The wistful fell runner - a cheerleaders view on the Carnethy 5, 2009

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As we all know, winters are not what they used to be. Even the uplands rising beyond the Forth valley in Central Scotland rarely see any snow worth mentioning these days and in recent years, the scheduling of an ever expanding calendar of organized outdoor events have inched further into traditionally less clement months without much need for worry about the risk of cancellation.

But this year’s snowstorms and freeze ups have provided a sharp reminder of our northern latitude and for all those participating in the Carnethy 5 hill race over the Pentland range south of Edinburgh, on the second weekend in February, it was the white stuff that was most likely to define the memories.

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Most of the route was white, though becoming as it eventually did, after the battering of a thousand traction-craving boots more a mucky line of brown porridge than anything pure and driven, as it rose, fell and twisted over the terrain.

I had traveled into the competition zone as mere cheerleader and documentarian for two friends who were taking part, having previously noted the harsh weather and declined the opportunity to participate myself. Given the sombre majesty of this winter’s day, with large sections of two reservoirs below the route still sheeted with thin bluish ice and the sequence of snowy tops running away into the mottled distance of Lanarkshire, I rather wished I had signed up after all, and was at that moment pinning a number to my windproof smock and limbering up for the off from some draughty marquee at the start point.

As it was, I cycled along the icy reservoirs to the Howe, a lonely house marking the furthest point of vehicular access and just main below the route’s final summit. Competitors would shortly be running, or stumbling, along this narrow section of glen before veering sharp right and upwards, following the shreds of tickertape wrapped round gateposts, tied to exposed bits of heather or staked into the ground, and marking the last climb up onto Carnethy hill.

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Today the Howe was a rather bleak spot. Race officials sat hunched in a landrover, Red Cross men glowed fluoresecent yellow from inside their white van and further along the flat bank of the burn, a solitary figure manned a tripod, with a large lens angled expectantly towards the hillside, soon to be dotted with descending hill runners careering headlong with reckless expertise. I later learned this was the outdoor film unit for BBC Scotland’s “The Adventure Show”. It was a compact team indeed.

I plodded up the track leading to Carnethy, indented at this point only with a handful of footprints and prepared to catch some pictures of the weary line as it beat its way upwards through soft snow for the fifth and final out of five times that afternoon.

Even as I gazed admiringly across the undulating route, from Scald Law and south west along the ridge to the tops of East and West Kip, the race leaders came into view just a few metres away. These two figures, comfortably ahead of the field, presented an impressive picture of outdoor winter endeavour as they moved steadily upwards across the snowy tussocks and on towards Carnethy summit.

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Looking down the short gulley from where the frontrunners had emerged, an unbroken line of multi-coloured figures snaked on backwards through the dirty snow and round the shoulder of the hill. Like refugees they came, in a variety of moods and bodyshapes; some animated and good-humoured but a great many just silently bent and enduring the task in hand. This was, after all, a 6-mile trek covering a total ascent of 2500 feet and in especially awkward underfoot conditions.

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For all that, the field was 500 strong and a striking testament both to the growing popularity of such elemental challenges, and the breadth of their appeal. The winner Rob Jebb crossed the line in 53 minutes, but some 100 minutes later, a sixty something also successfully completed the course and in so doing brought the 2009 event to a close.

And in truth, from behind my thermal layers, with a banana and an ipod safely stowed in in my knapsack should the need for sustainance or audio entertainment become urgent, I was a little jealous. Nature, I have always found, is best enjoyed live, unplugged, and even a little uncomfortable.

A Cheerleader’s View - The Carnethy 5, 2009 from jon Pullman on Vimeo.