Scottish Islands Peaks Race (SIPR) 2016

Humans, and especially athletes, derive a lot of motivation through making sense of the story of their own lives. After my disappointment at the Highland Fling (legs gave in after 30 miles) I badly needed to regain the narrative. Thankfully, on cue, the Scottish Islands Peaks Race (SIPR) did just that for me. Having now done this race 10 times (starting at the age of 19) the SIPR is definitely part of my story.

"Obedient" - our home for the weekend

Sailors tell me that there is no sailing race like it. There is certainly no running race like it. The SIPR is a unique blend of disciplines whose value comes to so much more than the sum of the two parts. It can be a cruel race too. Imagine running your guts out on Mull to get a half hour lead, only to find yourself then caught in a "tidal trap" opposite the Corryvreckan, allowing a whole load of other teams to efforlessly catch up with you (yes, this happened to us this year). 

Toward the end of the 4.5 mile "Prologue" outside Oban

We were fastest runner on the short run round Oban, so left Oban harbour with the whole fleet of 40 boats behind us

As recounted in a previous blog, I came to this event first by happy (and slightly daunting) coincidence when I was drafted in as a last-minute replacement in 2003. The 2016 race became my 7^th completion of the race (from 10 starts). The team with whom I did my first 10 SIPRs decided to stop doing the event after the 2012 race, and I missed the event from 2013-15. This year, I was with a new team (skipper Iain Baird with sailors Gordon Baird and Ben Shelley), on a new boat (Obedient), with a new running partner (Es Tresidder). The race rules are slightly complex, and can be read about elsewhere. This year’s event contained a good measure all the aspects that make the race so special. I will summarise these as unpredictability, wilderness, and challenge.

Unpredictability:

Something that makes the race so exciting for runners is having very little idea when you will be landed on an Island and required to run. This is clearly something we are not really used to with the well-defined start times of most running races. In 2010 we landed on Jura at 11pm and ran the entire course in the dark (on a dry night the Paps are fantastic in the dark by the way because as you run down the thick scree the rocks collide into each other and generate sparks). On other years I’ve been woken from sleep in the cabin by sailors and advised that we are 30 minutes away from landing on Arran: then suddenly the wind drops and 3 hours later we are still no closer to the pier.

This year the winds were light and sailing times relatively long. Somehow we landed on all islands in daylight and didn’t require our head torches once. On the other hand there were more unexpected sources of unpredictability in this year’s race. At 400m altitude, halfway up Ben More on Mull. Es and I ran straight into a “cast sheep” (a sheep that has fallen onto her back and can’t get back onto her feet). We decided to haul her back onto her feet again (though she was clearly severely weakened by the experience). This is the first time I’ve ever up-righted a sheep in the middle of a hill race!

Wilderness:

The Islands of the West Coast of Scotland represent a true wilderness, and the SIPR is an amazing way to experience this. On this year’s race we met a short-eared owl from extremely close range when we nearly ran into her nest in the early evening on Mull, a huge pod of porpoises between the Mull of Kintyre and Arran, and seals in the Sound of Jura. In past races we’ve seen Sea Eagles on Northern Jura.

Calm seas on Sunday morning. Very pleasant but not getting us anywhere fast!

Challenge:

The SIPR involves running 96km over a long-weekend. Clearly the challenge of this is something that I find very attractive. I’ve also created an additional challenge for myself by targeting the race's running records. In 2012 together with Robbie Simpson I broke the then 22-year-old record for the fastest total running time for the runs on Mull, Jura, and Arran (reducing the “King of the Bens” record from 9 hours 34 minutes to 9 hours 17 minutes).  That year we also broke the record for the leg on Mull (from 3 hours 25 minutes to 3 hours 12 minutes) but we were slower than the record times on Jura (3 hours 4 minutes held by Rigby/Ferguson) and on Arran (2 hours 54 minutes held by Maitland/Farningham). Robbie and I were flying that year, so this year I had no ambitions to target more records. It therefore came as a bit of a surprise to me when we started running on Arran. Both Es and I were moving fast! We got to the summit of Goat Fell in 1 hour 32 minutes, then back to the bottom in under 2 hours. It had taken us 43 minutes on the way out to get from the run start in Lamlash to the foot of Goat Fell just outside Brodick. Now we had 54 minutes to get back in record time. As we hurtled through the streets of Brodick a lady said to us “Good luck!” I turned to Es and said “It’s not going to take luck. It’s going to take a lot of pain.” We made it back to the pier in Lamlash in 2 hours 44 minutes 39 seconds (almost 10 minutes faster than the record).

