Sunday 10th September

Sunday 10th

September saw DMC enter two teams to the
Simon Wake Comrie hills relay. This is a
42km route over four legs with 2,110m of ascent. Speaking to people there previous events had
seen great weather and sunshine. Unfortunately
this year the forecast was for rain. The
first leg saw 23 runners leave the cricket ground where the race was based and
head up into the forest. This 11k leg
was on good paths but as the first leg had rather more ascent than descent. The next leg was the shortest but hardest
navigation required being largely pathless so two runners per team were
needed. After the leg 2 runners has
disappeared up into the mist Dave our shuttle bunny for the day took us up to
the 2/3 handover. The rain was getting
worse now so Amy and Paul were not too keen to get out of the car. After waiting for a while the shout that two
of our runners were approaching meant appeared out of the car wearing his
infamous shorts. A mass start was scheduled
2 ½ hours in to ensure the race didn’t get too spaced out and 45 seconds before
this deadline Andrew and Allan appeared and handed the baton to Paul. Amy started in the mass start.

Dave rushed
the four of us down to the base picking up our leg 4 runners to take them
up. The rain worsened and I was glad to
be eating lunch under the gazebo rather than being up on the hill. Eventually Dave returned with the other
runners (apparently it had been quite wet and misty on legs 2 and 3) and
finishers started to appear. Ed and Jen
decided to run leg 4 together (which also had a mass start) so we had a DMC joint
finish line. DMC gents came 16/23 in
total time of 5:30:35, DMC mixed team came 21/23 with a time of 6:01:10. A slight mix up on entries nearly resulted in
us receiving medals but Dominic refused to play ball and pretend to be over 40. All in all a good if rather wet day and
respectable position for an event mainly populated by running clubs.

Report by Dominic

DMC Gents: Dominic, Andrew, Allan, Paul and Ed

DMC Ladies/Mixed: Mhairi, Berenice, Bruce, Amy, Jen

DMC chauffeur: Dave