Scottish Hill Racing

[Deeko]

It was a perfect evening for the downhiller. Nice and sunny with a stiff westerly to help with the sprint along the ridge. When I got to the carpark I registered 9th I think (must have done as I started at the 2 minute interval) and I immediately noticed the names of Al A and Ian W in the list already. Oh dear - poor Bruce's record last year of 5:23 was under extreme pressure already! It was also soon pretty clear that this must have been a record field (32 runners) this year as it was much busier than before. Andy W and Bruce S turned up and Andy was telling me how he was going to beat me when I almost thought I was hallucinating - Davie Shanks had appeared (this being his first race for a long time).

It was soon time for the leisurely stroll to the top where the stiff breeze had quite a cooling effect and I was soon frozen. Luckily, starting quite early has its benefits and it was time to start right after Chris Downie. I started OK and started to catch Chris a fair bit along the ridge. Over onto the descent, Dan Gay whizzed past and I took a really poor line at one point and got too close to the fence and nearly fell in a hole. I managed to get across a bit and plodded through the new shiny gate (no stile louping this year!) which was thankfully propped open. Up to the fort and down the slippy grassy path I was pretty much upon Chris and eased past him at the gorse. A determined sprint down the last bit had me sighting Archie Young and Andy and I managed to catch Archie with a sprint but alas Andy was just out of reach (by 3 seconds!). I got in in 6:21, 2 seconds ahead of Davie for 14th place. This was a 18 second improvement on last year but 8 places further down the rankings! Pah!

Al A was first runner out and beat Bruce's record with a 5:14 only to see it cruelly snatched away 12 seconds later by Ian W with a 5:11! Well - I'm assuming these are the times as Andy S's battery on his laptop run out just as I was saying to Bruce how high tech it was this year!

Top race - I ended up with a nice Marbled Madiera cake in the lucky dip. Bruce did well with a bottle of whisky to drown his sorrows and help with drunkenly slurring the tale of how he had the record for the Caerketton Downhill for a year!

[bruce s]

Another fine night for the Caerketton downhill, but this year, with the timing slightly different the fast guys were back from the world trophy. So the star studded starting lineup included Al Anthony and Ian Wellock, as well as phalanx of boggies, a clutch of west coasters headed by bognburn maestro Des Crowe, as well as in form local Steven Fallon.
Despite the slight change to the course, with the stile now replaced by a wedged open gate, current form meant there was no chance I could repeat last years surprise (well it was to me) course record, but a tailwind along the ridge hinted it was sure to be beaten.

Sure enough, no sooner had first runner Al reached the finish than the record was 9 seconds better off, and about 12 seconds later another 3 seconds had been knocked off when Ian crossed the line. Both of them had taken splits along the route, with the only time difference coming along the ridge where Ian took about 1:10 to Al's 1:13 (I think)

My own run was probably my worst over the course, but probably about true to form for the season. Despite the best efforts of Davie Shanks to push Steven Fallon into a sprint finish my vets record remains unbeaten (OK Steven equalled it) for the current year.

A great turnout for the race and an added influx of alcohol based prizes meant that in the lucky dip prize draw after the race I picked up a bottle of whisky to cushion the impact of losing my record.

With the fame of the race spreading I wonder if someone can nip inside the 5 minutes next year? A combination of a fast 500m flat speed and complete disregard for personal safety would be required but I'm sure it could be done....

[al_a]

Yet again good reports guys!

If anyone is interested here are my splits for the race:

Summit cairn to 'east top' cairn 1.21
'east top' cairn to (open) gate 1.17
gate to bottom 2.36


As Bruce said, Ian was 3 secs quicker than me to the east top cairn, but our times were more or less the same from there. Good conditions with the tailwind, although it was mighty cold standing around at the top! I think the extra competition from going head to head with two or three others of the same standard could push the times quite a bit lower.

Thanks to Mark and his team for putting on the race!

al

[Deeko]

Jeepers - I've just inserted a split in my GPS track for the start to the cairn (I forgot to press the lap button) and I did it in 1:41. It's 0.3 miles and that works out at 5:34 min/mile pace for me. That makes Al's split 4:30 min mile pace! Wow!

My splits were:

Start to cairn - 1:41
cairn to gate - 1:34 (3:15)
gate to end - 3:06 (6:21)

Now I know where I need to improve for next year - everywhere!

[ijwellock]

Deeko,
That's very interesting.
Do you have the distances of the other splits (whole race)?

[Deeko]

Hi Ian,

The cairn to the gate is 0.23 miles and the gate to the finish is 0.57 miles. Total is 1.1 miles.

Cheers,

Derek.

[andy69dude]

Hey guys sounds like a really good race I didn't even know that we held downhill races in Scotland I've been wanting to try one for a good while now anyone know of anymore coming up?
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GGH