Pentlands Skyline Race 2014

12 October 2014


Described as “a 17mile hill run with no medals or T-shirts. It's a race against the terrain, the elements and most of all against yourself” this race had to be run and 2014 had to be the year.

The Pentlands have been a good training ground for the previous marathons, but I only knew part of them as my running route never passed in their Western side. I had no clue how the terrain conditions would be there, I just assumed they couldn't be very different from the other side...how wrong was I!


The race started in almost sunshine, but that would soon be gone. The conditions were good though, no rain, just chilly, and muddy. The very start initiate you to what the race is all about...steep hills to climb, for a total of 1890m elevation gained condensed in 27 km.

The motivation and the mood were high. The first half, up to Spittal Hill, was all known territory and I enjoyed it all. 

The difficult part started afterword. The terrain changed quickly, at some stage, I think it was Kitchen Moss, there was terrain no more...it was all water and mud. I tried to play the frog and jump from one grass spot to the other but no, I just had to resign and pull my feet out of ankle deep mud at every stride.

Next wtf bit was the Hare Hill descent. The way down had to be improvised jumping in waist high heather, eventually using my bottom to slide down proved the most efficient solution. Black Hill passed by smoothly but after that I didn't know which path to follow, no runners were in sight either and I had to wait the coming runners to confirm the way.

I've always thought I was a better downhill runner than uphill. But it turns out it's the other way round. Every time it was the same story. I would take over people going up, and the same people would take me over going down, again and again. Well, something to work on!

I was wrecked and started to have hallucinations of hot showers and a huge mug of boiling coffee. I had no clue how many hills were left. I kept checking my watch hoping the approaching 27 km on display meant almost the end, but then a runner told me there were “only” 4 hills left...mmhhhh. I took a deep breath and thought that that was the last race for a while, the playlist I prepared was explosive and gave me some spare energy to complete the course. I knew I had a black toe nail before seeing it and going down on the last hill to the finishing line was a real pain.

I totally underestimated that race. On preparing it my brain only saw the distance and completely neglected the terrain, the continuous up and downs, the gradients and all the watery ground. The final time was not at all remarkable, 3h 35", but I'm just glad I finished it.

If you are looking for a challenge go for it! More details on the race here:

http://www.carnethy.com/ri_skyline.htm