Glen Rosa Horseshoe 2009

A day trip over to Arran is always a good thing. For one it is an amazing wee island and getting on a boat to anywhere makes it feel a whole lot further away than in reality.

Mirsia and I jumped the 08:33 train which meets up with the ferry at Adrossan. My usual beans on toast wi tattie scone was missed due to a silly long queue. On the sail across, Mirsia asked where the route took us but all I could do was point to the thick grey cloud sitting on the hills. By the time we were on the bus along to Brodick Castle it was also tipping down with rain!

Race brief over and it was time to run – the first few km are along the estate road then into Glen Rosa. I became aware of someone directly behind me and invited them to run through since I felt the world was passing a little quickly for the start of such a long event. Turned out to be Don Reid – we chatted a bit as we started to climb up the Glen. Over the bridge and up towards Croc Breac I heard a shout – turns out Mirsia and been invited into the back of the landrover by the Mountain Rescue who had come up to see us through !

Don and myself took a couple of slightly different routes to just below the summit of Beinn a Chiliabhain and the first of seven controls (none of these appeared any quicker than the other I might add). Over the summit and look for the start of the flagged section – JESUS …the grassy gully was steep. I fell flat on my backside and got scared …not a good place for a "tail over apex" experience. I spotted some nice grippy scree and decided that was exactly what I needed. No sooner had I started onto this and I heard a cry of "Graham …up here". It was Don pointing out that I had completely missed the fact the flags traversed the hill and not down into the glen (where I was headed). A lesser gentleman would have used my mistake to competitive advantage. Rejoining Don, we continued the traverse toward the bealach below Cir Mhor – nasty deep heather indeed. I found a bit of a path and shouted to Don. Eventually, we crossed the river and took the main path – sheer bliss indeed!

Heading up Cir Mhor we got a chance to see the leading Carnethy runners with Chris and David R not that far behind. On the return to the bealach I was surprised not to see Don and simply thought he had taken a cunning route and catch me lower down (found out later that he retired at the bealach). Briefly exchanged a hello with Murdo and Ellie before dropping down onto the traverse towards the saddle. Met up with David R and we continued through the heather and past the slabs before reaching the saddle. At this point David opened up a bit of a gap and I had a good excuse to stop and empty my stone from my shoe which had been bugging me big style.

The climb up towards North Goatfell went well and included an "interesting" line over some steep and fairly lose ground. The section onto Goatfell itself was fantastic …never before have I mixed scrambling and racing! Over the summit and only one control to go – the folks heading up the path were fantastic with both words of encouragement and kindly stepping clear to let runners through.

Thankfully I noticed the correct path leading off to the left just after the bridge and was soon bouncing down through the forest towards the finish. Crossed line a few minutes behind David R …gubbed but happy.

Pleased to report that in addition to Ellie being first lass over the line that Westies also won the team prize. Congrats to all who ran !

Was good to meet up with Johnny Hall from Moorcroft after the race as well.

On a different note the race only had a turnout of 23 runners. It shows hill fickle hill running can be. Carnethy, Jura and the Ben sell out in jig time, Ben Lomond almost always gets over 100+ runners, Goatfell this year had 81 and Stuc had 317 finishers ! I reckon Glen Rosa rates as high as any of those and deserves better support in future years …it would be a terrible shame if we were to lose such a quality race.

Many thanks to Paul Emsley and team for the organising …it is appreciated.

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