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Sitting down to start writing this race report, I’m just coming to the end of a two week full break from running. So far this year I’ve been either training, tapering, racing or recovering without much of a break and it’s been great to take a proper break and give my body time to fully repair and restore. With three 200+ mile races already, I had a fair collection of niggles that just needed a bit of time to sort themselves out. Look after your body and it will look after you! I’m feeling great and looking forward to getting stuck back into training, ready for some more exciting races and challenges ahead 😁
Although Cape Wrath Ultra is the longest race I’ve ever done (divided up into 8 stages), Race Across Scotland is the longest continuous race at 215 (official) miles, so you know this post is going to be a long one! Grab a cup of tea and let’s get stuck in #sorrynotsorry 😉
Race Across Scotland is GB Ultras flagship race and covers the full length of the Southern Upland Way, the longest of Scotland’s Great Trails. As I’m gradually working towards completing all of them (9 out of 29 so far!), the SUW was always on my bucket list. It has some special meaning for me too as it passes just a few miles from Selkirk where I grew up and I have run and walked many times along the route between St. Mary’s loch, Traquair and Gala. After running the middle section on Ultra Scotland 100, then pacing Julie the following year and finally crewing Julie as she finished first female on the full route in 2024 this year was my turn! After having to withdraw from the Highlander BYU three weeks before, the silver lining for me was that I could now focus my attention and training fully on RAS and in the weeks leading up adjusted my plans to give a maximum effort, and if all went well to have a crack at the course record and FKT of 52h37m!
Due to circumstances, Julie would not be able to crew for me this time but I had arranged an excellent replacement – Allan Parkin, who we know well from various Backyard Ultra races. He would also be joined at the end of the first day by his son George. I had every confidence they would deliver the right amount of support and tough love to get me to the end!
Having packed the car and taken the Friday afternoon off work I headed off down the motorway towards Dumfries where I was meeting Allan off the train. Thanks to some good old delays and cancellations, he arrived a bit later than expected but it gave me time to get some last minute bits from the supermarket! We had a quick dinner at the Wetherspoons in Dumfries (Parkin staple of vegan sausage, chips and beans for him and a Haggis pizza and salad for me), before Allan took the wheel and drove me down to Portpatrick for registration. He passed his “driving test” with ease, despite the indicator and wipers being the wrong way round 🤣 Despite the delayed train, we made it with just 10 minutes to spare before registration closed and I was able to pick up my number, have my mandatory kit checked, pick up my RAS t-shirt and have my photo taken for the live tracking page. A few less jobs to do the following morning 👍 It was nice to see a few familiar faces from the GB Ultras team and volunteers too, most of whom I would see again at several CPs along the course.
I had spotted a nice location to sleep for the night just a short drive away at Sandhead – it’s a popular spot with camper vans, and benefitted from having a public toilet which was open 24/7. We set up camp just as it was starting to get dark. I was sleeping in the back of the van, and Allan pitched his tent just outside. There was time for a cup of tea and I gave Allan an overview of what was in all my kit boxes, and then it was time for sleep!
I slept pretty well and was woken by my alarm at 4am. I made a cup of tea and some porridge and before long we were up, breakfasted, dressed and packed away and made the short drive back to Portpatrick where the race would start at 6am. There was plenty of time for more tea, a couple of trips to the toilet (well timed to avoid the queues) and after a few photos I joined the growing crowd in the start corral, right next to Kristian Dela Cour, looking fresh after just completing the SUW in reverse ready to take part in the race and set a double-SUW FKT.
Here I had my first near disaster of the race. With 5 minutes to go I synced my watch, loaded the RAS course… and it crashed! The watch rebooted and I tried again… same result 😱 It was very strange as I’d tested loading the course back at home as this was a new watch and it worked just fine. With a few minutes to go I tried a last ditch attempt by loading the RAS Low Course variant (which is the same except for a few miles near the middle of the race), and it loaded just fine… disaster averted! I knew I could navigate the “High Course” section just fine without the watch as I had done it before, and the rest of the route was identical. Strangely, I tried loading the first route again after the race and it worked just fine… go figure!
Portpatrick (Start) – Castle Kennedy (CP1): 13 miles
After all that last minute faffing around with the watch I was almost taken by surprise by Wayne counting down from 10 and before I knew it we were off. The start of any ultra is always a strange time as you go from weeks and months of thinking and planning to actually doing it! My overall pacing plan was to start at a very conservative pace with plenty of run/walking to conserve my energy for later on in the race. The only exception to that was the very start, as the first few miles follow a narrow coastal path that winds along the cliff-tops and down through a few small coves and Julie had found it got very congested. So I positioned myself near the front of the corral, and was in or around the top 10 as we climbed the steep stairs out of the harbour and on to the cliff top, leaving the strains of bagpipes behind. It was a good decision and I was able to take the first section at pretty much my own pace. The weather was forecast good for running – cool and mostly overcast – but it was really windy to start with and I took off my hat and carried it to stop it being blown off!
