Twelve Trig Trog

7th – 8th June 1997

This race is not for slack jawed nancy boys faggots.

When I heard about this race last year I thought I must do that as it’s the race that comes closest to where I live. Unfortunately ….., congenital stupidity made me actually go through with it. It was close, but having told Manny I would enter way back in March and having sent back the entry form ( and the cash ) my miserliness meant I was committed.

Day 1

Race day dawned to a crisis, I would have to look after the house and kids as my wife had an emergency cremation ( she’s a Church of Scotland minister ). Being too dumb to take this golden opportunity I ran around like a loony and managed to complete my assigned tasks, farm the kids out around the village, pack my rucksack, and drive like a mental case to Carron Bridge, arriving 10 minutes before the off.

Woops I thought, there’s not too many people in for this, how can I hide in a field this small ? Manny was pleased to see another victim and was dishing out numbers, abuse, maps, repartee, pins, advice (good and bad) with a general air of gay abandon. As I pulled on the rucksack I realised that it was somewhat over supplied with enough kit and food to last two people for a complete Islands Peaks race rather than just myself for a single day. Just before the off old dodgy ankles Baxter roared into the car park and this meant the amount of abuse on offer was significantly enhanced. Good on you Pete for coming along to take photographs and laugh at the sorely afflicted.

We’re off and already the 12lb pack is giving me grief in the first 400 metres. Chug along quite happily until it gets hilly and then Brian and Charlie come past. Brief chat and then they’re off……shortly after that Drew and his mate appear and get ahead of me which gets me going a bit as Drew beat me in my nightmare run at Stuc a Chroin and this must be avenged. Get ahead of them before the first top and try keeping B & C in sight, first road crossing and grab some water and a few sweeties and push on though the gap ahead is growing. No matter ….. the weather is OK for running, conditions underfoot are good, and Manny’s route and way marking are first class. Past the van ( more water, more sweets ) at the foot of Meikle Bin and at last I’m in hills I’ve run on before which cheers me up. Up Meikle Bin and slightly confused by lack of marking off the top but Manny doesn’t let me down and soon sure that I’m going the right way. Still OK I push on to Cort ma Law where I can see B & C well ahead. As I get there I see a runner who introduces himself as Bob Sheridan of Cosmics. He’d been well ahead and had taken a bad route off the top of Meikle Bin with unfortunate results.

We joined up and I was glad of somebody to talk to as I’d been on my tod for the last 2 hours, pushed on over Lecket Hill and then down to the second and last road crossing of the day. More water, more sweets and off up Hart Hill with Bob though it was soon obvious that he was friskier than me ( dead sheep were bloody friskier than me ). Off he went and I trudged upwards, over the top, and then on through the worst conditions of both days the crap and peat hags were bad. To my surpriseI caught Bob and another mile further on as we neared the drop into the Fin Glen he told me he’d strained his groin. Soul destroying to drop so much distance into the Glen and see that you’re immediately gonna have to climb even higher on the other side…….. enough for Bob and he jacked it in and headed off up Glen ( as it turned out he’d probably have been as well carrying on ). Made it to the top ( couldn’t see anybody ahead or behind ) and kept on to Earl’s Seat though by this time I was knackered.

Big mistake, despite knowing this part of the hills really well I took a really novel way to the finish which really depressed me and convinced me that one day was enough and I would be crazy to even dream of starting day 2. Manny and his wife were at the Clachan of Fintry with a cheery welcome and the early finishers looked as if they’d had a stroll in the park which had only warmed them up. I was surprised to find I was only 30 minutes down on Brian and Charlie who sounded as if they’d also had a bad descent to the finish.

Off home, having told Manny that dodgy whether I’d be back on the morrow……at that point there was no chance. My back was aching from carrying the weighty rucksack which I hadn’t even opened. Anyway, bath,

food, snooze, food, bed and woke up at 8 o’clock feeling only poor. Stupidity and machismo reared their ugly head and I packed a large bum bag with what I needed and off I went to Fintry for day 2.

Day 2

Some new runners had appeared, including Elsie, and some others had not turned up and Pete B was there to photograph the (depleted ) squad before the off again. Off I went feeling OK ( ho ho ) and was lying 5th as we got above the first cliffs and was joined by Tom Ross of Fife AC and Brian. Manny had told everybody it was better to go further from the cliffs on the run to the 1st checkpoint but this was dodgy advice in my view and Tom and Brian stuck on my tail as we pushed on closer to the edge. Ya beauty ….I was right …. we got there ahead of Ronnie and Charlie who lost a few minutes to us. A group of 5 of us then stuck together to the head of the corrie after which Tom and Ronnie pushed on leaving the three of us. We made pretty good time over the next checkpoint and then along through the miles of bracken to the checkpoint in the trees still going OK though Charlie said later that he’d had a real low point.

After this things got slower ( though Charlie could have pushed on ) but we kept on steady to the road checkpoint where we had some water and food and then to the reservoir. Manny’s route to the top of the cliffs was a little nasty illegitimate person and drained the last few calories I had. Onward to the top ( only one to go ) and then down through the woods and off up the Bannock Burn. The first mile and a bit were good and the last few were a nightmare and we were glad to see Dave Rogers at the road ( no water, no food ) who told us we were 45 minutes down on Ronnie and Tom. I hereby confess Manny that from this point on you were really lucky…..if I had a voodoo doll of you I would have been ripping various appendages off and sticking pins in it, as it was I just cursed you upside down.

A few hundred yards of road and then down another horrible burnside with the only highlight Brian trying to geld himself climbing a fence. We found Bob ( of the strained groin ) marshalling at the edge of the forest and we followed the marked trail through to the track and then onward seemingly endlessly to the summit. Here, to our amazement, we found Tom who was totally befuddled as …….. Ronnie had got away from him, he’d missed Bob ( who was answering a call of nature ) at the edge of the woods, wandered aimlessly for a long time, come out the woods again and found Bob, found his way to the top, but had somehow missed Manny’s explanation and had been scouting around for another way off (you just went back the same way ). Tom joined up with us and off we went for the last few miles. The rest of the guys were very kind here and allowed me lots of walks though Charlie in particular looked as if he was full of beans. Anyway finished together at Carron Bridge to Manny et al’s cheers and everybody was in good fettle.

The inclusive soup was magic and my day was made complete by getting the first veteran prize ( OK Tom Ross was hours ahead and he was a super vet and there was only one other vet finisher but a prize is a prize ). In future I’m only going to enter races with a small entry ….. its my only chance.

The record winning time by Alec Keith of HBT was sensational and might stand for a few years. The race organisation was magic and Manny and all who helped were absolutely top notch. I honestly don’t have a single quibble about anything over the two days …..its just a crying shame that there weren’t a lot more entries as more work went into this race from the organisational viewpoint than any 4 other races that I’ve seen. C’mon Westies you need to support this race better and get your mates from other clubs along as well.

Well done Manny

1 Alec Keith HBT 8:18:25

2 Mark Higginbottom Carnethy 9:05:02

3 Ronnie Gallacher Westies 9:25:28

4 Tom Ross Fife AC 10:58:29

5 Charlie Campbell Westies 11:55:22

= Brian Bonnyman Westies 11:55:22

7 Brian Brenan Westies 12:25:31

10 Drew Turnbull Westies 13:25:25

11 Louise Provan (1F) Dundee 15:31:07