Mither Tap 17/07/08
Bennachie. Race route possibly followed profile of hill from right to left.If you live in Aberdeen the nearest decent hill is Bennachie (pronounced ben-ah-hee) about 20 miles west. With North-East charm they call the most prominent summit Mither Tap (518m) as it looks like a breast to those with a fervent imagination. On Thursday we were up in Aberdeenshire visiting Mary's mum so I thought it might be fun to run the Mither Tap hillrace – part of a Summer Series of local runs organised by the Cosmic Hillbashers.
Despite being a Thursday evening there was a good turnout (over 50), registering outside the (closed) Bennachie visitors' centre. Mary opted to do a longer training run earlier in the day so volunteered to take photos at the race. Shortly before the start she headed off up the tourist path to position herself above the tree-line as the overcast evening wasn't great for light. The organisers then explained the route which avoided the tourist path entirely and I realised we wouldn't be getting many action photos. I was glad to miss the highly manufactured route of the tourist trail as a light rain fell making any stony ground very slippery; the route we ran was more of a dirt trail with quite a lot of heather, mud and rocks but less slippy than the stepped stone bouldery route up the front of the hill.
The tourist path, look no runners.While the organiser described the route (using phrases like “very technical ground”) I retied my laces very tightly then set off with a feeling of optimism because it was a nice 4 mile short route up a small hill and so far off the beaten track I thought I stood a good chance of placing quite highly. I thought much the same the last race we ran in this part of the world where I did the first mile in second place before we hit the hill and got overtaken by every semi fit bloke and their dog in the North East finishing well outside the prizes. So maybe I should have been more realistic. The first mile was a delight though; maybe a slight rise but mostly flat trail through the woods on firm, pine needle covered ground and I was amongst the first few runners and finding the pace relaxed. Then a marshal pointed us up a rather steep muddy path that quickly thinned to a shoulder-width trail of churned black mud with heather either side and a liberal sprinkling of (wet and slippy) boulders and rocks making you focus on balance and stamina.
Then it was hands on knees and stomp upwards. Think of something other than the pain in your lungs and the strength draining out your legs into the soft ground. In between counting the folk going past (with particular attention to anyone-over-40-looking) I tried to send telepathic messages to Mary along the lines of “we are over here, look over to your right,”. I thought maybe the pain I was going through would be the postage on the message. Not a chance. Mary waited for about 15 minutes, realised we weren't coming past and walked back through the trees to take some crappy photos in the poor light at the finish.
And still nobodyMeanwhile I was wondering just how much longer to the top. After a bit, the going changed slightly with the path broadening and folk spread out trying to find that elusive easier route over the large rounded granite boulders. Eventually we approached the dilapidated iron age fort at the summit but instead of going to the very top we skirted round an unlikely track over slippery rocks before descending over some highly technical ground (watch out for the big hole Historic Scotland are looking into) and down a path that evened out, but was annoyingly not quite wide enough to overtake the guy ahead who was going just a fraction slower than I would have liked. I thought it would be impolite (and perhaps dangerous) to barge past, but a young guy in a blue top did just that squeezing past myself then the yellow shirt but staying just in sight ahead. I waited, gathering myself until the path eventually widened and I could comfortably go round then, as we came back along through the trees, focussed on the guy in the blue shirt to see if he was going to slow at all. He wasn't over 40 and I couldn't see any of the several over-40s that had gone past so I kind of relaxed and felt keeping an even pace until we got near the end was probably best. After all there was a big race at the weekend.
The guy in blue didn't slow down but I kept it solid to the end and crossed the line just behind. It felt longer than 4 miles and higher than 1200' taking just over 38 minutes: 9½ minute miling! You'd've thought I stopped to admire the view.
A great wee race and I enjoyed chatting to the friendly local runners beforehand. Afterwards we hung around for the prize giving. I thought it was rather measly giving just a single bottle of beer or jar of honey to winners, and just one prize per age group. Also just one prize to Alan Smith, looking strong as a horse, who came 3rd overall and first o/40. And no other o/40 prize. I was well out the prize(s) at 5th o/40 and 11th overall. Deja vu but good fun.
Results here (scroll down to Mither Tap in second menu)
Report pb
Photos Mary