After a few fun miles along the coast, we reached Killantringan lighthouse and turned inland. I was surprised to see Allan waiting there to wave us past – having visited the area recently on holiday he had “local knowledge” and had managed to get there before us in the car! A few miles on undulating country roads and farm tracks followed and I had a chance to chat with many other runners as they came past. Many of them were going too fast (for me at least), so I had several short conversations before slowing to a walk and letting people go on ahead. I saw a few familiar faces, and also met quite a few others who recognised me from other races or social media. As we climbed gradually inland, we crossed the first short section of open land and I redirected a group of runners who missed the turn at the top of Mulloch Hill – happy to see my navigation skills were working well at the first test. From here more back roads and tracks led past Stranraer and on towards Castle Kennedy. I was keeping up a good run/walk, keeping at or around the 11 mins/mile I had planned, and eating and drinking plenty.
Approaching Castle Kennedy the route took us through the first woodlands and there were many small diversions for fallen trees. We ran parallel to the railway for a while, but sadly no trains were to be seen (probably not surprising as there is very little service to Stranraer, especially at the weekend). All of a sudden we popped out of a strip of woodland, through a row of houses and there was CP1! As there was no crew access between CP1 and CP3 I had plenty of supplies so I just filled my soft flask with coke, grabbed a handful of sandwiches and was on my way, about 5 minutes ahead of my plan – everything felt good, I was enjoying myself and it felt like I was settling nicely into the race. The only minor snag was that there were no portaloos at the CP, as despite my pre-race toilet stop, I was starting to be “in need”.
Castle Kennedy (CP1) – New Luce (CP2): 10 miles
Heading out of the checkpoint the easy running continued as we skirted the loch on tarmac and good gravel paths and made our way through the landscaped castle grounds and then out onto open hillside and bracken-covered paths which required a little care with route-finding. This gradually gave way to forestry land and the route turned off a gravel road and followed the edge of the forest for several miles. It was fun running along the first major section of “single-track” of the race and although the path was overgrown in places and I had to duck under some low-hanging trees. The drizzle that had threatened a few times in the morning came back stronger and I stopped briefly to put my jacket on as a heavy downpour came through. The path dived deeper into the woods and twisted about on some off-camber slopes as it headed down towards the Water of Luce.
I was a bit slower than expected on this section and was just getting a bit frustrated with it when the path opened out into golden fields and easy downhill running to where we crossed a footbridge over the river. The race photographers were also lying in wait here 📸 A short climb up to the road led to where I had met Julie last year, but no crew was allowed here this year as there simply wasn’t enough room on the narrow road for literally hundreds of people and vehicles to fit. Now that the rain had gone off, the sun came back out and it was gettig warm. I took my jacket off again as I climbed up out of the valley onto a moorland track that led towards CP2. The path was long, straight, grassy and fairly level and for the first time in a while I could see probably a dozen runners strung out in front of me. I picked up my pace a bit here and passed a few people before a short descent onto a minor road led us to the checkpoint.
Sadly, still no portaloos at this one, but I took a little bit longer here to refill my bladder, made up with a sachet of KMC powder I had carried with me. CP2 was about half way between the start and where I would see my crew at CP3. I’d been drinking plenty and definitely needed a top-up to get me there as it was a relatively long section coming up. I filled my soft flask up with coke and set off at a walk, munching on sandwiches and a handful of salted potatoes.
New Luce (CP2) – Glentrool (CP3): 23 miles
So far, so good! I was now about 10 minutes ahead of my pacing plan, but feeling good and in control. This section began with a few miles of gradually rising road, before turning off onto open moorland for a mile before entering a long section of forestry. There were a few sections of blown down trees that required some creative climbing, ducking and detouring, and the ground became mossy and waterlogged in places as the route cut through forest rides. The whir of wind turbines was the background noise for a few miles as we passed through the forest, crossing several gravel roads, as well as the strange domed shaped of the “Beehive” bothy. A photographer was waiting here and his drone followed me across the open land around the bothy before I disappeared back into the tree-line. There were a few other runners keeping roughly the same pace as me, but I gradually pulled away from them as we hiked the steep path up to Craigairie Fell (1053ft), the first major summit of the race.
From the top, the path descended steeply before opening out onto gentler gravel road and finally tarmac. I got into a good running rhythm and although the day was getting warmer, it felt quite effortless and the miles ticked off towards the road crossing at Knowe, which was my next goal as it was a full 13.1 miles (a half marathon) from CP2. Part way down the road I came round a bend and met the first “trail angel” of the race – the owner of Polbae farm had set up a table with various goodies and fresh water. I took a few things to eat, thanked her and headed on my way.
Reaching the road at Knowe, I passed a GB Ultras van and waved to the marshal – I assume as well as keeping an eye on the runners they were also keeping watch for any crew that attempted to meet their runner as this area was strictly off limits due to some bad parking that caused trouble for the locals in previous years. It was strangely quiet running down the road without anyone there!
A mile of typical Southern Upland Way cross-country trail – grassy, slightly boggy singletrack, mown in a metre-wide strip by the rangers – led to another short road section. This was one of the few sections in the first third of the course that I knew, having had a short run here last year while waiting for Julie. Turning off the road, the next section was just a few miles over rolling hills to the next major road crossing at Bargrennan (a checkpoint in 2023 when we volunteered at the race). However, it was overgrown with long grass, tussocky underfoot and had quite a few faffy gates to negotiate. I was just starting to develop a bit of a bad attitude about it, when one of the race photographers appeared ahead. I’m not ashamed to say I put on a smile and a good run for the camera, and he asked me a few questions on video (although I don’t think they made it to the edit) and that made the last half mile or so to the road pass quickly and improved my mood!
