yaleR snedruB sliveD

 

That’s the Devils Burdens Relay in reverse! (thanks to YP for that one!) and that’s exactly what happened this year. For some reason yet to be explained the race route was run in reverse from previous years and funnily enough this proved to be a surprisingly disorientating experience. You had to adapt your way of thinking as each leg of the relay wasn’t as you had come to know it over the years and life wasn’t made any easier by some very misty conditions on the hill that day.

Misty hills!

 HBT had pulled together three ladies teams, The Brown Birds, The Brown Babes and The Brown Bombshells. Top tip – always research the race route thoroughly before telling your team captain that you are willing to run any leg... I ended up with leg 2 the “navigation leg” which I was to run with Phyllis and as I was suffering from the after effects of lurgy the previous week and Phyllis had aspirations for a cross country race the following day and wasn’t wanting to trash her legs it was never going to be a quick run. I had thought about taking a camera with me to capture all the action but just as I was about to throw it back in the car in the interests of actually trying to have a competitive run Phyllis thought it would be a good idea that I should take it with me so I did. With hindsight though, the views were never going to be that great on such a claggy day.

Sandra flew round leg 1 for the Bombshells  and then it was our turn to set off through the muddy field at Strathmiglo. I hadn’t realised that tarmac had been laid over the trail into the woods making it very runnable, or I should say potentially runnable as my legs felt heavy and my lungs were rattling at this point and continued to do so every time we were climbing which, unfortunately for me, was for quite a lot of the race. Considering the snow we have had recently we were very lucky with the weather on race day and it was, for the most part, reasonably mild but all the melted snow had made the course very wet underfoot in places.

Sandra ran a stormer on leg 1 (C Graham Kirby fifeac.org.uk)

Neither of us looked pleased at the prospect of leg 2...(C Graham Kirby fifeac.org.uk)

We headed out of the woods and upwards into the mist, passing teams and being passed by a few in particular Christine Menhennet from Westerlands and her partner. We quickly located the checkpoint in the gulley and headed up on to West Lomond where it was noticeably colder with a slight breeze and patches of snow. As we headed up we passed two runners coming down the hill in the opposite direction – oh the joys of missing a checkpoint!  It didn’t seem long before we reached the summit and the mountain rescue team members standing there who were looking decidedly cold. It was only on starting the descent into the valley that we realised we were too far to the left (is that south??) and quickly adjusting our course in the direction where we could hear voices through the mist we quickly found the right path. The next part was decidedly unpleasant running through long grass and wet soggy terrain....don’t you just hate it when you break through the ice and your feet plunge into the freezing cold water underneath...? We trotted alongside Christine and her partner for a while. “it’s funny running this route in reverse don’t you think?, she enquired to which Phyllis replied “Hilarious”. I think the wet feet were getting to Phyllis.

It was a misty day

Phyllis points us on to the right route

 After a wee bit more bog trogging we became aware that other teams were following the path along the fence line a little way off to our right but we decided to continue our bog trogging and keep to a direct line despite the terrain being pretty tussocky, wet and boggy. Our gamble paid off and we arrived at the checkpoint on the top of the Bishop hill before the other teams and from there to the checkpoint on White Craigs it was much easier faster running and my frozen feet thawed out slightly. Next was the bit I wasn’t looking forward too....the descent to Kinnesswood. It was a long grassy slidey downhill not helped by the worn out state of my fell shoes which offered a less than ideal grip. While I slipped and skated around Phyllis skipped delicately on ahead like a mountain goat. You could hear the finish line before you could see it and having already fallen flat once I really wasn’t wanting to do a crowd pleasing fall in sight of the finish.  

Finish of leg 2/ start of leg 3

 One arriving at Kinnesswood the fundamental flaw in our plan became apparent – we had no lift back to Strathmiglo organised so, not fancying the run back, we had to go scrounging. Some kind persons car was eventually hijacked and we drove round to Falkland after a brief stop at Holl reservoir to watch the leg 3-4 changeover. Despite running pretty slowly my legs were still noticeably sore and tired (even more so the following day) particularly my quads which I blame on that last descent into Kinnesswood so I really didn’t envy Phyllis having to do a cross country race the next day.

Carrie running for the Babes team (C Graham Kirby fifeac.or.uk)

Devious tactics employed by another team to stop Megan getting past...(C Graham Kirby fifeac.org.uk)

Carnethy took the dogs for a walk as well (C Graham Kirby fifeac.org.uk)

On the descent (C Graham Kirby fifeac.org.uk)

 We’ve all been there...one minute you know exactly where you are going then the mist closes in and a wee lapse in concentration and before you know it you are lost on the hill – I’ve got a previous 5 and a half hour time for Stuc a chroin on a misty day including 2 ascents of Beinn Each on the way out to the Stuc. On race day the misty conditions inevitably led to people getting lost but I can’t help thinking that calling 999 from a mobile as one team did was a bit OTT, particularly as they were just a bit lost and that there was absolutely no emergency. Its dimwit behaviour like that which will get the race a bad name and unfortunately could put future events at risk. Some teams also seemed to think that the rule that EVERYONE must carry waterproofs, map, compass, whistle etc didn’t apply to them. But, apart from examples of crass stupidity like this, it was a great day and full marks to Frank Mclaren and Fife AC for organising it. The organisation of a race like this is a mammoth task and I’m pretty sure that it was fully appreciated by all who took part.

Brown Babes (C Graham Kirby, Fifeac.org.uk)

The Brown Birds picked up second team prize behind Carnethy, with the Brown Babes and Brown Bombshells finishing within seconds of each other somewhere in the middle of the race field. And none of us got lost!

Birds, Babes and Bombshells