Tinto Hill Runners

Four THR’s made it to the start-line at the Ben Lomond Race this year, Alister, Dave, Alistair, and myself. Four also made it to the finish, minus a quantity of blood and skin which was left on the hill….!
The day was fine and sunny, although there was a chill in the air and some snow visible at the summit – this presented a clothing dilemma: over-heat on the lower slopes, or freeze higher up.
Having made our sartorial choices and had our heads and limbs counted by the marshalls, we massed at the start line and it was all systems go. I hadn’t warmed up, assuming that this would look after itself with a slow start, but races being what they are I soon forgot about this and set about reeling places in. I had a good ascent, overtaking most of the way up until near the top end of the plateau, where I swapped places with Bruce Smith of Carnethy a couple of times before he finally pulled away and I settled down for the summit ridge in what seemed to be my appointed place.
Alistair meanwhile was battling it out ahead of me in the rarified atmosphere of the top twenty. I had a glimpse of Alan Smith dropping down the side of the ridge in descent, then Gregor, Alistair, and Chris Upson flew past me on the ridge on their way down.
I thought I had a chance of beating my own summit PB of 58:30 but forgot to check my watch until I had already descended the first slabs, and it said 59:14, so I was probably a few seconds outside it.
It was great fun descending the summit cone and then motoring down the plateau path dodging the walkers. However disaster struck near the end of the plateau section when I tripped at speed, taking a header straight down the path and skidded along scraping chunks out of my hands, arm, and nose. Getting tired, and a brief lapse of concentration I guess…
I picked myself up and carried on more cautiously, losing a few places as a result, and only taking one place back on the rest of the descent. Jonathan Weir caught me on the final section of road (hopeless trying to out-sprint that guy) and then someone else just nipped in front of me at the last gasp. However my time was 1:30 which I was well pleased with.
Not wanting to alarm people of a gentle disposition with my blood-smeared appearance, I made my way to join the queue of similarly afflicted runners at the MRT ambulance and got patched up before enjoying soup and roll in the sunshine, and heading off back to Balmaha with the rest of Team Tinto. Despite 3 of the 4 of us suffering from various dodgy achilles, knees, etc, we seemed to acquit ourselves well, Alistair especially, coming in at a very impressive 1:21 and 19th place, Alister at 1:44 and Dave at 1:51.

All photos by Peter Grassl

Hugh finishing in good style at Stuc a' Chroin

Chris’s report:
There had been a bit of chat about this race and I knew I was free for the day, so seemed a good one to start the season. It’s shorter than the Two Breweries and has less feet of ascent than the Pentland Skyline so shouldn’t be too bad. Also I’d walked up the two main hills before so had remembered that the connecting ridge was nice. First signs that this might be under estimating the race came from Hugh when he talked about “flash backs” from 2 years ago when he did it.
However 4 keen Tinto-ers lined up at the start along with 170 others. The first couple of miles follow forestry tracks as you wind up the hillside. Then there’s a short cutting though some trees and a steep ride up to the open hill. The next section ought to be runable as the angle is quite gentle. However the combination of narrows tracks, bog and it being slightly up hill all the way, meant it was hard to do more than a few paces at a time. Finally traversed around the first hill of Meall Mor and a descent of 600-700 feet took us to Glen Ample. The next climb is a bit of a killer. It’s straight up a steep hill side just next to a wire fence. There is a slight trench to follow and you could at times pull on the fence. Hardly anyone near me was stepping out of the line and trying to overtake. That slope on it’s own accounted for 1500 feet of the total climbing. Finally hit the checkpoint on the summit of the Corbett, Ben Each, and started the great scrambling route down heading towards Stuc a Chroin. It wasn’t long after this that I met the first of the leaders on their way down! When I saw the first guy I was thinking I wonder why he’s turned round, must be injured or something and is dropping out. Then another and another appear and I realised they were the leading pack. The section across to the Munro summit is great walking but hard to keep running. I finally reached the top after 2 hours 17 mins and it felt great to be turning for home. From there it’s downhill all the way back into Glen Ample with a long gentle traverse avoiding the summit of Ben Each. However there’s no avoiding the climb back over Meall Mor and a long run and stumble back to the woods and the final tracks down to Strathyre. For the entire length of the forestry tracks I was on my own. Kept thinking someone would catch me up or I’d catch someone. As the time went by I even wondered if I’d gone wrong. Then finally could hear the loudspeaker tones of the finish line wafting up though the trees. Almost thought they were announcing the runners as they crossed the line, but it was in fact the prize giving starting, and as I crossed the line everybody had their backs to me. Serves me right for taking 3 hours 52 mins. Still I was happy to be back in under 4 hours.

Tinto Runners on the day – Hugh McP, Ken Morris, Alister S, Chris H

Another good one for next year.