From Bargrennan to the checkpoint at Glentrool is about 5 miles through some lovely woodland following first the River Cree and then the Water of Minnoch and though not particularly easy going, little singletrack trails through the woods is my favourite kind of running and this was one of my surprise favourite sections of the whole race. With about an hour to go until I would see my crew at the visitor centre just before the CP I sent Allan a message to let him know what I wanted:
Checklist:
New socks, towel, trench
KMC refill
Bag of trail mix, KMC bar, 2 babybel, 2cookies in a bag, mini cheddars
Pot of katsu and a pepsi please
Think that’s all! See you soon
Also, pack of paracetamol and salt tablets please
Through the woods I caught up with and passed a few people and I think I was in the top 10 overall by this point which gave me a boost that my pacing plan was working as I had hoped and I was starting to catch up with those who had gone out a bit too fast! Assistant RD Laura was waiting on the bridge over the Water of Trool and it was nice to see her. I also saw the front runners on the short out-and-back section so I knew they were only a 2 or 3 miles ahead of me – more evidence my plan was working.
Arriving at the visitor centre, it was a great atmosphere as loads of crew were there to meet their runners. Allan had everything ready for me and for the first time after 45 miles and 9 hours of running I took my socks and shoes off and checked for damage! The last section had been a bit more damp than I had expected and my feet had got a bit wet, but no maceration and no blisters so all good. I let them air-dry as I restocked my bag and ate some of the Katsu curry, then put a bit of tape over the balls of my feet to protect them a bit, reapplied trench everywhere and put on new socks.
It felt great to have dry feet again and I set off on the short road section to the checkpoint in Glentrool Village. It was nice to get a fist-bump from Martin Heggie, a RAS veteran from last year and all-round beast of an ultra runner, and also see a few other runners as they made their way back from the CP, including Carly Evans who was leading the ladies race and Anna Troup who would eventually go on to finish as first lady. The Glentrool CP is the first one that is actually indoors, in a community centre / village hall. There was a good crowd of GB Ultras volunteers there cheering me in, but I didn’t stop for long, just long enough to make use of the toilet facilities (very welcome since I’d been waiting for the chance all morning), grab a few slices of watermelon (one of my favourite CP foods), and head on my way again.
Glentrool (CP3) – St. John’s Town of Dalry (CP4): 23 miles
Nearly 50 miles run and it felt like the warm-up was over and the race was really starting. Straight out of the CP and back down the mile of road to the visitor centre, I had a quick stop with Allan again. I finished the pot of curry, downed the can of Pepsi and set off back along the trail, back over the bridge and this time turning left to head towards Loch Trool. I passed Laura again at a track intersection where the official race route appeared to deviate from the marked SUW for a quarter of a mile or so. If the RD says it’s OK, I guess it’s OK 🤷♂️
The next 10 miles or so mainly follows good, runnable gravel tracks and forest roads alongside the banks of three lochs – Loch Trool, Loch Dee and Clatteringshaws Loch. I had arranged to meet Allan just past Clatteringshaws where there is access to the route via a mile-long dirt road! This section of the route is apparently stunningly scenic, but I didn’t really enjoy myself. For the first time in the race, my stomach started to turn and despite walking a good distance immediately after the crew stop to let the food I’d eaten settle I was feeling distinctly sicky. My pace started to drop off a little and for the first time I was struggling to keep pace with runners around me. After a few miles of nibbling nervously on trail mix I decided to switch onto gels for the first time and I got instant results… just not the ones I’d hoped for. The gel went down, and immediately came back up again along with the rest of my stomach contents (including the entire pot of curried rice and the trail mix 🤮).
Every cloud has a silver lining, and I immediately felt better! Starting gently with some KMC bar and plenty of fluids, I gradually got some more fuel on board and picked up my pace again. I caught up with a couple of guys (sorry, can’t remember who!) and we chatted for a mile or so before I pushed on towards the meeting point. Despite some minor navigational issues (involving ending up back at Glentrool!) Allan had found his way to the meeting point, along with a small number of other crews, including Debbie Martin-Consani. One of the great things about a race like RAS is some of the absolute legends that you just casually bump into along the way!
The order for this stop was for a can of peaches and a cup of tea. It was good to get some solid food back in me, and after a few minutes in the chair eating straight from the can it was time to get moving again towards CP4 at Dalry. The first half of this section climbs quickly out of farmland and over the shoulder of an unnamed hill, through bracken and long grass. I caught sight of a group of runners ahead and gradually caught and passed them. They included Anna Troup (still second lady at that point) and a former front-runner who was struggling having turned his ankle. Descending from the hill with Anna close behind, we came out onto a runnable farm track and found the second “trail angel” stop. I refilled my soft flask with cold, clear water and took a couple of chocolate biscuits, shouting my thanks back to the farmer who emerged just after I passed through. It was a welcome boost and I was back in good spirits and keeping up a solid pace down the farm track and onto a short stretch of tarmac road.
One more short steep section of brackeny hillside led past Waterside Hill and the roofs of Dalry could be seen ahead. A sharp descent on a fun little path through the woods, across the road, and I was into the field which is used for the start of Ultra Scotland 100. For the next 100 miles at least I would be covering familiar ground and I’ll stop with quite such detailed descriptions of the route, you can read the Ultra Scotland race report for that! There were a few people waiting at the bridge and the short set of steps that led up to the checkpoint. I was obviously still in a good mood as I joked that we had done the warmup, now we had “just” a 100 miler followed by a 50 🤣 I was particularly pleased to have reached CP4 in daylight, and was now 35 minutes ahead of my planned schedule.
