Beinn Dubh Hill Race

Another week, another hill race….this time Beinn Dubh, just outside Luss and the 2nd race in the Bog & Burn Scottish hill race series.

Once again Roddy and I made the journey on a beautiful sunny evening (very different from last weeks windswept Kaim Hill), with views of Loch Lomond, Ben Lomond and Beinn Dubh itself ahead of us.

This was the first running of the Beinn Dubh hill race as it replaced the Whangie Whizz in the calendar and an excellent choice it is too.  With 620m of climb and a distance of 6.5km over grassy ground a pretty well trod path most of the way this made for a great route, particularly for fast descenders who could throw caution to the wind.  Still it seemded to take a long time to get to the summit trig point – 35.30 mins for me, as Roddy and I played cat a mouse most of the way up and reaching the summit together.  By then I was looking forward to the descent and knew I could take a few of those around me.  I’d forgotten how long the return to the finish was and I probably pushed too hard early on the descent as my legs were pretty weak towards the finish, but I came down in 13 mins with a finishing time of 48.26 and 41st place.  Roddy descended well too and was 3 places further back in 49.24.  I’d descened in 13 mins to Roddy’s 14 and we were both delighted with this until we met someone who descended in 9 mins!!!

This was a great race and Beinn Dubh would make a great walk from Luss on a good day with stunning view of Loch Lomond.

Full results at: http://shr.uk.com/RaceResults.aspx?RaceID=RA-0644&Year=2013