Meall a Buachaille

Headed off on Saturday morning to near Aviemore for the last SHR championship race of 2009 after having got home the previous night from London at midnight so wasn’t looking forward to it. What I was looking forward to was meeting loads of hill runners for a bit of slagging both before, during, and after the race. Over 220 runners turned up for the race but tragically only 3 of them were Westies …….me, Brenda, and Manny…….c’mon Westies we’re one of the biggest running clubs in the country ……there were loads of Cosmics, heaps of Fife people, piles of Trotters, squads of Carnethy etc etc .
The only good news was that with no JD or Baldy Dobber running I would get the Men’s Summer League if I could just finish.
The sun was splitting the sky when the race started and we headed off along a forest track for about a km or so then a trod and straight up through the heather to the first top ….hang a right on a fairly artificial route down a ridge then left over to the bealach and the main path up MaB ……at this point Davie Duncan caught me but I pushed on like a mad thing and beat him to the top then set off down the path which was initially rough enough for me to make time on him but got smoother as you dropped and Davie came shooting past near the bottom …….then purgatory …..well over 2kms of forest track, half of it uphill and the heavens opened and we got 10 minutes or so of fine Scottish rain dumped on us. Hung on in losing several places ( Davie was long gone ) and finished to the shouts of JD who had turned up and was cheering the finishers over the last 100m or so. Good race but just too much forest track or smooth path so didn’t feel as good as the old race route. Collected my mug from Ronnie G, chaffed with a few other bods, had some food and a cup of tea in the hall and a chat with the Ladies Summer League champion ( Brenda) who had been safely shepherded around by Manny. Then down to Aviemore for a pint with Manny, Brenda and a couple of other folk and then off home …….a great day out …….more racing Westies urgently required ! ……Your CCC needs you !