Emma Stuart 1st lady Montane Cheviot Goat

Emma said after the race: Wow! What a race! After three postponements due to COVID and Storm Arwen, the Cheviot Goat finally went ahead, albeit in less than winter conditions…

The pace for the first 30 miles was relentless as I battled to keep up with @lynnepin1985 who was an absolute machine on the uphills. I’ve never seen anyone make steep slogs look so effortless as I huffed and puffed my way to the tops. The only way I could hang on was to bomb it on the downhills! The hard effort gave me some stomach issues early on, but luckily @mountainfuel_uk works really really well for me and it powered me for the rest of the race.

After the Cheviot, we hit some really gnarly terrain, which was mostly trackless and pretty boggy. It was tough. Really tough. I managed to take the lead but keeping a steady pace was hard work.

I plodded on through heather and bog uphill and downhill for another 15 miles until I finally got to an awesome runnable downhill section coming off Dunmoor Hill – the secondlast descent. I was flying! That is, until my foot got caught in a hole and I sprained my ankle. Quite badly. That last five miles was the longest I’ve ever done and I’m paying for it today… And I suspect I’ll be paying for it for another six weeks at least!

Nonetheless, a cracking day out and awesome race! Thank you to all the organisers and marshals at @coldbrewevents, @montaneofficial, and to all the runners who did so incredibly well on the new route, which I’ve been told is much more gruesome than the old one! Special shout out to @nickyspinks and Lynne Allen for their podium finishes too