February 17th - Carnethy 5

Drove to the Pentlands for the Carnethy 5. This is the curtain-raiser for the hill-running season, and is always a real quality affair. All the best Scottish hill runners turn out, along with a few of the good guys from south of the border. It starts with a 400m flat runs across boggy ground followed by a long steady climb up Scald Law – the highest hill in the range. Avoided the usual cavalry-charge across the bog and started the climb in about 35^th place. Gradually picked off runners on the way up, including Chris Upson, who seemed to have set off more sensibly than usual. Reached the summit in the low 20s and legged it out to South Black Hill and around to East Kip on the heels of an inspired Jamie Thin, who appeared to be running out of his skin. Pushed it a bit hard and had a pretty dismal ascent of East Kip, during which I lost a couple of places, notably to Kenny from Bellahouston, whom I have beaten by a few seconds in this race for the last two years. Rallied a bit on the descent and the climb of West Kip. Summited with Kenny, who then trounced me on the steep tussocky drop into the valley. I tried to haul him and Jamie in on the flat section to the Howe but by the time we reached the foot of Carnethy I was still a good 60m adrift, and sitting in about 22^nd spot. I always seem to have a bit left in the tank for this final climb, and I gradually closed them down. Kenny was passed just before the gully, but Jamie was still running strongly and seemed out of reach. Enjoyed a bit of a ding-dong with Malcolm Patterson, leap-frogging repeatedly until I finally broke him on the last heave to the summit.

By common consent, the route marked for the descent of Carnethy was one of the worst ever, and gratuitously technical through long rough heather. No-one within range ahead – Jamie was well out of reach - and no-one threatening from behind, so after stumbling swearily and falling arse-over-tit a couple of times I coasted to the finish in 55:02 for 19^th place. My stated objectives before the race were top-20 and sub-55 minutes. If I’d remembered to pack a watch I’d have achieved both. As it was, I was left ruefully reflecting on my lazy trundle across the last 400m, during which I could easily have picked up 10 seconds if I’d known I was close to the target. Manny, Nige and Chris all finished within about half a minute of one-another, with Nige leading the charge in a shade over 56 minutes. Rob Jebb won, Jethro Lennox was second and Brian Marshall 7^th. Strange absence of fatigue at the end, and ran the three miles back to Peniculk comfortably with Chris, Nige and Jane. By the way – what’s the special ingredient in Pentland mud? After hanging around in Peniculk eating chicken pie and potato-leatherette and waiting in vain for the prize-giving, then driving home, feeding the troops, flogging through the childrens’ bedtime routine and finally finding time to jump in the shower at 9 p.m. I was startled to discover that the grime from the race had set on my legs like epoxy, and it took a lot of vigorous scrubbing with a pot-scourer to shift it.