Half Ben Nevis Race Sun 11th July

Three and a “half” Westies turned out for this fine race.

The unlikely “half” being in the form of of a certain Mr Alan Wilson who passed me in a Skye & Lochalsh RC vest muttering something about defection.

Treachery in the ranks!!!

Don’t worry folks, the midgies will get their way with him in Skye as punishment!

The Gorman clan were late in making their way up the hill and had only got as far as the stile above Auchintee when Lochabers Dave Rogers (not as famous as ours!)trundled past with an already 1+ minute lead over the rest.

A good sized field of about 80 turned out with a fair number of them Lochaber runners who were mostly rested having missed Meall ant Suidhe the day before. Woooses!

Donald & Drew were survivors from MaT and went past looking like they were out for a jolly instead of the high octane Westies Champs. pressure of the day before!!!!?

A huge Gorman cheer went up for a rare but very welcome appearance by that Wummins legend Chris Menhennet who looked like she was enjoying herself far too much!

A further wander up the hill and rest at the first zig zags found Nige & Trev. jogging down the path, having been up to the summit for a wee reccie before Septembers Ben Race, and Trevor carefully reconsidering the situation!!?

We didn’t get much further up before Dave R. came haring past on the way down with tourists diving for cover in all directions! Alan Smith (Deeside)had put himself into a comfortable second 2nd place and was holding the gap to Davie.

It was good fun watching the line of runners charging down in varying degrees of confidence/fear with the 3 Westies actually looking very comfortable compared to some. Drew in particular pulled in quite a few positions on the drop before the line was made.

Hopefully we will see Chris out again soon – you would be very welcome at the 2 Brews & Pents. for the ladies team.

In true fashion Duncan again demanded to go to the top but we managed to persaude him that maybe the halfway lochan was a better idea!! His galavant up MaT the day before had obviously got to him at last, and surprisingly it was Manuel jnr who gave it much laldy on the way back down, running almost the whole way with me struggling with my poor foot!

Good day out – well done Westies.