Allan had managed to send me the checkpoint menu, so I had pre-orders a bowl of lentil soup, plus the rest of the can of peaches I had started a couple of hours before. The soup came with the unexpected bonus of bacon bits in it for double protein 😋 For the upcoming section, I knew from past experience it was going to be wet underfoot and dewy overnight in the long grass so I dried my feet, applied plenty more trench cream and put on my DexShell waterproof socks (gear review post coming soon 🤞) and changed into my long-sleeve base layer for the coming night as it was about 8.30pm in the evening and was starting to cool as the sun went down. Allan refilled my bladder with KMC ISO-Mix while all this was going on and after a 15 minute stop I headed out to tackle the night section to Sanquhar.
St. John’s Town of Dalry (CP4) – Sanquhar (CP5): 26 miles
This is the longest section of the course between checkpoints, is arguably the toughest, and I was going to be doing it at night. Fortunately I had arranged a meeting with Allan at Stroanpatrick, about 7 miles in to break it up a bit. At the start of the year I reviewed the book “How bad do you want it?” which included the strategy of “bracing yourself” – well I certainly expected the worst on this section, but in reality it wasn’t all that bad so the strategy worked!
Heading out of Dalry, I was enjoying the new socks – not only were they waterproof but they are extra cushy as well. On the way out of the village I was met by a concerned local who was a bit worried that I planned to go all the way to Sanquhar without sleeping. I didn’t tell her anything about the 125 miles still to go after that 🤣 My navigation through the farmland and hills went perfectly, and I even passed the first lady as she was getting lost in some tall bracken. She followed me for a bit as I pressed on and as it became properly dark I put my head torch on and could see no lights either ahead or behind me. I nearly tripped over one crew member who was waiting by a road in the dark with a takeaway pizza for his runner to arrive. I reached the crew point without any further mishaps and had a short stop before pushing on into the night.
The next section is where the climbing really starts and makes the first 70 miles look pretty flat in comparison. The climb up to the summit of Benbrack (1906ft) in the dark was a long slog, not helped by the low cloud and a strong cross-wind that developed and brought horizontal rain with it. I put my jacket on, got my head down and pushed on. Fortunately the bad weather didn’t last too long as it would have quickly got cold if I had stayed up on the hill, or been moving much slower. Instead, it was only a couple of miles of downhill running to reach the forestry road that leads down to the Chalk Memorial Bothy and the road to Polskeoch. Although it was dark I could see that the landscape was quite different to the last time I ran this section, with several areas of trees recently felled. Passing the bothy there was a GB Ultras truck parked up with a mini aid-station set up in the back. I filled up with coke and set off with a handful of sweets.
The short road section down the valley passes the famed Polskeoch farm, which always offers goodies for passing runners. This time, they had a sign out on the road advertising hot drinks and snacks in their garage. Since I had only just picked up some food from the van a mile back up the road, and the fact it was about 1am I decided not to investigate further but pressed on down the road.
As I reached the next climb up and out of the valley, two things happened. Firstly, I had my second episode of puking (once again triggered by taking a raspberry KMC gel). It might have been coincidence but I stuck to the citrus ones for the rest of the race! Secondly, I saw a head torch ahead so I put my headphones in and got into a good climbing groove, while drip-feeding myself with liquid calories and KMC bars. Pushing hard up the hill I caught and passed the next runner, and according to the live tracker had worked my way up into 3rd place overall in the race. I kept pushing hard on the downhill to stay ahead. Despite my only navigational error of the race, which took my through a rough field of deep grass instead of (I believe) a good path that ran parallel I made it onto the road OK and down into Sanquhar with a 10 minute gap behind me.
Although I had pushed quite hard for the last few miles, overall I wasn’t moving well enough to keep up with my planned pace and I arrived at the CP at the town hall about 10 minutes behind schedule. Still, I planned to take a short nap here as it was around 3am and I felt it would help me through the rest of the night. Allan was joined at this point by his son George who we also know well from Backyard Ultras, and it was great to see him. They got me a bowl of tomato soup and a roll from the CP which I ate, dried up my feet, and then went for a 10 minute lie down on an air mattress. I’m not sure I actually slept at all, but it was good just to have a rest with my eyes shut.
Since there was more wet and boggy ground ahead I opted to stay in the waterproof socks – in hindsight a bit of a mistake as they were still a bit damp and as a result I spent the next 8 miles with soggy feet. Either a second pair of waterproof socks, or even a dry pair of regular socks would have been better! In total I spent about 30 minutes at the CP and then set of for the next short section to Wanlockhead.
Sanquhar (CP5) – Wanlockhead (CP6): 8 miles
I had stiffened up and got cold from lying down, even though I was wrapped up in a dryrobe. Fortunately, straight out of Sanquhar there is a good climb up the hill and I put on my gloves, pulled my hood up and by the time I got to the top I had warmed up again. Although this is the shortest stage of the whole route it does pack in quite a lot of climbing and is pretty wet underfoot – it literally passes through an area called “Bog” 🤣 My feet were already wet so it didn’t make much difference. I didn’t see anyone on the whole section, although I could see on the tracker there was someone maybe a mile or so behind me. Somewhere along the way I passed the 100 mile mark, but I don’t remember noticing it at the time.
