Full results and photos at:
http://www.carnethy.com/ri_results/skyline/skyl_2004.htm
For those who don't know the Pentland hills, (see http://tinyurl.com/6us4u)
they're a collection of hillocks south of Edinburgh. They may not be great
in stature but if you join enough of them together, you can put together a
16 mile 6,200 ft run. Fortunately, as well as having 6,200 ft of ascent,
there's also 6,200 feet of descent so it all averages out. ;-) You can see
that appoximate route at
http://www.zen31010.zen.co.uk/images/Pentlandskyline2004/pentlandsroute.jpg
We were lucky with the weather and the clouds had lifted off the tops before
the start and no serious navigational skills were required although having
run it now, I can see how it could be much much trickier in the mist.
The race kicked off from the Hillend artificial ski slope centre and after
the usual "chest out, mad sprint for the first 100yds", all the
photographers have been passed we were able to slow to a more sensible pace
(i.e. walking). Up to the first peak the path is too narrow to really
enable any overtaking and besides, the thought of the 16 miles ahead helped
to temper any thoughts of rushing for an early lead (as if!)
The paths were clear and pretty good for the most part. Grass, mud and rock
for the first 2/3rds of the race but nothing too tricky. With ever ascent
and descent, you questioned your sanity but with every peak "bagged", the
views more than compensated. I took a camera and managed to take a few
photos (which I'll post later) but the photos on the results page really do
give a good "feel" of the race. (the one second from the left, second row
captures a goodly number of the hills we ran over).
The good paths early in the race lulled me into a rather false sense of
security and 2/3rds of the way round, we came to the top of Hare hill only
to find that the only way off was by bounding through knee-high heather
followed by some percipitous scrambling down tricky slopes. As ever, every
descent was followed almost immediately by yet another crippling knee
knobbling ascent that made your calves scream. Frotunately, selective
amnesia is a wonderful thing and no sooner had you felt like chucking the
whole thing in, you'd be at another top enjoying a few seconds of easy
running before you remembered that running downhill was almost as bad.
After a mile or so, it's back onto better paths and after another string of
ups and downs and ups and downs, you reach the last summit and see the
finish line below you. After a mad dash down the hill trying oh-so-hard
*not* to do a spectacular face-plant in front of the waiting crowds, I
crossed the finish line in 3:40:38, which works out at a spectacular pace of
13:47 per mile!
Despite that, I felt good at the end, happy and muddy and not feeling like I
could realistically pushed much harder (and enjoyed myself). Overall I was
119 out of 169 which is better than my 31st out of 35 on the Merrick last
month.
At only £3 to enter and (nearly) all the water you can drink at the end,
great value for money. Highly recommended.
Tim