Dollar

Bloody hot again!!!

Not as bad as Glen Rosa, but still hot.

A British field of a few hundred runners set off at high speed up the narrow wooded footpath from Dollar Academy onto the open hill. A healthy sprinkling of 15 Westies in evidence, still hunting for summer league or shr points (or mugs!), but no Nige or Chris to stir things up!

The usual frantic starting pace soon cooled when we hit the first and biggest climb of about 2000ft with anoying flies everywhere.

The leaders were frighteningly almost out of sight by the time I got to the bottom of the climb, but had Luke and David in front to pull back early in the climb.

After the top there was a beautiful grassy run on a good trod, along a broad ridge, to the next couple of minor tops and the pace was fast to keep in touch with my “pack” which included Angela Mudge and Ronnie G.

There was a merciful cool breeze on top to stop the heat completely killing us off and allowed me at least to keep the pace steady, then the 2 final minor climbs of about 500 ft, just skirting the edge of the wonderful Maddy Moss race route.

A glance back showed a fantastic long string of runners away back down the ridge, and must have made a great race to sit and watch in the sun.

I had tucked in behind Ronnie G for the last climb and felt strong over the top so kicked off at a fair lick to try and drop the small pack we were running with and it worked, bar Ronnie, who passed me again half way down the last, very long , very fast descent. Together we took out SHITS Malcom Paterson and Dave Cummins before running back into the trees and a hard tussle to get by a couple of English vests, using the “death slide” shortcut to miss the zig zag stairs.

In the heat again the final half mile on the flat was really tough and RG was still sitting in front, but I made a last bid as I hit the final stretch of tarmac and there was no response from RG so opened enough of a gap to cross the line just in front in 31st place (9th Scot) – my lowest finish in years, but reflecting the standard of running at British level!!!

Spent the next 10 mins sitting in the shade pouring bottles of water over my head to cool down but quite happy with my time.

David came in 5 mins later quite cool about having whupped Luke who was another few minutes down and definetly not clicking on this occaission.

Gordon, Swaz and Mindy all finished in a 40 second gap with Swaz in particular putting in fine performance.

The Brennan machine seems to be trundling along nicely this season and made up for Glen Rosa with a steady run, easily under 2 hours.

Westies pal Jo Schrieder was in no danger of being last, despite virtually no training for the last 10 years and Drew thrashed Graham Benny by 40 mins who doddled in at the rear (surely the official sweeper, collecting flags, enjoying the scenery…?)

Well done to all, and I’ll see about updating the league asap.

1 – Simon Bailey (Mercia) 1:11:53 rec

31 – Manny 1:21:22

50 – David 1:26:47

57 – Luke 1:29:19

91 – Gordon 1:37:18

93 – Swaz 1:37:40

96 – Mindy 1:38:02

126 – Cat Miller 1:46:21

127 – Hamilton 1:46:43

133 – PB 1:49:12

141 – Jane 1:51:06

144 – Blair 1:51:42

147 – Elsie 1:53:19

156 – Brian Br 1:56:10

170 – Jo Schreiber 2:08:18

180 – Drew 2:18:02

184 – Graham 3:03:27