The sky was just about starting to get light as I crested the last hill and headed down towards the valley where Wanlockhead site nestled between hills on all sides. I turned my head torch off and sent a voice message to Julie to let her know I had made it through the night unscathed. I knew I was well off my planned pace, so I put any thoughts of chasing the course record to bed and focussed instead on moving at a sustainable pace and (hopefully) competing for the race win.
Once down in the valley, the SUW follows a road for about a mile before turning off across the Wanlock Water on a foot bridge and takes a foot path up into the village. This led to probably the only logistical failure in the otherwise excellently planning by GB Ultras. This year, crew were not allowed to park directly at the checkpoint, but instead directed to a car park about half a mile away on the road, and told they could meet runners there on the way in to the village. The snag was that runners (if they were following the SUW and the race route) were on the footpath which completely bypassed the car park and their waiting crews 🤦♂️ I arrived at the checkpoint expecting to find Allan and George but found no-one except the checkpoint volunteers! Fortunately, a quick phone call had them dashing up the road with my requested supplies (porridge, a banana and a fresh pair of socks). I believe the situation was resolved somehow for the runners that came later! Not sure what the two people in front of me did 🤷♂️
Because I’d spent the whole of the last section with damp feet, they were starting to get a bit squishy – no real damage done yet, but with still nearly 120 miles to go I applied a second layer of tape to give them some more protection before putting on dry socks. With the mix-up over crew location and the extra footcare, I was at the CP for about 20 minutes in total, but it was time well spent as my feet felt good as new and I was feeling positive as I set off into the early morning light.
Wanlockhead (CP6) – Beattock (CP7): 20 miles
This is a fairly long section but we had planned to break it up into smaller pieces, with Allan and George meeting me at the A702 crossing (5 miles from Wanlockhead) and Easter Earshaig (13 miles further on). From Ultra Scotland 100 I remembered that as well as the big climb up Lowther Hill – the highest point of the race at 2300 ft – there were some nasty little climbs (Laght Hill) before the A702. I enjoyed finally seeing the sun as I reached the top of the hill and made decent time over the following section. Maybe because I expected it to be bad, it wasn’t actually so bad after all!
I had just a short stop at the A702 layby before heading on. Complaints had reached my crew that I was looking grumpy in their photos… I prefer to think of it as “focussed” 🤣 but just to keep the supporters happy we made sure I was smiling in the photos for the rest of the race! Most importantly, now it was sunny again it was back on with the bucket hat.
The next mini-section to the Daer reservoir starts with a lovely woodland section which I enjoyed, but the gravel track for the following few miles was much more undulating than I remembered which was annoying as I wasn’t able to go as fast as I’d planned. The only other notable feature here is the official half-way marker of the SUW. So just the small matter of 110 miles still to go 🤣 At least this year the path across the top of the dam was finally open and it gave a great view in both directions over the reservoir and down the valley. Race Director Wayne was waiting at the end of the dam and it was nice to see him and he encouraged me on and took a few pics as I started up the steep grassy slope beyond.
The next three miles are just a relentless slog up and along a broad ridge consisting of Sweetshaw Brae, Hods Hill and Beld Knowe, but the reward is a long section of runnable downhill through cleared forest rides. I checked the race tracker several times and could see that the second place runner (Dave) was only a few miles ahead so that gave me plenty of motivation to keep my pace up. Although I was about an hour behind my original planned schedule, to be in third place overall was great.
As the descent levelled out, the final mile to the road where my crew were waiting seems to take much longer than it should but that’s probably just because it’s just pretty samey. Eventually I popped out on the road and Allan and George were waiting for me. They informed me that Dave had taken quite a long stop and had only just left!
No crew is allowed at CP7 so the idea was to refuel and restock here and then again a few miles after the CP. In total I only stopped about 10 minutes as we were becoming quite a slick team by now and we had a good bit of chat going (including how to enter the Barkley Marathons 😉) as they restocked my pack and I ate some food.
It’s only about two and a half miles of runnable downhill road to reach CP7 and I was going at a pace that I hadn’t hit since mile 67 (before Dalry). The CP is on a short out-and-back from the main SUW and as I passed the junction, I saw on the tracker that not only had I just missed Dave by a few minutes, he was now leading the race and I was in second as the previous leader had dropped out. Massive motivational boost and I was in high spirits as I arrived at the CP. It was nice to see a few familiar faces there include (if I remember correctly), Carl, Norman and Alan. I only stopped for a few minutes to use the toilets and set off again with a handful of boiled potatoes. Not sure if they were just trying to motivate me but the CP staff told me that Dave was looking ropey and I was sure to catch him 🤣. Whether that was true or not it put me firmly into “race mode” – the chase was well and truly on!
Beattock (CP7) – Ettrick (CP8): 17 miles
Although I was pushing hard to catch Dave, I was mindful there was still 95 miles to go so I kept my effort sustainable! I was really looking forward to the next section as it contains the most beautiful and dramatic hills and has the added bonus of crossing into the Scottish Borders, my home turf! But before that there were a couple of miles that I had not done before as the Ultra Scotland 100 route diverts via Moffat Rugby club where the 50 mile finish is located. I navigated the slightly confusing section under the Beattock Bypass and the M74 and enjoyed some easy running on country lanes and the lovely little Drumcrieff Woods. Allan and George were waiting as planned near the bridge over the Moffat Water and I made just a quick stop for a cup of tea before heading off up the path into the hills.
