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The
Devils Burdens Relay 2003
Another
record entry of 53 teams contested the Devil’s Burdens Hill Race Relay
this year. The race had
been put back a week which was lucky given the amount of snow which fell
the previous weekend. Fortunately
all the snow melted on the Thursday and Friday leaving it wet but firm
underfoot for race day. The
number of runners made a great atmosphere but made car parking difficult
so please try and limit the number of cars per team next year. In
the men’s event, there were some wonderful stories of people running
all over the Lomonds and adjacent farmland obviously intent on a recce
during the race. The 2nd
leg to Scotlandwell still causes some problems for runners not
orienteering themselves properly i.e. heading to Kinross.
Indeed one runner was found running toward West Lomond not having
gone to the Scotlandwell changeover, a real keen effort.
Maybe we should have a solo race next year!! Shettleston
vets tore away at the start with Desmundo Crow outpacing his partner
Adrian Callan on the descent off East Lomond, to the road junction on
leg 1 with a snake of runners slithering their way down the hillside
after them. Shettleston
held a narrow early lead over Carnethy, Westerlands and Shettleston A
with Fife 3 minutes behind. An
amazing effort by Adam Ward on leg 2, the fastest of the day, pulled
Carnethy clear by over 2 minutes with the pack of Westerlands, Fife,
Lothian and Shettleston vets all in contention.
Garry MacInnes and Geraint Florida James had to hold off the
closing pack with Lothian's Scott Fraser and D Godfree
pushing hard followed closely by Fife and Shettleston on the way
up West Lomond. A good
descent by the Carnethy pair on the steep thistle-covered bum slide (a
painful experience) down the hill, maintained their narrow lead as
Lothian went a little off the best line on the descent with Shettleston
and Fife sprinting in. Mark
Johnston held a lead of just under 2 minutes leaving the water tank
changeover, leg 4, but would it be enough?
Colin Meek, Lothian and Graham Bee of Fife tried hard to catch
Mark but he held on to finish in 2:27:45 with Colin setting the fastest
time of the day on leg 4 (34.01) to finish in 2:28:24 with less than 1
minute separating the first 3 teams. The women's race saw a fast even start with three teams in contention, Carnethy just holding off Westerlands and Lothian on leg 1. Carnethy pulled away strongly on legs 2 and 3 to win clearly to extend their unbeaten run in this event and win by over 20 minutes. Who can give them a serious challenge next year? The vets category gets stronger every year with Shettleston challenging for the lead over the first few legs. Shettleston vets ran well to finish 6th overall and first vets with Fife vets second. Is there more to come for next year? Fife juniors also got round with accompanied Fife seniors so we hope to see them in the senior teams in the next few years. The fastest legs (records in brackets) are below. |
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Leg |
Men | Women |
| 1 |
A Callan/D Crowe 36.17 (Davis/Taviner 34.06) |
M Stewart/N Findlay 49.24 (Newman/Wood45.44) |
| 2 |
A Ward 25.35 (J Stevenson 24.58) |
L McIlwraith 32.11 (T Brindley 29.52) |
| 3 |
J Lennox/P Walder 48.22 (Rigby/Rodwell 43.00) |
J Tait/A Mudge 54.53 new record |
| 4 |
C Meek 34.01 (P Dymoke 32.51) |
T Andrews 41.15 (A Mudge 36:35) |
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Overall winners Carnethy 2:27:45 Record Livingston 2.22.27(2000) |
Overall winners Carnethy 3:02:15 Record Carnethy 3.01.18 (2000) |
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A
big thanks go to all the marshalls, organisers, especially Frank and
Margaret McLaren who organised the entries and access, Dave and Sally
Bee for the wonderful soup, Frank Cation and Tom Ross for marking leg 4,
Joe Holden for leg 1, Mike Kuzyszyn, Graham Bennison, Dave Francis on
changeovers. Louise Provan
on the ceilidh which also proved a great success with local band
Scooroot making it a great night with special guest Brian on the
mouth-organ. Thanks
for coming, hope you enjoyed it and see you next year. Adrian Davis |
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