The race was won by Stewart Whitlie in 3:34:10. This is the first year the race has been run since 1992.
Ellie and I marshalled on the summit of Ben Ime for just over 3 hours in moderately unpleasant gale force winds and torrential rain. The tent was barely up to the job and was repeatedly flattened as we tried to put the thing up with numb fingers and trying not top let all our stuff get blown away. Definitely a different experience to running in the race.
My first official hill race on the Scottish mainland since Ben Lomond on May 12th.
There was some controversy at the sharp end of the race where leaders Kenny Richmond and Matt Bell both crossed the fence and cut the corner after the gully, rather than returning up the fenceline to the stile. Since they apparently both broke the course record with this shortcut, they were both disqualified. This left Matt Williamson and David Riach battling it out for eventual race winner, and Matt got the better of David on the final descent.
I had been level with Matt and David at the summit of Cort-ma Law, but they both got away from me on the boggy section to Lecket Hill, where there was an unusual diversion to the cairn at the true summit. Angela Mudge also pulled away on this section with John Stevenson chasing.
I was passed by John on the descent to the gully, only to immediately pass him again on the climb back out. I wasn't making any ground on Angela. But come the final run in John passed me strongly again, and I managed to latch on just enough for him to pull me past Angela who set a new women's course record of 53:17.
Complete and utter midge hell in the car park afterwards.
Fairly comfortable running temperature, but rather windy. I think the race was won by Chris Mackay in 14:23, with Robert Russell 2nd and Stephen Wylie 3rd. First lady was Susan Finch in 17:32. I finished 20th in 16:50 and was 4th V40.
Not sure why my heart rate graph was all over the place for the first 6 minutes.
The last of the 4 Polaroid races was won by Chris MacKay in 30:59. First lady was Susan Partridge in 34:38. I finished 30th in 35:33, and was 5th V40.
There's quite a long climb and descent through the park by Loch Lomond in the first half. The second half got hotter and hotter as the clouds melted away, replaced by strong sunshine.
The race was won by Robert Gilroy in 31:01. First lady was Lesley Chisholm in 37:14. I managed another sub-35 minute 10k, finishing in 34:38 for 25th position, and 5th V40. All the gun times seem to about 3 seconds out. My watch time was 34:35.
Deja vu from Clydebank, spending second half of the race running with Scott Kennedy.
The race was won by Ian Holmes in 2:42.
I felt completely awful for most of the race - totally washed out with no energy. Tempted to pack it in on the first climb up Harter Fell, but somehow struggled on and finished in 3:32.
I don't normally get any trouble with my ankles, but in this case I was getting jarring pain on every descent. I was also eating on every climb, including the first one up Harter Fell, but this had little or no effect at boosting energy levels.
Time to skip a few races now, and buy some frozen peas. I don't want to feel that rubbish again at the next one.
And by the way, the Duddon route is nowhere near 20 miles. I've no idea where that figure came from. The actual distance is more like 17 miles.
