It’s Long! It’s Classic! It’s Arrochar!

Grim weather conditions, confusing terrain, difficult navigation, harried by rivals seemingly on ever side and planned times slipping away – getting out the Clydebank Sainsburys car-park was proving more challenging than I had anticipated. Coupled with an inadvertent lie-in, precipitated by some particularly gripping Game of Thrones episodes the night before, I was later than I would have liked for the race. In a hurry at registration, forgot to pick up my number at in the hall, panicky faffing  around getting myself sorted and arrived at the start line seemingly just in time with my Zen all out of whack and only a few minutes of being swarmed by midges/listening to Rob’s admirably succinct race briefing before we were off.

I’ve compiled a list of my top-4 Arrochar Munros in descending order of preference:

1)      Ben Vane; It looks pretty imposing when you’re first jogging over the damn, in fact it looks down right impossible – all crags and vertiginous gullies. No need to despair though – once you pick out a few specks of gore-tex colour in the looming heights a route emerges and it’s just a case of buckling down (on all fours for quite a bit) and getting on with it. On the way up it’s customary to enjoy relaxed conversation about Wimbledon with your fellow racers, the sun will invariably come out just at the top allowing for excellent views and amenable navigation to the otherwise tricky-to-find col checkpoint.

 

2)      Ben Vorlich; Now, this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea as it’s the longest ascent/descent of the lot and it is hella steep. But you’re pretty fresh after a gentle jog through the woods so you’re legs are more than up to the task. Sticking to the path on the way up is a superior route choice to the straight-up steep gully option, allowing you to smugly make up half a dozen places. Pretty cold at the top and can be difficult to find the summit in the mist. You might catch a glimpse of a few fast guys descending down the route but you soon become aware that everyone’s taking their own route up/down the hill and surprise runners will appear out of nowhere from either side going in various bizarre directions. The descent is ludicrously steep, there’s not getting away with it – be careful to fall over several times to ensure a painful drive home.

 

3)      Ben Narnain; Short but sweet, that’s what we can say about the ascent. You’ll have lost the group you were running with by this point, no-one’s going to catch you so whatever fire you may have had for achievement has fizzled out; let’s just get finished. There’s ‘the shortcut’ on the way down – probably only for nimble hill-wizards, habitual road plodders are advised to take the standard path/burn straight down. On the way enjoy the slippy concrete blocks every hundred feet, the occasional waterfall and lots of treacherous mud.  When you hit the road it’s just a mile or so of downhill and you might see a few runners ahead of you surprisingly close by. You could push to overtake in the last instance; but to get someone on the road after all that – what’s the point?

 

4)      Ben Ime; For fans of freezing rain, hateful wind, cramping legs, numb curled fingers and miserable visibility Ben Ime is one for you! For those of a sunnier disposition, probably best to just get it over and done with as soon as possible. Be sure to pause and thank the drenched marshals by the summit, grim stuff.

Undoubtedly a ‘hill racer’s hill race’ and an awesome day out. Rob & co deserve all the credit for the low-key but effective organisation involving some impressive feats of weather & midge endurance. Well done to all the Westies on the day, particularly ‘swift’ Steven in a brilliant 2nd place – epic efforts all round.  

 

 

 

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