Boy, did we get a weekend for the club weekend away!
Wall-to-wall sunshine, temperatures hotter than the Mediterranean and no broken
bones!
Friday was a slow start, with folk arriving over the course
of the late afternoon and evening, and much congenial chat. By contrast,
Saturday was a fairly brisk start, with an assortment of runs around an
assortment of trails round Rothiemurcus and Loch Morlich, and by all accounts,
a good time was had by all. Al managed to confuse a few folk (including himself) by
losing contact with the group he was running with, taking a wrong turning, and
eventually joining up the second group. All did eventually end well.
The hordes of children seemed to be doing a fine job of
keeping themselves entertained, so those of us not on the low-level runs
weren’t called upon very much. Four of us (Phil, AndyGa, Emily and me) headed
off for the hillrun, up Bynack Mor. It was pretty fantastic. The first part of
the route was gently ascending, up the Ryvoan Pass and round to where the
Bynack Stable used to be, before heading more steeply up the hill. On the final
part of the hill we were accompanied by assorted ptarmigan, croaking their
approval (or disapproval – it’s hard to tell). The top was terrific, with views
for miles. It did seems a bit bizarre, sitting atop a Munro in running vets and
shorts, but it was all glorious. The descent was short and sharp, and did
incorporate a bit more tramping through heather and bog than might have been
ideal, but hey, it was all nice and warm and sunny and all was well with the
world, so we coped. Over the last couple of miles, Andy pushed on a bit as part
of his marathon training. This was the only part of the run where we started to
feel the heat, but we knew we didn’t have far to go. We got back to Glenmore
Lodge in about two and half hours, which was considerably quicker than we’d
anticipated.
Most of the afternoon was spent at the beach, which wasn’t
what might have been expected a week earlier, when the Cairngorms were covered
in snow! The brave ones were swimming, Doug was providing canoe rides, and
there was a fair contingent of sun-worshippers soaking up the rays. There was
something pretty fantastic about sitting on the beach with a view of the loch
and the hills behind with snow patches to remind us we were in Scotland. 
Eventually we all dragged ourselves back up the hill to
prepare for George’s karaoke, which went off well and without any smoke alarms.
So, progress from last year!
Sunday morning saw the now-traditional hare and tortoise
race, with teams assembled after much careful consideration from PhilT and
Seonaid. Sol and Dominic were promoted from the juniors to the hares, and sure
enough, although Digby set a storming time over the first leg, Sol wasn’t far
behind and did well to keep Andy Greaves at bay. As usual, the performances of all
the kids were totally inspiring. The race for first place was a genuine race, with
Levi and Christopher sprinting it out over the last 100 metres, with
Christopher just edging it eventually.
And then it was back to the beach for some folk! More
swimming and canoeing, and a beach barbeque or two. Lots of happy campers.
Looking forward to next year already.
