Devil's Burdens 22nd January 2011

Leg 3 The Seniors - John Mitchell

“ It doesn’t matter what position we finish as long it’s ahead those V40s”. Sam’s pre-race words of wisdom were in my mind as myself and Andy set off in pursuit on leg 3. Route choice was thoroughly discussed before the start – should we contour left for 20 yards then head straight up the first hill, or just head straight up? We chose the latter option; leg three goes into a steep climb from the start but we felt strong despite being soon overtaken by the very fast Deeside pairing. There was little time to admire the stunning view from the top of Bishop Hill with Stewart and Adrian just ahead. On Google Earth the descent from the summit looks like a green and pleasant route with springy turf one could happily skip down surrounded by birds and butterflies. In January it’s a tussocky bog with brown ice which sliced into my ankles. But soon we were slogging it up West Lomond and we finally caught our Carnethy rivals at the summit. But Adrian had a secret weapon to unleash on us – his dog. The little devil launched itself down the hill and, like a Kenyan chasing a world record, Adrian flew after his pacemaker with Stewart just behind. Andy and I dug in hard to keep up with the dog but it was just too fast or us. The last road section was less than pleasant but we soon handed over to Sam to bring it home.

Leg 4 The Seniors - Sam Hesling

It's a miracle. Despite my best efforts it seems that all five mens teams were successfully entered, and given than no-one gave me a doing over (yet) it seems we had some well matched groups of six out on the hills. For some reason when asked if I'd like to swap leg 2 (straight up on path + along the flat on rough ground + madness descent = lots of fun) for leg 4 (flat + fireroad + super fast = not much fun) I agreed.  It actually turned out to be excellent fun with a few of us going "slightly" of course on the jog out to he start from Falkland (eh Gregor!) which added to the madness.

For some reason Adam's taunting of "we're going to gub you" rings slightly hollow now - wonder why ?

Leg 2 M40 The Oldies - Bruce Smith
After Sam had kindly dumped the captaincy of the Carnethy B team on me (nice delegation - that lad'll do well) we got around to sorting the team out.
After a couple of niggles on my calf in the run up I opted for the shortest leg thus freeing up Steven to get some real hill running on leg 1 and Aidy to try and chase Stewart through leg3.
The first runners (Shetts) were through very fast which caught us all a bit unawares and quickly after them Westies were through in 2nd place and they handed over to with erstwhile Carnethy senior Cameron Burt.
Very soon after the real Carnethy seniors were in and handing over to my chauffeur to the start Tim Darlow. Less than a minute later Adam and Steven charged up the hill to the changeover and I was off in hot pursuit. I managed to reel in Deeside after about a mile but not long after that Mark Johnston came past me with Keith Hood of Corstorphine on his shoulder. Luckily Mark has done this leg plenty of times so I tracked his minor short-cut across the field to the first stile, and in so doing overhauled Tim to get us in front of the seniors.
Cam was a distant spec by this time up through the firebreak but Tim was sticking with me up the forest track, but we were both quickly passed by a flying Murray Strain (who recorded a time about 2 minutes faster than anyone else).
After the check punch I avoided falling on the ice, escaping with just the one foot in the icy water to get to the final climb over White Craig. I hadn't done this leg for a few years so was hoping I could still track Mark's route for the best descent line but he was out of sight so I followed Keith instead, hoping he was in turn following Mark!
Despite a minor deviation at the old quarry I didn't get lost and reeled in Keith soon after the last stile which led to the mental descent to the finish to hand over to Stewart and Aidy, still with a short lead over the youngsters.
Turns out I was 5th fastest on the leg which was quite pleasing, although I know that at least one other runner (Moorfoots') took the wrong descent route and ended up in Scotlandwell.

Leg 1 M50 Spring Chickens - Willie Gibson

After my original partner (Bob Waterhouse) dropped out due to injury, and the first reserve being unavailable, it took lots of persuasion to get a replacement.
Then on the day we ended up with an embarassment of riches (Nick Macdonald and Willie Mykura). As Nick had already pinned the number on Willie M decided to run to the end of the leg and then meet us to run back.
We were last as we left the road for the hill and then we slowly worked our way through the field. But we couldn't keep up with Joan and Joanne
It was nice to berunning in vest and shorts instead of the usual winter gear

Leg 3 M50 Spring Chickens - Gordon Cameron
My first team run with Bob Johnson since our success at FRA 2009
Leg 3 - took over from Andy Sp. and then Bob dragged me up the steep ascent of Bishop Hill. Caught him on the flat section and with lots of encouragement from him we overhauled a few teams en route for West Lomond where Bob missed the check point so had to climb back up before we bombed down to the wood passing our V40B team and sprinted to the handover where Digby was waiting. Good route choice and a good pairing - we gained many places - great timeGordon Cameron and Bob Johnson: Leg 3 in VET50 team

Leg 3 M50 Spring Chickens - Bob Johnson
Bob stood at the start of leg 3 wishing he's bought his chainsaw and the trailer for the car - there was literally tonnes of wood on the ground ready for cutting and "knicking". The shout of "TEAM 16" in our ears and here was Andy Spenceley flying towards us. In a matter of yards we were onto a severe gradient trying to get the better of Bishop Hill (nothing reverend about it in our opinion). We made good progress cutting round to the left of the summit and overtaking about 3 teams in the melee. That was the starter and soon we could see that the main course was going to be West Lomond - we could see by now a gaggle of "runners" climbing the steep main flank. We overtook something like another 3 teams on that ascent including Cammy and Steven McF. who weren't very pleased to see two grey-haired ol' f**ts like us! Bob's brain must have been oxygen-depleted 'cause he didn't spot the dibber at the top and, asking a female runner about the lack of checkpoint (on the way down), had to run back and mark his card (no punn intended). On the pudding course (descent) many teams seem to miss another check on steep ground near a spring. We were overtaken by Tom Owens (he of the KB talk on Tuesday) - what an honour that was. We then hit the tarmac road and finally caught the two lassies that put us right at the top of West Lomond (ditto) and just kept the jump on them to the finish (ditto). We were pleased to finish strongly - the two of us certainly a great match for these sorts of events...