The weather was good, and it was early afternoon so we would be following the “high route” over Gateshaw Rig and Croft Head. As I noted at the start I would be navigating this section without the aid of my watch, but I knew where I was going! Previously I had only done this section on a foggy evening, so I was looking forward to it. After the steady climb up the forestry road, there is a really steep climb up through the forest itself and I could feel something irritation on my toes – something to sort at the next checkpoint. As I climbed out onto the summit ridge of Gateshaw Rig the scenery was as spectacular as expected but as I descended the Cat’s Shoulder I caught my first sight of Dave in the valley below. I kept track of the time and when I reached the same point I knew he was only 10 minutes ahead.
Climbing up and out over Ettrick Head I stopped to fill my bottle from the cold, clear burn water and pushed on. Before long I reached the gate which marked the crossing into the Borders and the start of the long (nearly 9 miles!) run downhill towards the checkpoint. There was a lot of forestry work ongoing but the result was that I could see a lot further ahead and I spotted Dave again and this time he was only 6 minutes ahead. I kept up a consistent pace and gradually reeled him in as we passed the Over Phawhope bothy and finally caught him where the forestry track turns into tarmac road and he stopped with his crew.
I stopped briefly for a chat and he told me that his legs were “fucked” but that he was not planning to quite but would sort them out and keep going as best as he could. I pressed on and made good speed down the valley road – I was leading the race, and feeling on top of the world! Third place was a very long way behind, and with Dave struggling I was sure all I needed to do was keep moving and I had it in the bag… I should have known better! In hindsight, I was just a little bit over-confident 😬
Reaching the CP at Ettrick, I decided that since I had a good lead but still 80 miles to go, I would spend the time to properly sort myself out for the rest of the race and minimise the chance of any race-ending issues. I changed everything, right down to underwear, applied some sudocrem to potentially delicate areas, re-taped my feet and had a bit to eat. The CP team swapped my GPS tracker over as the one I started with was running low on battery. In total I was at the checkpoint for over 20 minutes and headed off back up the road in high spirits! Thanks to chasing Dave I had actually beaten my planned schedule by 20 minutes and was now only 1 hour behind the plan.
Ettrick (CP8) – Traquair (CP 9): 18 miles
Like Glentrool and Beattock, the Ettrick CP is on a short out-and-back from the main SUW route. I was barely 200m out of the CP when I crossed paths with Dave – he was moving well, looking positive and not planning to stop at the CP since he had been with his crew at the head of the valley road! My lead had all but gone and I had a motivated competitor breathing down my neck. The next few hours were very stressful as I pushed hard to stay ahead and kept glancing back over my shoulder whenever there was a relatively clear view back to see if he was in sight. I hoped to stay far enough ahead not to give him the motivation of chasing me down, like I did to him during the run over from Moffat to Ettrick. It didn’t help that after my tracker was replaced at Ettrick it was malfunctioning and was only giving occasional updates so it was hard to see on the live tracking website exactly how far apart the two of us were.
At least having re-taped my feet they were feeling very comfortable and I was able to run well up and over to Tibbie Shiels and along the banks of St. Mary’s Loch. I was expecting to see Allan and George with the van at the car park at the East end of the loch, but they had been thwarted by a locked gate and so had walked in to meet me. In any case, they had brought everything I had requested – a long sleeved top as it was now getting towards evening and starting to cool, plus a refill of coke and some caffeine gum. By this point I was enjoying having something different from the KMC in my pack, so a soft-flask of coke became a staple item at each crew point!
The caffeine gum was a recommendation from Julie (and Eleanor) but I found it to be absolutely rank! I managed to chew on a bit for about 10 minutes but the flavour is extremely bitter and was making me feel physically sick so I quickly spat it out, although the taste lingered for hours afterwards. Definitely won’t be trying that again! It seems that the caffeine did have some effect as I maintained a strong pace across hillside, down to the Blackhouse farm, and blasted up through the forest to reach the open hills above Traquair. On Ultra Scotland 100 I had started hallucinating by this point, but it seemed my brain was holding itself together rather better this time. I enjoyed running down the wide grassy tracks and even though the road into Traquair was longer than I remembered it was also easy to keep up a good pace. I arrived still with a bit of daylight left and could see that Dave was now about an hour behind.
Despite this, I had lost nearly another hour on my planned schedule so at this point I basically threw the plan out of the window and concentrated on racing. My aim was to be in and out of the checkpoint before Dave arrived. We were pretty efficient and I had a cup-a-soup while Allan and George restocked my bag for the overnight section to come. We also investigated my tracker and found that it had been put back in its waterproof case upside-down with the antenna pointing in rather than up to the sky – easy fix in the end! In total I was there for about 15 minutes before heading off again.
Traquair (CP 9) – Galashiels (CP 10): 13 miles
Night was falling and there was a little bit of rain around as I left the CP, so it was on with the rain jacket and head torch. It’s normally the second night of these long races where things start to get “interesting” and as I climbed the Minch Moor road in the fading light the hallucinations started with a vengeance! First I saw a wind farm under construction, with the stems of the turbines in place and big stacks of blades and cranes ready to lift them in to place. As I approached they morphed into trees. Ahead of me on the path some local builders had left pallets stacked high with steel I-beams for some construction project. Fortunately they simply disappeared as I approached. A little later, it was strange to see a row of a dozen or more exercise bikes lined up by the side of the path as if ready for a spin class – in fact there was nothing there but a drystone wall 🤣 As the night fell and my vision narrowed to the cone of light from my head torch I spent the next few hours in a tunnel of mist above and heather either side. Lights off to the left in the distance (maybe Clovenfords?) were the torches of people out to greet me on the route. Any thoughts of the race itself faded as I just got into a groove of running where I could and hiking where I couldn’t.
