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Published: July 14th 2012
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Dancing
There were also boys competing in the Highland Dance! We got a fairly early start today so that we could make it to the Loch Lomond Highland Games held at the south end of the largest lake in Scotland. The town was called Balloch and rightly so!!! Ballochs - the games had been cancelled and rescheduled for September.....well, what about our needs! The website, as recent as last night, showed nothing about the cancellation. We debated whether to stay in the area and take in the sights or to find another highland games. We decided, since there was another games not too far away (although we had already driven past it earlier that morning....) in Alva and so we headed there. On the up side, these games were a little smaller than those in Balloch and did not start up until lunch time so we didn't miss anything! We have realized after attending 2 games now, that these are not really shows or festivals but really, they are serious competitions. The running, cycling, heavies and highland dance competitions draw competitors from all over and there is actually pretty decent prize money for the events (except maybe not for the dance). There are athletes who travel the circuit all over the
Throwing the hammer
They did put up a net to catch any wayward hammers..... country competing. There was also a pipeband that opened the games and played at the track & field intermission. A highlight for all of us was witnessing a hill race which you would not believe if you didn't see it. The racers took off from the middle of the field, ran once around the field, and then climbed (literally, sometimes on all fours) a small mountain behind the field. The total climb up was around 14 minutes and then about 7 minutes down. Up looked like walking/crawling/jogging bent over in half and down looked like a lot of sliding and scrambling. One guy came down with a bleeding head. Many were muddy down their backs from sliding down on their butts. It was unbelievable.
The cycling races were also fun to watch as the racers did laps around the loop that surrounded the field where all the activity took place. The final race was called De'il Took the Hindmost (translation: Devil took the hindmost). This race was interesting as the cyclists took off and did a full lap, then after lap 1, the last rider to finish each lap is eliminated! Very exciting to watch! Then once it is
Throwing weight for distance
The two big fellas in the background did well. Actually, the guy in the red and blue socks was also at the Ceres games! down to 3, they race the final lap to sort out the top 3 finishers.
The heavies, as always, were also a highlight. They did caber toss, throw weight for distance, throw weight for height, shotput and throwing the hammer. The guys were huge. There was no pillow fight on a log unfortunately, which is the event Nigel has been training for for the past few months. Also, he didn't bring in any prize money for the family....
We had a mix of weather today. Partly sunny and quite hot, mixed with scattered showers. All in all, a great day. Too bad about Balloch but we managed to scramble together a pretty decent backup plan on the spot!
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