Carnethy 5: report from Dave Johnson

Seven NFRs took part in this year’s Carnethy 5 Hill Race. The weather was uniformly miserable that morning but the forecast was spot on and shortly before the start the rain stopped and we even had a bit of sunshine. From the comfort of the bus the snow sprinkled hills looked lovely, but once outside a cold brisk wind served as a reminder that snow on the ground does not necessarily equate to tropical temperatures. I for one, was soon wishing they would bring forward the starting time.

Underfoot conditions were a bit tricky in places in that you were often running on mud topped with an inch or two of slushy snow. This seemed to slow me down on some of the descents, in fact it felt like I only exceeded jogging speed on the final scree descent. I was quite surprised to find out later, that I was only a couple of minutes down on my best time.

First home was John Tollitt in sixty nine minutes. Phil Green was in five minutes later after a ding dong battle with Geoff Davis. Retirement seems to be agreeing with Geoff, at least running wise. Next in was Andrew Callcott, with Alastair Paul and yours truly a further minute back. Seeing us home was Susan Davis in her 22nd Carnethy race.

It was also good to see John Telfer who climbed Carnethy Hill for the noble purpose of offering words of “encouragment” to us as we passed by!

Dave Johnson