Saturday 13th February – Carnethy 5 Hill Race
Report from Caron Ralph:
It was cold and snowy!
Having entered this race last year and unable to do it due to injury, Andrew and I decided to try again this year (what better way to spend Valentines weekend) although the weather this year was decidedly different to the sunny day this time last year! By the time the race started-13 minutes late-my feet were like blocks of ice and i was starting to wonder if it had been a good idea to enter. Off we went over 2 bogs to the first climb Scald Law, I knew the 1st and 5th climb were going to be long and steep so I didn’t set off too fast and having Andrew running with me (he had been full of cold so decided to run around with me) was really encouraging. After a leg sapping climb of about 20 minutes we had a bit of a respite running along a ridge to the next one, 2nd 3rd summits South Blackhill and East Kip were windy and at times very hard to see anything as snow was so hard and really cut your face. West Kip was the 4th summit and a bit steeper than the others but a hilarious bum slide down part of it made it more fun! A mile or so run across to the final climb Carnethy Hill and I was feeling ok but knew this one was worse than the first-and I wasn’t wrong! It seemed to go on forever and it was ages before we were able to see the summit, finally at the top we started an ankle breaker descent made up of ankle tangling heather with a lot of snow on top! I think I bounced rather than ran down this and weirdly took more out of my legs than the uphills, but managed to pass a few along the bottom towards the finish. Over the bogs again back to a welcome cup of hot coffee in the tent. Although a short race (6 miles) it’s definitely packs a punch but I would do it all over again next year as I thoroughly enjoyed it, I was expecting to be in the last 10 or so people and was surprised to find there was 80 runners behind me so all in all a fairly good day considering the snow had slowed us down.
The 1st man was Prasad Prasad, Squadra Porcini, 54:08, 1st Lady Charlotte Morgan, Carnethy H. 01:01:30, 409th, Andrew Robertshaw 1:36:46, 410th Caron Ralph 1:36:47.
Lots more photos from Matthew here, Youtube video (24 mins..) here, West Kip bum slide @ ~ 22 mins.
6 thoughts on “Saturday 13th February – Carnethy 5 Hill Race”
Well done Caron, sounds and looks fun! But why didn’t you elbow Andrew out of the way to nab 409th spot?? :o)
Awesome! That’s proper fell running conditions 🙂
He couldn’t help but beat you could he! Ha ha.
Well done – must be love!
I did try! Managed to pass a few others trying to get to him! Could’ve done with him pushing me up last hill though.
I think you underestimate how good a fell runner you are, I’m not surprised there were 80 people behind you. Well done.
I agree with Hannah L. on this one , because to leave 80 runners behind you it means that you had a good day running up north ,1.36 is a super result Caron , from what you can see on the video , it looks like tough going with all the snow covering the paths. Also Andrew R. had a good performance at this hill race .