Devils Burdens – Girls Eye View

First of all a massive thank you to all the Ladies who ran on Saturday. It was fantastic to get three ladies teams, without resorting to men in dresses to boost our numbers (although some Westies men don’t seem to object to doing this!).

All three teams did really well. Firstly the Ladies A team had a cracking run and finished in second place. The Carnethy ladies were first so really we were the first normal ladies team! Alice stormed up East Lomond with me following on behined gasping. We somehow stayed together for the rest of it and finished Leg 1 as second ladies team in an uphill battle with the Male Vets team, which I’m sure we won. ValH then headed off for Leg 2 and was too fast for any other ladies to overtake so we were still second at the start of Leg 3. Then it was the turn of ValB and Clare to negotiate Leg 3. They had a fantastic run and between Clare’s ability to run effortlessly over the most hideous terrain and Val’s skill at flying down hills at a scary speed we were still second at the Leg 3 – 4 change over. Shona then did a swift sprint round Leg 4 and the Westies Ladies finished as second ladies team in 3:10:02.

The B team were an example of youth and experience. Victoria (youth) and Muffy (experience!) on Leg 1 ran well, although how grateful Victoria was to her Dad for entering her for this was questionable by the end. They handed over to Katherine who coped well with the continual uphill and suicidal downhill of Leg 2. Elsie and Jane, the epitome of experience, ran over Leg 3 easily, as they have done so many times before in much worse conditions and handed over to Pauline McA for Leg 4. Pauline headed off with a mission, to overtake the 2 grey haired pensioners that had left minutes before. She was successful and Westies Ladies B finished in 3:46:40.

Finally the Westies Ladies C team. Leg 1 was completed in style by Rosie and Hilary. Sarah McA took over for Leg 2 and seemed to enjoy the run, in particular the downhill into Scotlandwell – mad! Gillian and Helen, fuelled by the lesser know sports supplement of tea and scones, then headed off back up the same hill for Leg 3. A while later they arrived in Strathmiglo, still talking, and handed over to a near frozen Myra McA. Myra didn’t quite manage to catch her mum but had a fine run to get Westies Ladies C home in just over 4 hours.

Apologies for lengthy write up but there’s a lot of Westies ladies to write about, girl power!!