16th David Shepherd Memorial Talisker Glamaig Hill Race

19th July 2003

Report and results

Graeme Bartlett The First to the Top	Five seasons in one day made for an interesting David Shepherd Memorial Glamaig Hill Race this year, with an alternately wind-blown, rain-soaked and sun-drenched summit marshal somewhat bemused to see the race 'organiser' competing, whilst he on the other hand was 'needed' to marshal the top.		Alec Keith and Brian Marshall
Derek Bearhop	A good field of 88 runners, including half a dozen of the Carnethy faithful made the most of the dry moorland conditions to run over, rather than through, the bog and by the time the runners reached the hill, Glamaig was bathed in splendid sunshine.		Graeme Carracher
	Up front, Forres' Graeme Bartlett and HELP's Brian Marshall battled for the lead, with Graeme a mere 20 seconds ahead at the top. Further down the field Carnethy's Graeme Carracher and Derek Bearhop ran their own private battle, arriving at the top together. Similarly, just a little further back, another Carnethy pair, Andrew Shepherd and Robin Morris battled it out between them also arriving at the top together. The first lady to the top and running very strongly was Eilidh Paterson, perhaps benefiting from some coaching from her Dad, who's just recently been selected to run at Innsbruck. The other main contenders in the Lady's race, Lochaber's Amanda Blackhall and Sarah Byrne, HBT's Debbie MacDonald and Gilly Kirkwood, Inverness runner Susan Blackwood and Carnethy's Kate Friend arrived at the top some 3 minutes later in a relatively tight group. It would be route choice and descending skill which would determine which of them was to take second place, or even to catch Eilidh.
Eilidh Paterson	Last Carnethy to the top was Scott Sneddon, who uses his first name 'Matthew' in race results to save his embarrassment, but his dog 'Jake' waiting expectantly at the top warmly appreciated his 'late' arrival! The last lady to the top was Colleen McLeod from Burnisdale and last one up (and down) was an ebullient Matthew Hale from Brighton who had never done a hill race before and decided to 'give it a go'.		Eilidh Paterson
	Meanwhile, Brian's strong descending proved to be too much for Graeme who finished second some two minutes behind. Almost half of the first dozen runners were from the strong Lochaber contingent with John Hepburn, Donald Paterson and Mark Shaw battling it out across the moor for Lochaber honours, finishing 5th, 6th and 7th respectively. Graeme Carracher stayed ahead of Derek whilst Andrew Shepherd, brother of David in whose memory the race is held, pushed ahead to finish two minutes ahead of Robin who also failed to catch Eilidh Paterson who descended and finished as strongly as she'd climbed. Eilidh finished some six minutes ahead of her nearest rival, Amanda Blackhall!
Kate Friend	Last in but ecstatic and running comfortably was Matthew Hale who admitted that his flat soled 'loafers' may have hindered his progress but he now had a whole new appreciation of hill runners and hill running!		Scott Sneddon
Robin (The organiser) Morris	At the finish the organiser faced a number of protests from runners claiming to be first local and from a summit marshal who had to content himself with a brisk descent down the scree, passing runner's who had left 10-15 minutes before, rather than the pleasure or running the whole race like our errant organiser.		Robin is eclipsed
Debbie MacDonald	After the race, Nick Macdonald and Dick Wall ran up Sgur na Gillean in the warm evening sunshine whilst others enjoyed the free food and drink and post-race ceilidh which make the David Shepherd Memorial Glamaig Hill Race great value for money and worth the trip to Skye, especially now - as rumour has it - the bridge tolls are to be scrapped. You heard it hear first!		Dick Wall
Brian Marshall	Graeme Bartlett	Alec Keith	Careless descender