Carnethy 5

Wet and windy for this years race, thermal leggings, double thermal top, jacket, hat and gloves from the start as the rain swept in on one of our winter storms. 500 plus runners dashed across the swamp to the first hill, Scald Law, staggeringly windy on top, short down and up  South Black Hill, the Kips were the windiest, almost crawling across West Kip, down to the Howe in relative calm before the trudge up the gully and helpfully blown up the final climb to Carnethy hills cairn. Down the heathery slopes , one tumble as I tried to film the descent then back across the swamp to the finish and feeding a hypothermic runner with hot sweet tea.

Carnethy 5 Hill Race

Annual pilgramige to Beeslack High School for a school dinner with the Hill Race as an appetiser. Blue skies on the way over turned to rain as we left for the buses, thankfully blue skies returned by the time we were dropped off at race start.

Hiding from the wind with coffee and a biscuit. Race started about 2pm with the charge across the bog, walk jog up Scald Law, met the breeze head on at the top, hard to keep moving forward. Picked up the pace on the run towards South Black Hill my rucksack thought it was a parachute as the wind caught it. The Kips came and went, short lactic inducing bumps. Wind behind now, helping on the run down and across to the Howe. More lactic undulations on the climbs up Carnethy, nothing major just enough to make you walk while you think you should be running.

Running down Carnethy happy there's no more ups, first part grassy then heather and scree my new inov8's perform and I gain a few places. Across the bog I lose one place, happy to finish inside 85 mins with a school dinner to come.