The Yetholm Hill race route is a favourite training route of mine as myself and good friend and NFR member Steve Matthews train on it a fair bit so on arrival at the start looking up to the hills and seeing deep mist I thought "advantage Gaz". NFR was represented by John Duff, John Dallinson, Scott Gibson, Katherine Davis, Glen Mcwilliams and myself. Right from the off I decide to do a "Phil Sanderson" and shot off. On the tops the visibility was very poor but I felt confident enough. As always the climb up the Curr went on for ever but on top the hardest part of the race was over. Heading onto the Pennine Way I spotted the gate you go through but for some reason I doubted whether I should or not. I decide to wait for a good 2-3 mins for the runners behind to confirm the route then took off again. The last climb I began to feel the tiredness of the previous day's 3k steeplechase but I managed to descend quickly to the finish to win the race. John Duff was next NFR in and had a fall on the last descent but escaped relatively unhurt. Among the other NFR members I caught up with John Dallinson and Katherine seemed to enjoy the race and Scott got a bit lost and made me laugh when he told me he had startled some cows who then began chasing him!. Thankfully everyone arrived back to the finish safely.

Gary Jones

Results on Scottish Hill Runners