Goatfell

17/5/03

After Ian Murray had called off his latest marathon training session on the west highland way due to bad weather I thought that I would have a go at the Goatfell Hill Race. It was the 50th anniversary of the race and my mother informed me that it was also 50 years ago that she had first climbed the hill. A quick email to Paul Emsley (race organiser) confirmed that I could enter on the day.

Weather was overcast but it did not look too bad as we were piped off by the local band. A quick circuit around the playing field, and then on to the mile and a half of road leading to the start of the hill track. It was a bit muddy underfoot but not too bad for running. I managed to maintain my position in the field but was closely pursued by Helen and an unknown female boggy. She passed me but I managed to overtake her a when we reached the ridge section where the wind got up a wee bit and she started complaining about the terrain ( too many large boulders ! ). I fair enjoyed this bit scrambling up with plenty of grip from the felldancers. A further wee steep section then the summit was reached in about 1hr 12 mins.

I was looking forward to going down but heeded Murdo’s advice and kept my concentration up for what was a tricky but quite fast descent where I passed 8 people and made up a bit of time. The road section at the end was a bit of a nightmare for me but managed to pass one more runner but was overtaken by two others ! A wee circuit around the playing field completed the race for me in 1:56:27 coming in 50th out of 86 (not too bad for me ). A good wee feed was provided with plenty of sandwiches, cakes and scones.

Good results for Westies with Ronnie coming in 3rd overall and 1st V, Murdo was 1st SV, Keith 2nd SV and Helen 1st FV. Steffen took 8 mins off his PB.

3 Ronnie Galacher 1:23:27

20 Murdo MacLeod 1:38:26

30 Keith Adams 1:43:11

35 Steffen Gorgas 1:45:30

50 Alan Wilson 1:56:27

58 Helen Macpherson 2:01:40