This is a tough 21ish mile hill race taking in nine Munros (hence the name). Jenni Coelho was the only MRR taking part this year.
The weather forecast wasn’t particularly promising, but in the event, other than some cloud hanging around the summits, visibility was generally pretty good, and the sun even shone for the first hour or so!
As this was a championship race, there was a large turnout of over 100 runners, all setting off at 11am from the Ski Centre carpark. The field spread out fairly quickly as the first half mile was a dash up the carpark to the path which led up the first hill. For those of you familiar with skiing at Glenshee, it was up Sunnyside and then up most of Meall Odhar before cutting off to the right heading for the first Munro, Creag Leacach. There was some good running to be had here, before the last couple of hundred metres to the summit which was over boulders. Then it was retracing our steps back through boulders and then heading towards Munro Number 2 – Glas Maol. The cloud came down as I headed up here, fortunately not as thick as on a previous occasion so I was still able to see posts ahead which led most of the way to the summit. So Number 2 in the bag, and heading off through the clag to find Number 3, Cairn of Claise. As visibility was coming and going, I stuck to the track rather than just heading off across the hills and before too long I spotted it, another scramble over some boulders, only a few metres this time and that was Number 3 bagged. From here I just had to head due East to number 4 Tom Buidhe. So compass on map and off I went, after about 10 minutes the cloud lifted again, and I was able to see where I was going. This was quite a fun section as there was no path at all, just bouncing through the various bits of terrain: grass, bog etc! I realised when I got to the top of this one that I was most likely going to miss the cut off point of 3.5 hours and I was going to have to do the walk of shame up the A93 back to the Ski Centre, but I had been prepared for that scenario! Just a short distance to Munro number 5, Tolmount, with a lovely downhill and then the obligatory uphill to the summit.
And so, off to Munro Number 6, Carn an Tuirc. To get there firstly another bouncy downhill, over a burn (not in too full a spate, thankfully, and full of lovely chilled water for my waterbottles), and then up and round the next hill. And here is where I made my first navigational error. I completely misread my countours and thought I was higher up when traversing, and therefore did a downhill in the wrong place! I knew I had gone wrong however, so made my way up a hill to see if I could get my bearings again. Well, the air was blue, when I realised where I was, and would have to yomp up a large hill to get back on track. As I got round to where I should be again, I was met by one of the lovely Braemar Mountain Rescue Team who were present on all the summits. He’d realised when I hadn’t turned up at number 6, Carn an Tuirc, that I must’ve gone wrong! I was given the choice to carry on, or I could always accompany them back to the ski centre in their landrover which was about a mile away. I looked up at the sky which was becoming quite threatening (thunderstorms had been forecast) and decided enough was enough for one day!!! The rain started to fall quite heavily just as we arrived at the landrover, so I was glad I had been “sensible”. And on the plus side I had an exciting bumpy trip in the landrover over the hills and back to the Ski Centre, so no walk of shame 😀
So, just Glenshee 5 for me this year, but I’ll be back the next time the race is on, fitter and hopefully a little wiser …
Report by: Jenni Coelho