11 / 08 / 2008
100 runners, including many of Scotland's top hillrunning athletes, took part in this event on Saturday 9th August, running from Glenmore along the edge of Loch Morlich and up the Allt Mor trail to the Coire Cas car park and on up to the Ptarmigan at the Top Station.
Twenty of Scotland’s top international class hill runners were among the 100 competitors who
took part in last Saturday’s (9th) inaugural Cairngorm Mountain Run, part of the Scottish team
trials for this year’s World Mountain Running Trophy being held in Sierre Crans-Montana in
Switzerland on 14th September.
Based at Cairngorm Mountain, each of last Saturday’s races was fiercely contested despite the prevailing rain and strong gusting winds with runners from as far away as Cornwall and Caithness taking part. The severe winds on the summit forced a last minute change on safety grounds in the finishing line for both Seniors’ races being at the Ptarmigan building instead of at Cairn Gorm summit.
Each of the four races started near the Hayfield at Glenmore with runners racing through Glenmore Forest before beginning the increasingly steep climb provided by the scenic Allt Mor Trail as they headed for the higher slopes beyond the Coire Cas car park.
The Men’s race (9km - in length /900m - in climb) was extremely closely contested with the eventual winner being Murray Strain (of the Hunters Bog Trotters club) in 48.17 mins, closely followed by Al Anthony (Ochils Hill Runners) in 48.27 and Jethro Lennox (Shettleston Harriers) finishing third in 48.35. In a sprint finish to the Women’s race (6.5km/800m), Lyn Wilson from Edinburgh’s Carnethy Hill Runners Club won in 46.24 mins from Elke Schmidt of Bellahouston Roadrunners in 46.31 and Claire Gordon (HBT Club) placed third in 47.54.
There was also a good contingent of local runners from Strathspey and Badenoch taking part in both Senior events with Euan McCarthy leading the home-based runners across the finishing line in a commendable 51.51 mins while Gill Irvine was the first local runner to cross the line in the Women’s event in 57.18 mins. Other local runners included Dominic Sermarni (63.12), Callum Scott (74.53) Paul Corrigan (79.11) in the Men’s event and Hilary Scott (86.00) in the Women’s race.
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The Women’s Juniors’ race (3.5km/300m) finished at the Cairngorm Ski Area car park Mhairi Inglis (of Lothian Runners) winning in 23.08 mins while Men’s Junior event – also part of the WMRT Scottish Junior Trials and over the same course as the Senior Women – was won by Robbie Simpson (of Banchory Stonehaven AC) in 43.01 mins with Scott MacDonald and Alex Hendry (both of Central AC) coming finishing in 2nd and 3rd places with respective times of 43.45 and 44.25.
Full results can be found at www.cairngormmountainrun.co.uk