Looking back to Gaotfell on leaving Lamlash

We couldn’t have done any of this without the amazing support of the sailing crew: Gordon, Iain, and Ben. They make a fantastic team and they worked incredibly hard all through Friday and Saturday nights to get the boat (and us) round the course in a great time, in conditions not suited to catamarans. As a team we finished 3^rd overall, and first in Class 1 (multihull boats), beaten only by North Star (Class 2) and Clockwork (Call Rounders).

Clachnaben and Jura

The Scottish Hill Running (SHR) Championships got under way this weekend. The SHR Championships is a series of 6 hill races - 2 categorised as "short", 2 as "medium" and 2 as "long." To complete the Championships runners must finish 4 races, including one from each distance category. The first race of this year's Championships was a "medium" race, called the Clachnaben Hill Race, run from a just outside the small village of Strachan in Deeside. 8.5 miles, climbing a total of 2100 feet over 2 hills, Mount Shade and Clachhaben - both rounded, heather clad, and not very steep: Clachnaben made interesting by a distinctive granite Tor, which is visible form the city of Aberdeen, 20 miles away.

Clachnaben, with Mount Shade in the foreground

This race is the epitome of the low key but fiercly competitive Scottish Hill running scene.We arrived by bus (courtesy of Westerlands club) just over an hour before the start. The extremely overweight bus driver seemed totally baffled by the experience of driving from Glasgow for 3.5 hours to the middle of nowhere to allow a bunch of skinny runners the opportunity run up and down a medium-sized hill. To get to the start from the bus involved a half mile walk from the main road along a forest track. When we arrived at the start there were just a handful of race organisers and a small tent there and that was all. Over the next 60 minutes things gradually hotted up and just after middday we were counted down from 3 to start.

The pace was fast from the start, with the main contenders myself, Jethro Lennox, Ali McLeod (all Shettleston), and Sam Hesling (Highland Hill Runners) pushing on through the boggy forestry trails in the first couple of miles. The first mile of running is quite entertaining, runners have to leap over fellen trees and through streams.

400m into the race

After a mile and a half the course ramps steeply upwards through a firebreak in the forest then out onto the heathery slopes of Mount Shade. As I pushed on up this climb and I was soon aware that only Jethro was holding onto me. I reached to summit of Moutn Shade a few seconds ahead of Jethro but he soon joined me on the descent. As we were ending Moutn Shade descent and reaching the point where the path starts to countour West towards Clachnaben we were joined by a third runner, Al Anthony, who had had a strorming descent off Mount Shade. Knowing that the hard but runnable climb up Clachnaben would suit me I sat in with Jethro and Al until the path went upards again and then I pushed on. By the summit of Clachanaben I had a 30 second lead which I then managed to hold to the finish. Al finished second and Jethro third. Full results here. It was great to be aprt of the winning men's team, Shettleston Harriers.

Shettleston winning men's team

The next race in the SHR Championship is the Isle of Jura Fell Race. Despite having visited the Isle of Jura 8 times previously as part of the Scottish Islands Peaks Race (SIPR) I had never been round the Jura Fell Race route until last weekend when we took a family weekend trip to Jura and I ran the course as a recce on the Sunday morning. Having left home at 7am on Saturday morning we found ourselves on this magical, peaceful island before 11am. It is quite an experience to be transported somewhere so remote so quickly. We had fantastic weather all weekend and I was reminded why I find this island so special. Finding good route off the tricky screes is essential for success in the race so I'm glad to have had a chance to look at it. I'm really looking forward to going back out to Jura twice more in May (once for the SIPR and then again for the Isle of Jura Fell Race).

The Paps

The beach

Ben Lomond

Mountain runners tend to become quite attached to their nearest high mountain. When we lived in Inverness, Ben Wyvis was it, and I probably ran up there 20 or 30 times in 2 years. Now that we are in Glasgow, Ben Lomond has assumed the role. As Ben Wyvis does from Inverness, Ben Lomond frequently dominates the view to the north when the skies are clear, inticing the runner to get out there and go up it.

View to Ben Lomond on a cylcle home from work one winter's day in 2015. Greylag geese taking flight in the foreground.

Ben Lomond above a cloud inversion from Earl's Seat, December 2015

I'm currently training for the 53 mile Highland Fling race. The trouble with deciding to do such long races is that you have to go for long training runs to prepare. The good thing about that is that it encourages to do do adventurous things that you normally wouldn't consider. Looking at Ben Lomond one day a couple of week's ago I suggested to Grant MacDonald that we run up it from home. And that's what we did last Sunday (from his home, not mine, which is 3 miles closer to Ben Lomond). We set off at 10am, planning to run along the West Highland Way to Rowardennan, go up Ben Lomond and return via the Ptarmigan Ridge to Rowardennan in time to catch the 1645 Cruise Loch Lomond passenger boat to Tarbet, from where we could catch a train back to Glasgow.

The weather wasn't great to start with, but things brightened up. 3 hours into the run as we approached Rowardennan we got our first view of the mountain.

