Gargunnock 2015

Last Saturday Gregor, Owen and myself had planned to do the double of Ben Ledi HR then Gargunnock HR, but due to adverse weather the organisers decided to cancel Ben Ledi. So it was just Gargunnock for us.

Travelling to the race we didn’t quite take the most direct route, with a slight unintentional detour through Stirling. We probably arrived at about 7mins before the race start giving us just enough time to pin a number on a vest, go to the toilet and run to the start as the race was assembling. 

Right from the start Gregor and Scott McDonald from Central AC set a pretty fast pace and left the rest of us trailing behind. I stayed in 3rd position with Owen close behind me until I managed to take a wrong turn into a quarry. So I had a job to do of catching back my lost places.  There was a few hundred metres of climbing before reaching the ridge with a crazy strong tailwind and then a descent back to Gargunnock village along a track. I passed by what must be the keenest marshal I’ve ever seen dressed up in high-viz and waving his arms frantically.

Having never done the race before the only way I knew I was approaching the finish was the sound of the Gargunnock fair tannoy and the raucous sound of a tent full of drunk farmers. Scott McDonald won the race with a new course record of 29:53 with Gregor in 2nd (31:06), myself in 3rd (32:34) and Owen in 4th (33:44). Great runs were also had by other Westies including Craig Freshwater, Brian Brennan and Peter Midgley.

If we had done the double of Ben Ledi and Gargunnock I’m fairly sure our placings would have looked very different. Well, definitely mine would. 

Thankfully Ben Ledi has been rescheduled for 25th July which should be a great race.

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