I had my headphones in and often sang along – probably lucky there was no-one around to hear me! Around the back of Broomy Law I came across a large herd of cows in the darkness – I’m 90% sure they were real. I happened to be listening to AC/DC “It’s a long way to the top (If you wanna rock ‘n’ roll)” and I sang to them but they were completely non-plussed as I passed through their midst. I wonder what they thought!
Descending from the Three Brethren I passed the tents of (I assume) a couple of hikers who had pitched pretty much in the middle of the path. I hope my light didn’t wake them but I expect they had a bit of distributed night (and the night after) as the race passed them by. There is a fairly short section of about a mile of single track path through the woods to reach the road at Yair, but it seemed to last forever, twisting and turning like a flume at the swimming pool. Strangely, although there were no forks or loops it felt like I was going in circles and I had a strong sense of deja vu as the trail appeared to repeat itself. My GPS confirms it absolutely didn’t – it was all in my head.
As I crossed the River Tweed at Yair Bridge, I saw that Dave had only just left Traquair so my lead was well over 2 hours, but that he was now followed closely by third placed Ed. The climb up from Yair hill wasn’t as bad as I had remembered but the section that followed was an interminable series of grassy fields that caused me to develop a real bad attitude (and very wet feet). Until reaching the Gala Policies woods it’s actually a fairly straight line but my brain at this point felt like the route was far too complicated. As I twisted my way through the tricky woodland section I messaged ahead to say I was planning to eat, change into waterproof socks, charge my watch and have a nap.
The CP crew are a particularly lovely bunch – definitely the best CP so far, and rivalling CP12 for “best in show”. I wasn’t ready to stomach anything too exciting, so they made me buttered toast, and even cut off the crusts! I stripped off my wet socks and went for a 15 minute sleep on a mattress in a darkened room and went instantly to sleep. I actually woke after 14 minutes with my knees in absolute agony, which was strange as they hadn’t hurt at any point during the race up to now! I applied plenty of “Deep Relief” cream, put on the waterproof socks which had been dried out during the day and got ready to head off into the night. I wasn’t feeling particularly sick, just didn’t want to eat much so I was majoring on the KMC bars and gels at this point, along with as much Coke as I could take with me! It was my longest stop of the race at about 30 minutes, but definitely worth it and I set out again with around a 3 hour lead and feeling much more with it.
Galashiels (CP 10) – Lauder (CP 11): 15 miles
It took a little while for my legs to wake back up after the long stop at the CP, but on the plus side my feet felt a whole lot better than they had at the end of Ultra Scotland 100. The section as far as Melrose I knew well but after that I would be in unknown territory. It was 3am but I was wide awake and made good progress with a steady run/walk strategy through Tweedbank and along the side of the river to reach the Gattonside chain bridge without any difficulty. Allan and George met me there and I had a quick stop to eat some tinned peaches – straight from the can in a car park in the middle of the night. Who says ultra running isn’t glamorous 🤣
I headed off again into the last few hours of night. After crossing the road, the SUW climbs gradually on farm tracks before a long straight section that undulates along a rutted and somewhat overgrown lane between fields. At this point the wheel threatened to fall off my race entirely as I was hit by a sudden wave of tiredness. I was still moving (slowly), but staggering around from side to side and barely able to keep my eyes open. I tried every trick in the book to stay awake, even putting my face against the cold, dewy metal of a gate to try to wake myself up but nothing worked. The sky was just starting to lighten up but it wasn’t enough daylight to kick my body clock back into day mode. Somehow I had just enough mental reserves left to work out that there was a road crossing about half a mile ahead. I messaged Allan and George with a Google Maps location and asked them to come to meet me with some caffeine. It says something about my mental state that after sending them the message, I then sent a thumbs-up in response and followed that my thanking them… basically a full conversation with myself. Fortunately they woke up and headed back to meet me, arriving at the road crossing a few minutes after I had to find me sitting on a wall with my eyes closed.
The guys were absolute heroes and I fell fast asleep on a reclining chair while they brewed up a potent triple-espresso coffee. After a 15 minute nap and downing the whole thing I was good to push on for the final 5 miles to the checkpoint. Running on caffeine and adrenaline, I powered along the farm track and before too long the outskirts of Lauder came into view. Julie had advised me that this section could be a bit confusing and to watch out for the golf course as guide I was going the right way. In the end I didn’t even see the golf course but managed to stick to the route without much bother! Maybe I wasn’t all that awake after all? It was now about 7am on Monday morning and I started to see a few locals out and about walking their dogs… what they made of a dishevelled bloke running down the high street after 48 hours on the trail, who knows! I really enjoy this aspect of multi-day running, that outside of the bubble of the race life goes on around you and the people that you see have just had two full days of weekend are are now just starting their week. On looped courses you get to see the rhythm of the day – cows coming in for milking in morning and night, day trippers arriving and leaving, morning and evening rush hour – all while you are still running. Very cool and slightly trippy if you think too much about it!