Leg 4 M50 Spring Chickens - Digby Maass

Tips for a splendid leg 4: wear your lightest road racing shoes, it's good forest trails all the way (well, excepting the first muddy field); ponder further the permutations of lifts between legs, it'll take your mind off the effort; those runners you are enjoying overtaking are just jogging back from leg 3, so no points for that; RUN LIKE CRAZY it's not far! - oh and don't forget to switch on your timer, unlike me. Dohhh!

Leg 1 Carnethy Allstars - Harry Gilmore

This was the race that I made my Carnethy debut in last year and it was Russel's turn this time to race for the first time in the red and yellow shirt.
We were placed quite far back at the start but made decent time up thorugh the forest and onto the slopes of E Lomond. All the climbing comes early on in this leg so it was a relief to get to the first checkpoint and see the route snaking down below us with various runners dotted about. The conditions were pretty good and the mixed running over moorland, fields and for a short stretch, asphalt road, made for a varied and enjoyable run.
Handover to Brian at the reservoir and then the really tricky part - ferrying runners and various cars over the remainder of the course!!
Leg 1 Carnethy Allstars - Russell Sommerford

This was my first race sporting the red and yellow colours, and what a fantastically social one to start with! Running the first leg with Harry gave us the advantage over the rest of the Allstars (the name's ironic) that we didn't have to worry about the logistics before our leg. All of our ascent was pretty much out of the gate and we made up quite a few places on the first half of the climb after starting at the back of the pack. However my poor choice of footwear soon saw me sliding all over the place, losing a few places on the last half of
the climb on to East Lomond. From there it was a good feeling to know that the only way was down, with the route ahead marked by other runners, however care still had to be taken to not blindly follow those ahead as we saw a number of breakaway groups go off course. Before we knew it we were approaching the handover to Brian, and the tricky part of our race - the logistics! Conclusion: A great race, perfect for a first outing in club colours with fantastic soup and cake afterwards.

Leg 2 Carnethy Allstars - Brian Howie

I wasn't feeling great on Saturday morning; maybe the remnants of a cold or the effects of the Wednesday Night Run. However once I got some fresh air, and a jog at the start of leg 2, I was a new man. Leg 2 is runnable all the way and I used my 5K road race training to catch Helen ,who had just under a minute on me. By that time the climb started to get steeper into the fire break. Inevitably Andy passed me just before the top. I swithered about whether to climb the gate at the control point or not, but in the end followed Andy over the gate, hoping the "pond" in the dip further on was not too deep , which fortunately it wasn't.
I spotted a possible shortcut , but it took me to the edge of a cliff, so I diverted to a point 20 yds away, which wasn't quite as vertical. This and my pitiful descent skills down the steep hill to the changeover allowed Helen to pass ,but I hung on as best I could to within a few seconds.
I knocked 2 mins off last year, but that may have been better underfoot conditions. Pleased with my run, and as usual a cracking day out.

Leg 3 Carnethy Allstars - Keith Burns - Devil of a third leg for the Allstars
JBF and I seem to have become fixtures in the Carnethy Leg 3 veterans/ ragbag squad over the past few years. The struggle to hold form continues. This year had a mixed outcome; we improved 10 minutes on last year despite at least four significant time wasting mistakes (all down to me). The easier weather conditions must have helped (the occasional ice and frozen turf certainly didn’t).
We took the west flank lower level option climbing Bishop Hill. This went well until we climbed onto the plateau a gully too early, having led Jasmin and Angela astray with our mistake. Determined to make up, we launched off Bishop Hill summit for the radical NE gambit before picking up the direct heading for W Lomond. Wrong! The tussock and bog were frozen into an unyielding corrugated nightmare. Jasmin and Angela ignored us and secured a belated lead using the direttissima and were well up W Lomond when we next caught sight of them, for the last time.
The westerly breeze on the steep descent to the gully seemed to have thawed the turf out a bit and we reached the checkpoint turn with no falls (amazing). Starting the long descending traverse to the forest I thought it would be a good idea to avoid any further frozen ground by descending earlier than usual (mistake no. 3). John was stubbornly holding our normal higher line but eventually succumbed to my misplaced confidence that I knew better (mistake no. 4; if you don’t like the decision, shout harder!). The price was an unnecessary stagger through the low level boulder field that could have been avoided.
After all this, it was amazing that we knocked 10 minutes off last year’s time. A very enjoyable 80 minutes. Imagine what error-free performance we might deliver next year - - .

Leg 4 Carnethy Allstars - Mike Lynch

This was my first DB and indeed first team event so I was looking forward to it. I was 'strategically' placed on the trail leg, given my less-than-impressive track record on the hills and this suited me fine. It was an early start, and a long day, but I enjoyed every minute of it, especially getting together with all of the other teams and meeting some of my Carnethy colleagues for the first time!
We had solid legs 1 - 3 and at my changeover I wanted to give the team the best finish I could so flew out of the blocks. I hit the leg as hard as I could (not forgetting to punch my paper of course!) and came home in 32.41, passing around 6 teams on the way in, but being pipped by a Lothian runner near the finish. All in all, a great experience and I'm keen to try a different leg next year.