Tinto

A great crowd of Westies turned up for the Tinto race, 18 (+1 if you include Tom who was running for Lochaber). After registration and a bit of banter we headed for the start. The genius John Q had put up the gazibo, making the likes of carnethy really jealous and keeping us nice and warm. However, at one stage it did get confused for a chemical toilet… A few of us headed for a warm up together, running the first 1km or so… With a gate after 400m or so I figured it would be a very fast start so did some sprints to really get the legs moving.

The start was fast with Matthew Sullivan and Andrew Fallas taking the first two spots through the gate. I was third through the gate, with Tom Smith right behind me. I had a strong climb and stayed in 3^rd until the summit. Tom was right behind me and over took as I took a slightly wrong route around the summit cairn, this was due to a marshal taking a step backwards and tripping up just as I arrived at the top. Myself and Tom were already more than a minute behind Matthew and Andrew. The descent was fast and fun, with no really technical bits. I was getting loads of shouts from the other westies. Sorry I didn’t shout back, my eyes had stopped working properly and I’m not sure if my voice box would have made a noise other than an inaudible grunt. I got passed by Graeme Campbell, Gareth Green and Angela Mudge on the way down. I managed to hang onto Gareth and Angela and got past Angela by hurdling the fence rather than going through the gate (the hurdle sessions in Kelvin Hall are paying off). Tom had managed to hang on for third, while Gregor had a very respectable top 20 finish. After that the westies were coming in thick and fast only outnumbered by those crafty carnethy buggers. A great day in the hills overall, at a very enjoyable race. Congrats to Sarah too who finished 5^th.

Results