The 28th running of the Manor Water Hill Race took place on a glorious sunny Saturday. This year we had a great turnout of 76 runners. The increase in numbers (up from 28 last year) may have been aided by online pre-entry and/or the cancellation of the Pentland Skyline. Regardless of why people come to the race we are happy to have them. In a time when land access issues are affecting many Scottish Hill Races Neil and I are grateful to the farmers and landowners in the Manor Valley for their continued support of the race. The Hill Race was started by a local farmer (John Nash) in 1992 and continues to be an integral part of the Manor Sheepdog Trials. There is a great community feeling at the race that we hope will continue for many years to come.

“Low key Scottish hill racing at its best.”
“Manor Water hill race. Lovely route, nice low key race, why haven’t I done it before??”
“Top day out at the Manor Water Race organised by Carnethy H R C. Great weather, route, scenery, organisation and camaraderie”
“Very runnable”
“Maybe it was too runnable”

The race was won by Andy Douglas (Westies) in a new record time of 1:04:39. It was a very fast field with six runners coming in under the previous record time. The first female was Heidi Ross (Carnethy) in a time of 1:30:53. Special mention to Colin Donnelly (Cambuslang) who was the fastest MV40, MV50 and MV60 and finished 10th overall in a time of 1:18:39. As Sue Nash remarked of Colin at the prize giving “I have shook his hand many times over the years”. Apologies for not recognizing the first MV70 Phil Smithard (Carnegie Harriers) and first FV60 Carole Fortune (Carnethy) at the prize giving. This was due to a glitch in my results spreadhseet. It will be fixed for next year.

A special thanks to all the volunteers who helped make the day a success especially the marshalls who stood out in the cold wind to make sure everyone got home ok.

Sean Walker (race organiser)

Full results on the SHR results tab.