This race showed the great differences available in running, on Sunday you could have joined the 54,000 other runners at the Great North Run, Red Arrows display, celebrity runners etc OR you could join the 41 starters of The Merrick Hill Race, at the side of a B road in the Galloway Forest Park organised by Girvan AC.
Sarah drove down through the green rolling hills of Ayrshire whilst we listened to Desert Island Discs and Just a minute on radio 4, it took a long time to get to GlenTrool, and we only just made the start line with a minute to spare, so no chance of race prep or positioning for the start.
The route was changed to an out and back this year. The climbing starts immediately through bracken, loose stones and rutted muddy holes around the Fell of Eschoncan. Once out of the bracken and over the forestry road there is another tricky climb over fairly wet stoney ground to the top of Bennan. The rough ground continues to a couple of dyke crossings, where eventually you climb steadily beside a wall to the top of Benyellary. At this point the terrain changes to short rough grass and there is good running and climbing right to the top of Merrick it self, which at 843m is the highest hill in the Southern Uplands. For the race yesterday, once around the cairn at the top of Merrick you retrace your route back to the finish.
Sarah and I started near the back but managed to work our way up the field steadily on the climb. I had focused on a group I know consisting of Andy Webster, Doug Milligan and John Goldsworthy as that’s where I should be in items of position. I managed to catch them just at the summit. It was then a tussle for position all the way back down, I really enjoyed the descent, at points I was last of the 4 then 2nd and 3rd, did not managed 1st as I was being careful after Ben Nevis. I managed to get ahead of Andy at the rough ground, and reckoned I could have been ahead of Doug if I had not sunk in a bog at one point, much to his amusement. I thought this was how it was going to finish John, Doug, Duncan then Andy, when out of the blue Jim Galbraith from Giffnock flew past me on the final rough descent , I had passed Jim on the ascent and had not figured him a threat., but he had a great descent and also managed to catch Doug as well, so we finished John, Jim, Doug, Duncan with Andy finishing a couple of places further back.
Sarah had an equally close run mixing it with Fabienne Thompson of Carnegie and Jo Shcrieber of Girvan Ac, eventually splitting them, being only 10 seconds behind Fabienne at the finish.
The race was won by David Parish, Dumfries RC, in 1:32:01
First female was Shirley Singh in 2:01:04
I finished 12th In 1:47:21.
Sarah finished 3rd Female (25th overall) in 2:03:19, for which she got a bottle of wine and a hold all bag, great to hear the club mentioned at a prize giving.
40 out of the 41 starters completed the race.
Thanks to Nat Taylor and Grivan Ac for putting on the race, we both really enjoyed the whole day.
