Tinto Hill Race

Only a few Westies wandered up into deepest Lanarkshire for this classic race that rounds off the hill racing season. The weather was fine, if a bit windy, and fortunately the snow that covered Tinto the following day was absent on Sat. About 260 runners hared off along the narrow muddy track as I tried to not get left too far behind. My heart rate had zoomed up immediately to about 85% max and stayed there for the whole race. As we hit the hill proper I mixed power walking with slow running and hit the summit cairn in just under 30mins, with an aching back from the usual hunched over position. The descent is a classic, not too steep and decent enough grip and I felt up for it. I lost a few places to some demon descenders, but also passed a few, including fellow Westie Alasdair Duke.

I crossed the line in a shade over 43mins, only a minute down on my 2008 time, so taking into account the ravages of father time on my weary body, I was pretty pleased. I scraped into the top third of the field with 87th place of 264 finishers. Alan Gilkison led us home in 33rd place and Pauline had a great run to finish as first F50 (I have your prize). My sixteenth (and slowest) race here and hopefully I’ll be back for many more. Thanks to Cameron Scott and his team of Carnethy organisers for a fine day out.

1 Jethro Lennox Shettleston Harriers 32:01
2 Alasdair Anthony Ochil HR 32:43
3 Matthew Sullivan Shettleston 33:07
11 Angela Mudge Carnethy FV40 35:38

33 Alan Gilkison 38:33
87 John Donnelly 43:05
103 Alasdair Duke 43:55
112 Brian Brennan 44:23
162 John Quinn 47:37
176 Pauline McAdam 48:37
209 Paula Cowan 51:06
254 Pat McLaughlin 01:11