Lochaber AC enjoy two-day Harris Mountain Marathon
A delegation of Lochaber Athletic Club (LAC) athletes travelled to Harris to take part in the recent Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon (LAMM) – a two-day mountain competition for pairs with camping – which turned out to be quite an adventurous weekend.
Race report by Isla Mackay
The Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon (LAMM) had been hotly anticipated for months by Lochaber Athletic Club (LAC) and the terrain on Harris and the hot weather made for an interesting few days on the hills.
LAC had five teams with a LAC member or full team and hadentrants in elite class, B class, C and score. Setting off on the ferry from Uig to Tarbert on the Thursday evening we were greeted by the sun shining over to the west and luminating the superb Outer Hebrides.
The camp before the race began was on the school pitch, with a beautiful view out to sea and towards the setting sun (it took our minds off the midge fest that was going on).
At 6am on Friday morning the piper strode around the pitch to wake us up in a tuneful but loud manner. Stuart Crutchfield and his teammate Douglas Bartholemew (Torridon MRT) were setting off first from the LAC bunch.
We all collected our laminated maps and hopped onto a bus into the unknown. The next place we would all meet would be at overnight camp after very different days on the hills.
After a long day out on the hill covering more distance and elevation than the B-class on their Score course, accusations were thrown towards Isla MacKay that she was trying to burn out her race partner, John Yells. She was tempted to carry John to the finish line but thought against it as she was knackered too. Susan Nicol put in a tactical performance finishing day one with a very cheery face and 98 points in score class. Louise and Mike Pescod had a good day on the hills placing 32nd in the C class. Richard MacLeod and Gavin MacMillan were proud of their effort on B class, finishing seventh and having a “chasing start” the next morning.
The camp was the best place most of the team had camped, mid race or not.
White beaches and pristine coastline – what more could you want.
At 5.30am the piper piped up again and the camp was buzzing for another hot day in store.
Gavin and Richard had a superb run, however they missed a checkpoint and went from third place to being disqualified – a blow to their finish of the LAMM but they had a great run. Mike and Louise had a fantastic second day placing 17th in C class, so overall getting 25th.
Susan and her partner again avoided the negative figures finishing strong up the field in 66th place and 158 points.
John and Isla completed the score course and got out of negative points to finish 52nd on the last day on 101. John managed to complete over 50km and 2800m over two days in burning heat while battling Lyme’s disease. Stu greeted the finishers after having a long siesta.
A lot of food was consumed after the race and the team caught the ferry back on the Saturday night.