Once the steep descent down from Ben Vorlich to Sloy dam was complete, it was on the 2nd big climb of the day that the poor conditions started to take their toll. A strong threesome of Henry Blake, Brian Marshall and Stewart Whitlie skirted too far right on the climb up to Ben Vane and after losing a lot of time, decided to call it a day when they did eventually reach the summit. A number of other runners took decidedly suspect lines off Ben Vane towards the next Bealach and a small group even accicentally added an extra hill - Beinn Chorranach - to their day's total before moving onto Beinn Ime itself. For others, it was the descent off the latter that caused problems, with a few ending up at the Rest and Be Thankful pass before realising their error. Altogether, some 23 runners failed to complete the course.

Meanwhile, back at the front of the race, Alasdair Anthony ran an excellent 2nd half race and to his great surprise found himself arriving at the summit of the last hill, Beinn Narnain, at the same time as leader Simon Peachey. Simon edged the steep drop off the SE ridge, but narrowly lost out to Alasdair on the final run in to the finish. Kenny Richmond maintained his strong start to finish 1st V40 and 4th overall.

There was a very exciting and close sprint-finish in the ladies race as Claire Gordon (HBT) just pipped Alayne Finlay (Ochil), with Jacqui Higginbottom taking the F40 top spot.

Despite the relatively high number of non finishers, the race was excellently organised by the Westerlands team and there was a great atmosphere in the Arrochar Hotel afterwards during the post race refreshments and prize giving. Plenty of stories of interesting days out on the hill to catch up on.....

Results | Photos | Photos from Bill Fairmaner