New Year's Day outing up Dumgoyne.
I bumped into Helen Stuart and Dougie MacGregor from Bellahouston the first time I was descending, so I turned round and went back up. I then saw Kenny Richmond way off in the distance returning from Garloch Hill, so I jogged off to intercept him for a quick chat, and then headed up Garloch Hill myself, before turning back and climbing Dumgoyne for a 3rd and final time.
A dry but windy evening saw 12 Westies lining up at Blanefield Monument for the 3rd annual Dumgoyne Handicap. Expert handicapper Jenny constantly shuffled the times until finally all the runners were off. First back in the impressively fast time of 46:44 was John Donnelly. Nige and I scored a dead heat with 43:23 as the fastest time of the evening, despite setting off a minute apart. Elsie recorded a new ladies record of 54:47.
Perfect conditions for the Cort-ma Law race rendered the man-eating emerald green bog only knee-deep rather than the usual waist-deep. The race saw a fine turn out of 18 Westies.
The fast running helped race winner Kenny Richmond to equal John Stevenson's 1999 course record of 48:16. And fastest Westie by a mile was David Riach, whose rich vein of form earned him an impressive 3rd place. Ellie finished as 2nd lady despite being crocked.
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.
