Yetholm 2012

Results

I’ve been told over the years that Yetholm is a good race to do so being at home for this holiday weekend I decided to give it a go. This year it was an anti-clockwise journey. On the map it looked to be a great route and it was. But I hadn’t realised how much ascent and descent there was over those first three summits. Thankfully the terrain is typical Borders –grassy and runnable – mostly. There is a brilliant downhill over the Pennine Way to the last short, sharp ascent before a long, long descent to the finish. There was a poor girl standing at the foot of the last ascent trying to psych herself up because somebody had told her it was all down hill from the summit of The Curr! It wasn’t that much of ascent but it was a much longer descent back to the finish than I thought. It was great to find the Mountain Rescue Landrover as a last marker to the final long descent to the finish as my energy was really flagging by then. And many thanks to my girls, Fiona and Karen, who dragged themselves out on a Sunday morning to have a day out in the Borders, do the driving and be expert cheerleaders on the hill.
I’m told the route was anticlockwise last year as well so I’m not sure what the criteria are for reversing the direction. Personally, having experienced the anticlockwise final descent, I reckon I’m an anti-clockwise participant! It’s a long, long way up clockwise!

Fellow Westie Iain Stewart also ran but was at the top of the field. Well done, Iain.