The Pentland Hills (all 26.2 miles of ‘em)!

The 'Before' Shot!

Sitting firmly in the ‘it seemed a good idea at the time’ camp, this weekend’s canter over, around and through the Pentlands proved to be an interesting (if tiring) twist on familiar ground.

Carnethy Hill

The 26.2 mile course is the Gold Route for next month’s Pentland Push (http://pentlandpush.com/the-push/) in aid of St Columba’s Hospice in Edinburgh.  Trying out the full course a month before the event itself seemed a good idea to Caroline who has entered.  Aileen thought it would be useful training for her trip to Kilimanjaro in October.  I did as I was told.

Castlelaw Hill

Reasonable weather and an early start ensured a good chance of achieving our target time of 8hrs 40 mins which 2 separate training sessions over the 2 halves of the course had suggested as being realistic.  They had also revealed that the eastern half of the course over the hills was definitely more interesting than the western half over the moors around the North Esk Reservoir near Carlops.  This again proved to be the case!

The Eastern Pentlands

In the end we achieved 8hrs 30 mins for the 26.2 mile course with a total height climbed of 2167m/7110’.  Next week’s visit to the Affric hills and Kintail will seem like a walk in the park by comparison!  Good luck to both girls on their charitable endeavours for great causes (St Columba’s Hospice and Breast Cancer Now).

Glencorse Reservoir

Here’s a record of the day, best told in pictures……….   

Approaching Allermuir Hill (2 miles/1hr) 

  

Climbing Turnhouse Hill (6 miles/1hr 45 mins)

The Howe (9 miles/2hrs 40 mins) 

North Esk Reservoir (14½ miles/4 hrs 50 mins)

Spittal Hill (15 miles/5hrs 15 mins)

West Kip (17 miles/6 hrs)

The Howe (19 miles/6hrs 45 mins)

Loganlea Reservoir (21 miles/7 hrs)

Check out my plans for the summer at:  http://www.hillways.co.uk/