin, Gibby, Murdo & Jim
66. Men V50B – Grim, Keith & Noelle, Dave Calder, Peter Midgley & John McInally
100. Women’s A – Ellie, Christine & Gaynor, Sharon, Brenda & Elspeth
102. Women’s B – Claire, Helen & Gillian, Vicki, Sheila & Pauline