Merrick Hill Race

20th september 1997

Chris, Murdo and I set out expecting to meet plenty of Westies using the Merrick Race as a final training race before the Breweries. What a disappointment we were outnumbered by Carnethy and even Ochils!

Conditions were excellent with only a tiny patch of mist sitting on the main summit to start with. The rain earlier in the week had given up and the last couple of dry days would hopefully have dried out the boggy bits.

A field of only 33 starters set off and within 10 strides had settled into single file on the first climb through the vertical bracken and boulders. Only the juniors attempted to elbow their way past but there were only 3 of them and they were doing a much shortened course so nobody held them up.

A short respite and a bit of running for about 50m before the second, even steeper climb to the top of the first hill and the first sighting of the Merrick in the distance. Some rough running on undulating sheep tracks took us to the forestry road crossing where the juniors turned round for their homeward run.

Then the bogs started on the long, lumpy climb to Bennan with the field stretching out in front. About halfway, one of the local runners gave up what did he know that we didn’t? Now technically I could not be last so I succumbed to the pressure of the 4 or 5 behind me and settled to a more realistic pace.

The section contouring to the hole in the wall was as rough as ever and a bit worrying for the dodgy ankle which kept me out of the Nevis Race (my turn for the Westies Injury). Once through the wall and across the moor to the main tourist path things got a bit easier up the slope to Benyellary I started to meet the leaders on their way back.The run round to the Merrick was straightforward except for trying to keep out of the way of descending runners. Round the cairn about 3 minutes behind the last woman and onto the descent.

The easy climb back over Benyellary slowed me a wee bit but at the cut off from the path to head back to the hole in the wall I could see the last woman was much closer and she had taken a bad line across the moor. (That’s Carnethy for you!) I caught her at the wall but she pulled away again over the rough sections ahead and at the start of the big descent I was resigned to being last finisher. But then I spotted her close below so belted down to catch her before the line and agree to a dead heat.

Murdo and Chris have both had good runs and although Murdo had dropped a place overall on the desecnt he was still 2nd Vet. Embarrassingly the first Supervet beat all the Vets to finish in 5th place!

1 Euan MacKay Ochils 77m26s

2 John Coyle Carnethy 79m07s

3 Colin Brash Girvan 81m09s

5 Douglas Milligan Solway 86m24s (1st SV)

8 David Duncan Ochils 87m50s (1st V)

11 Murdo MacLeod Westies 90m49s (2nd V)

16 Jo McClintock Galloway 95m57s (1st F)

22 Ros Evans Lochaber 100m21s (1st FV)

30 Chris Osmond Westies 117m45s (10th V)

31 Graham Benny Westies 125m14s (11th V)

At the prizegiving though the organiser, Peter Trenchard of Girvan AC, announced that he and his club could no longer afford to organise the Race. The turnout over the past 2 years had been so low that they had incurred a 100 quid loss each time! It is possible that another club in the South West could pick up the organisation if enough enough runners show interest and promise to turn out. But where were all the Westies? it is less than a 1 1/2 hour drive from Glasgow, it is a superb course (it was a British Championship race a few years back), and would have provided excellent training for the Breweries.