For my 3rd race in 8 days I took myself off to Hillend Ski Slope to run the Pentland Skyline. The race is 16 miles and has 6200 feet of climbing over the Pentland Hill. This is an AL race and a full complement of kit is required to be carried.
On the drive over on the M8, I could not see the hills due to low cloud, when I got to Hillend I could not see the Pentlands, the cloud cover was just above the ski slope, even when on the Pentlands you could not see the Pentlands , visibility was about 5 to 10m for a lot of the race. Last year I raced the same route in bright blue skies and it was completely different this year.
The first point I recognised was Caeketton Hill which is very early on the race, from there the next point I knew exactly where I was Flotterstone check point and the start of the 300m climb to the top of Turnhouse Hill (500m). From there, it is on to Carnethy (573m), Scald law (573m) and the first punch point at the top of South Black Hill. Most of the running to here is on half decent ground.
The second punch point is shortly first at the Drove Road, I reached here a good 12 minutes quicker than last year, and instead of eating loads of biscuits I tried to clean out my left shoe of some gravel. At this point Ellen Homewood and Jacqui Higginbottom, with whom I had been running, left me. After the brief shoe cleaning I set off down the Drove Road to catch this pair back up, managed it just after turning off the road and heading over the rough ground to the 3rd punch point at Hare Hill.
This section of the route is over fairly undefined wet soggy ground, pretty much to start of the last big climb at Bells Hill. This is where Jacqui and Ellen left me again, this time because they are faster! The top of Bells Hill is the last punch point.
From here it was pretty much a case of grinding out the last section of the route and I was really pleased to get back to the top of Allermuir Hill, where you retrace your route back to the start. Once I reached Caerketton a quick look at my watch meant I could sub 3:25 for the race so blasted down the hill to the finish.
The race was won by Murray Strain, HBT, in 2:24:35 and Angela Mudge won the women’s race in 2:44:36. I finished in 3:23:29, which I was really pleased with as it was 30 minutes quicker than last year, which gave me 70th position out of 167 finishers.
The weather conditions meant quite a few people apparently missed some of the check points, I did all the manned points and punch points, but was not sure about one of them, at Castle Hill which is unmanned and there is no punch. So I contacted the organisers, and following their description of the route over this section and my recollection of my run I am confident I went the right way and included this point. Hence I am posting this report.
Thanks to Carnethy for organising the race and to all the marshals who were out in mist.
