Portree Highland Games

Drove up to Skye on Wednesday to run in the Portreee Highland Games hill race. Beautiful day and the roads were fairly quiet so arrived about an hour or so before the race. The games are held in a wee natural amphitheatre just a few hundred yards from the centre of Portree, really small and the audience are right on top of the action, a lap of the track is about 200 metres or so. The race is fairly simple……you run round the track a couple of times then out of the gate ……same on the way back …..the bit in between is totally random other than you must reach a flag on the hillside about 2 miles away …..your route to/from said flag is totally up to you …..nuff said, I’d do anything for a shortcut. Before the race I was talking to Garry and Christina Rankin and Kyle Greig who between them had already won a fortune from the various games races…..think Christina won £240 by the end of the day. Before the race was called I was pleased to meet two friendly faces as Gus and Jean Bowman appeared, on their way home from their tour of the Hebrides hill races on the Uists. They had investigated the best way to get to/from the hill and tried to describe it to me …..went in one ear and out the other I’m afraid …..something about a 12 foot drop over a wall etc etc.

The race started and we were off …..charging down the wee road from the stadium I said to Gus …there’s a bunch going right, looks like the way to go ……a low wall about a foot high appears…….aaaaaaagh! …..ya b@$%£”*!….there’s a huge pit on the other side…..people throwing themselves off like lemmings …..Gus laughing like a drain just behind me …..who needs ankles anyway ….jump ….survived….over the gravestones ……jump the barbed wire fence ….run over the fishermans nets drying on the grass ….over another gate …..jump the mooring ropes and …..into the seaweed and cross the beach ……some years apparently the tide means that you have to wade and swim on this route but not today ….its just slippy and soggy and tiring …….about half a mile then up through a garden and over a wee fence to come out by the garage ….across the main road and up through the grounds of a hotel following a guy in Skye and Lochalsh vest who said he knew where he was going ……git! …..he led a few of us through a jungle only to discover the path he’d been looking for was about 10 metres to our left…..out on to the path and then the open hillside getting steeper and steeper but only for a few hundred feet before traverse along and round the flag, collecting what looked like an old cinema ticket on the way …..descend through really rough area with big holes for a few hundred metres back to the path …..where’s the way back? Try this ….No …what about here ….maybe ….ah recognise the back of the hotel …..back to the beach. My wrong turn on way down meant Gus was about 200 metres ahead on the beach and I closed that to about 100m before we got back to the shore line …..but then his previous check of the route really paid dividends …..I got lost for about 20/30 seconds or so wandering around before getting into the cemetery and then finding a way past the outward big drop …..but then back on song and into the games park where you do a lap and a half and the crowd give you a good cheer on the way round. The winner was Garry Rankin of Lochaber in 18:50 with Kyle Greig 7 seconds behind, first lady was Christina Rankin in under 21 minutes ……Gus was 24 minutes something about a minute ahead of me and the bold Jeanie B was 2nd lady earning a cool £60 for her trouble.

A great wee race which although I strongly recommend you get there early and check out the route …..I wish I had……it was made even better for me by the presence of Jean and Gus …..Gus to compete with and Jean for her company and to bankroll our post-race Magnums from her well-earned cash prize.