We had two teams competing in the HF Relay this year, a male and a female team.The race kicked off at 7am in perfect cool conditions in Milngavie with Duncan for the Maryhillbillies and Margaret for the Marydolls,with the rest of us trooping along to support at various points.
Fifty-six teams took part and Duncan done well to finish the 12.2ml first leg, which is part trail part road to Drymen in 10th position in 1hr 33m and Margaret also finished a creditable 36th in 1hr 58m.
Then Tom,making his racing debut for the club,took over from Duncan and Cat took over from Margaret,to do the second leg of 14+ miles which took in the daunting Conic Hill before heading out on a rollercoaster path to Rowardennan, Tom done well to pass the timing chip in 14th position in 2hrs38m, and Cat put up a good performance to finish 41st for the “Dolls” in 2hrs 58m after a fall which left her bruised and bloodied.
Next up were Craig and Natalie running in arguably the toughest of the four legs, battling tree roots and rocks along the 14+ mile stretch. Craig pulled the “hillbillies” back a couple of places to 12th in a time of 2hrs 25m, and Natalie put in a stunning performance on her HF debut to pull back a whopping 11 places to finish 30th in 2hrs 37m.
In the final leg from Bein Glas Farm to Tyndrum,and after a scare in which we didn’t think we’d make the changeover in time, I (Chris)took over from Craig and Linda took over from Natalie, in this 12 mile section the main feature apart from the never ending 1100ft climb is “cowpat alley” which is exactly as the name suggests and goes on for a good few hundred metres and in some places is knee deep mud and dung with the occasional boulder which you have to try and jump to.
After this we meandered high up into the forest then run down onto a flattish section of about 3.5 miles to the finish. I managed to finish in 2hrs 8m, and delighted to have knocked 20 mins off the last time I done this section and God knows what sorry auld soul I overtook but the Hillbillies ended in 11th position overall and 7th Male team. Meanwhile Linda was tearing up the ground behind me and pulling a fantastic five places back in a time of 2hrs 5mins, 15 mins off her previous time for this section helping the Marydolls to finish 25th overall and just missing out on a medal to be 4th female team….Well Done Ladies!!!
The race is really well organised with soup, beer, a medal, Tee shirt and champagne at the end,and is well marshalled throughout and for once no one got lost.
Another good day out for the Harriers ,thanks to Linda and Craig for the transport,Cat for getting it all together,Duncan for coming out of retirement at the last minute and Caroline for support on the day
Full Results Table:
https://excel.office.live.com/x/ExcelView.aspx?FBsrc=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fdownload%2Ffile_preview.php%3Fid%3D1431392997117235%26time%3D1398641203%26metadata&access_token=730279472%3AAVKcA9sfB_m-Vj4WqoyjynZoJhMu8ujjh2DZWHhG0CTI7w&title=2014+Fling+RELAY+results+%28provisional%29.xlsx