After 24 miles of running in 3 hours 40 minutes we set off up the Munro. The great thing about this is that next time we reach Rowardennan on the West Highland Way in the Highland Fling race it will seem like we've been let off lightly, not having to climb a 3000 foot mountain (just a 27 mile run to Tyndrum, easy!)

Summit selfie

Loch Lomond

After 5 hours 43 minutes, 32.3 miles, and 4491 feet of climbing, we arrived back at Rowardennan, both of us feeling quite heavy legged on the descent off Ptarmigan ridge. We dutifully waited for the 1645 Cruise Loch Lomond boat to Tarbet, but it never made an appearence. At 5pm we gave up and I went over to ask an elderly couple who were just back from a walk if they would kindly give us a lift back home. They did, which was very gracious considering how badly we probably smelt.

D33 Ultra

Summit ridge of Ben Lomond 07.03.2016

View to Arrochar from Ben Lomond 07.03.2016

Why would a "Mountain Runner" choose to run 33 miles out and back along a flat disused railway line on the outskirts of Aberdeen when he could be somewhere like this (Pictures taken on a run up Ben Lomond earlier in the week before the D33 race on Saturday)? Good question. Well the weather wasn't as good as this on Saturday so I don't think I was missing such great views. The main reason though is that I had planned to use the D33 race as a build up race to the Highland Fling in 7 weeks' time. I've decided to do the "Fling", a 53 mile race along the West Highland Way from Milngavie to Tyndrum as my first attempt at racing over the 40 mile distance. The Fling is the UK trial race for the World Trail Championships which will be in Portugal this October. Doing races like this is part of my longer term strategy to get better at running longer distances in the mountains (more on that to come hopefully... :))

So the D33 took place on Saturday morning, kicking off at 9am. A very "straightforward" race - run 16.5 miles from Duthie park in Aberdeen along the Deeside way to a point about 1 mile East of Banchory, then turn round and come back. Having not done much road running for a while (i.e. since Rotterdam marathon in April 2013) I wasn't quite sure how this race would feel. I didn't have a race strategy as such, just to set off at a pace that felt sustainable and try and keep that up, and hope that the whole experience would do me some good in terms of endurance.

Last year's D33 was won by Ross Houston, 2h:18min 2014 Commonwealth Games marathoner. He did the 33 miles in 3h:10min. 7 weeks later Ross went on to run the 6th fastest 100km time in British history in the Anglo Celtic Plate race (6h:42min). Pretty impressive stuff. I had no illusions about keeping up with Ross's time in the D33, but I did wonder if I could keep up 6 min/mile pace and break 3hr:20mins. I was pleased to be feel able to comfortably keep this pace to the halfway point, . After turning round just outside Banchory I'd been running for a good 4 mins. before I saw second placed runner Lee Muir, so I figured I had a good 8 min. lead. After Lee the others came thick and fast, and the support I got from them all was fantastic - loads of cheers and high fives. This really spurred me on the try and keep up the pace. I did keep it up quite well until the 23 mile mark, but after that my left hamstring started to tighten up and I slowed down to more like 6:20/mile. The last 10 miles were quite painful. Still I was delighted to win and to finish in one piece, with a time of 3 hours 21 minutes. I'm looking forward to running considerably more slowly in the Fling ;). Full results of the D33 here. http://deesidewayultra.webnode.com/. Thanks to all the organisers and supporters for putting on a great event.

Crossing the D33 finish line 12.03.2016

Ben Lui the long way

Ever since the LAMM 2010 I'd been keen to make a return to Glen Fyne in conditions of good visibility and approach Ben Lui from the south. The LAMM 2010 was a race I won with my brother Andy. I think we went fairly close to the summit of Ben Lui on that occasion but I didn't really appreciate that that the time, since we were running in thick mist with 10m visibility.

Approaching Ben Lui from the south involves a reasonably long run in up Glen Fyne. You then have to cross a couple of miles of nondescript peat bog before climbing the mountain itself. In these early March conditions the mountains all look very impressive, but Ben Lui at 1130m definitely stands out. I had my brother-in-law Grant for company and it was a great day out. A great advantage of this run is that it starts and finishes at the Fyne Ales Brewery, so we had the perfect post-run refreshment.

From the 700m point upwards I had the chance to try out a new pair of microspikes made by Nortec. These had been sent to me courtesy of Lyon equipment. The model I' trying out are called the "Nordics." Microspikes like these are probably life saving when running in Scottish mountains at this time of year. http://www.nortecsport.com/product/nordic/. The lightweight crampons fit easily into a small running rucksack and are a doddle to take on and off. As soon as they are on your feet you are capable of running straight over sheet ice without slipping. The last 400m of climbing on Ben Lui was all ice so without the Nortecs I wouldn't have made the summit.