Chris

Hugh’s report on Dumyat:

Dumyat had a record entry this year with 372 runners finishing the race. Registration is at Stirling University Centre for Excellence in Sport, which worried me a little as I went in through the door. Are you a student? asked the athletic looking young lady signing me in. Now I know I’ve got youthful looks, but really . . . .

After a good warm up I was off, the numbers causing a bit of delay in leaving the starting line. Now some races start with a straightforward run along a road or track to spread the runners out before hitting the hill. So too did this race, but with so many entrants doing an easy run around the campus and along a track thereafter it didn’t work too well. There was, however, a back up system along the way a bit, consisting of a narrow opening in a high stone wall. This worked a treat, with runners emerging one by one in an orderly manner. I seemed to wait for ages for my turn to go through. There then followed a short section on road before going up through the trees, over a fence and on to the open hill. The race justifies its inclusion in the Bog and Burn series with a small burn in the woods plus a really horrible and unavoidable wet black peaty area about half way up the hill, which also serves the purpose of ensuring that even the road running types with immaculate shoes and white socks return looking like real hill runners. Once at the top it’s around the cairn equipped with a big iron pot, perhaps for a fire at Beltane or something. Then comes the fun – a really fast run down to the finish with a few hazards along the way such as rocks, the bog again, and a very slippery earthy slope in the woods. I came in 289/372 with a time of 57-03, just over three minutes longer than two years ago, which I attribute to the various bottlenecks, since I felt I had actually run it faster than before, but maybe that’s just one these delusions you get with increasing age.
The event ended with a special deal in soup, cake and tea being provided in the Sports Centre while awaiting the prize giving. Some races may be described as hard, others challenging, etc, but I think the right description for this one is just pure enjoyment. With a short race and so many entrants you are never alone, and there is a real feeling of being in a race, not just a run, giving rise to much satisfaction, especially when passing students in their twenties. It’s certainly one of my favourites.
Hugh.

Clachnaben, 2012
This was my 2nd AM race this year, having done Deuchary 2 weeks earlier. Deuchary is longer by 4 km and has slightly more climbing; however Clachnaben felt tougher, with steeper climbs and much rougher conditions underfoot. This year the route had been changed to avoid overgrown heather, resulting in reductions in length and climb from 17 Km to 14 Km and 1070 m to 750 m, these figures being taken from the SHR calendar and the Cosmics race information. The reductions are less if you go by the previous figures in Steve Fallon’s book.
The race start is deep in the forest. Being one of the last to arrive I had to drive right to the end of the bump–bump-bump track to get parked and then walk about 3/4 mile to registration. Had I realised how far away this was, I would have got changed before registering. After a return trip back to the car I was thoroughly warmed up. I had had a similar thorough warm up at Deuchary, through not realising just how long the drive through the grounds of a Hilton Hotel could be!
After about 1 Km of easy running the work started with a steady climb through the trees followed by a steep firebreak section just before exiting the forest at the 3 Km mark. On to the open hillside the climbing continued on a narrow track through rough heather and churned up peat to the top of Mount Shade. After a slowish run down (more heather and peat) there is a gentle section along the edge of a wood before ascending Clachnaben itself via the steps of the tourist path. Once at the top and around the summit “clach,” seen for miles around, it’s downhill virtually all the way to the finish. With the damp boggy ground and the odd patch of snow the feet started to freeze, not a problem I usually have when running. Every time they started to warm up again I would go down another damp hole and the freeze / thaw cycle was repeated. About this time trouble appeared from behind in the shape of Jean Jumelle from Carnethy, an old adversary, and now running in the same age group. We were running together until the rough path gave way to a hard Landrover track, when he began to pull ahead. Well down the track I glimpsed a line of tape through the trees and thought I might just catch up with a fast sprint to the finish. Then disaster struck – it wasn’t the finish – just a tape blocking off another track! With the final reserve gone the game was up, and I resigned myself to following him through the last section, off the track and through the wood again to the real finish. I finished in 1-49-47, being 174 / 213, and with ¼ of my SHR mug for 2012 earned.
Despite the remote location the Cosmics had a good spread of cakes plus a barrel of Deeside Brewery produce on tap. There were several unusual prizes, one for the dirtiest runner, (thought I might have had a chance there), and one for the runner with the most Scottish name (lost out to Clan MacLeod). There were also numerous Easter eggs for those who found wee woolly chicks hidden around the course (no luck there either).
In conclusion, this was an excellent event, 100% marked throughout and with that feeling of remoteness appropriate to a good hill race. Despite the remoteness, however, is also a very family friendly venue, there being lots of attractions around (e.g. castles) where they can be left to do something more sensible for the day.
Hugh.