After surviving the night mainly on coke, gels, KMC bars and of course a can of peaches my stomach was now growling for some solid food so I requested Allan to prepare one of the cheese and bacon mash pots that I had in the van – these are the absolute business as they are packed full of carbs, salt and protein but also super gentle on the stomach – another great race food idea I’ve borrowed from Julie. I took a bit of time at the checkpoint to eat it while restocking my pack for the next stage. I put my bucket hat back on for the day ahead but kept in the same pair of waterproof socks – a bit of a mistake in hindsight, as they were already damp from the overnight dew.
Lauder (CP11) – The Watch (CP12): 12.5 miles
After about a 15 minute stop I headed off back down Lauder High Street to rejoin the Southern Upland Way. I was wide awake again, well fed and full of energy and moving well as I headed down through a fiddly section of paths and gates through the Thirlstane Castle Estate. I had walked a little around this area while crewing Julie last year, but after crossing the A796 I was back into fully uncharted territory. A decent mile of climbing led up onto open moorland with 10 miles stretching ahead to the next checkpoint at the Watch Water fishery hut.
Julie had done this section at night and reported it to be a desolate and disorienting endless track where you could barely tell whether you were going up or down that lasted for hours. I was tackling it on what was a lovely morning but I had pretty much the same opinion. Although I had nothing that much to complain about physically I just got a bit dawdly and unmotivated. The track undulated endlessly, with the only feature of note being a small farmstead. I knew we would have to cross a small river (the Wester Burn) near the farm and I expected a bridge of some sort only to find a wide and shallow ford. Fortunately the water was so low that it was possible to teeter across on some exposed stones and keep my feet dry. If there had been even a little rain this would definitely be a wet feet crossing, and maybe even quite tricky if the water got much higher.
After the farm, the track rose and the Twin Law cairns could be seen ahead but still several miles away and never seeming to get any closer. Looking at the tracker I could see that Dave and Ed in second and third place had passed Lauder so were only(!) 8 miles behind me, and it looked like they were working closely together and gradually closing the gap on me. Afterwards I exchanged messages with them and found that actually they had been racing hard with each other and close to blowing up, but for now it was serving them well and they were catching me, which was a bit stressful with still 20 miles to go.
Throughout the race I had been ignoring all the messages on my phone, except those from Julie or my crew, but for some reason I spotted a message just received from Martin Heggie, who I had seen back at Glentrool. This is what it said:
See this through and claim that Title of RAS! PAIN IS TEMPORARY, this history of your victory will last forever! You got this
A classic Heggie message, but it was just what I needed at the time and I got the message loud and clear “don’t be shit”. From nowhere I found a new gear and started motoring. As I passed the cairns I was hitting 11 minute miles, a pace I had not managed since the run downhill to Traquair over 40 miles ago!
About a mile out from the checkpoint I was starting to think ahead to the full cooked breakfast offered by Norman and his team. I messaged ahead to Allan and George to find out what was on the menu – I definitely wanted something to eat but didn’t want to sit for 15 minutes while it was being cooked! Unfortunately they had their only major issue of the race and had firstly taken the wrong road towards the checkpoint and had to turn around at a locked gate a few miles away, and then on the long road round to Longformacus had got stuck behind a tractor, so it looked like I would reach the CP before them. We decided it wasn’t worth them coming, I would just see them at our next meeting point, a few miles further on.
Fortunately I was able to call ahead to Norman at the checkpoint and put in my order for bacon, tattie scones and a cup of tea. Not only did they have my breakfast ready for me, but a great Scottish welcome with the Saltire and Lion Rampant flying high and Norman in full kilt there to meet me. Although Galashiels comes a close second, this had to be my favourite checkpoint – it might even be worth doing the race again just to experience it a second time. Having been here during the night while crewing last year, it was also fun to see it in the daylight.
I scoffed my breakfast and the cup of tea while chatting excitedly to the CP staff. A quick toilet stop and I was ready to get on my way but one final duty needed to be done – I had to press the button on an animatronic plushie bagpiper who sent me on my way to strains of Scotland the Brave!
The Watch (CP 12) – Cockburnspath (Finish): 21 miles
I set off from the fishery full of cooked breakfast and in high spirits. I was on the final leg of RAS, had a 9 mile lead (which was now growing again), the sun was shining and everything was right with the world. I could swear I heard strains of bagpipes drifting across the water as I crossed the dam and made my way along the road on the far side, but I think it was probably in my head!
Even though it was the final section, 21 miles is still a long way and we had decided to break it up into several pieces. The first crew meeting point would be at Whitchester Lodge, about 7 miles away. I had plenty of supplies in my pack and the first 4 miles are all on road so easy to keep up a good pace. About a mile after passing Longformacus, the SUW leaves the road behind and starts to climb across some farmland. The first mile was on nice grassy slopes but the second part was on a horrible tussocky/ploughed field where the turned earth had hardened during the recent dry weather to make every step a horrific ankle-turning, foot shredding pain-in-the-arse. This was compounded by the fact that my feet were starting to get a bit tender as I’d been running in the same wet socks since Gala, over 30 miles ago. In case you hadn’t guessed I was having another sense of humour failure at this point 🤣
For reasons unknown (possible a field of cows?) the race route then turned off the nice path down to the road and instead added an extra half mile of field-bashing followed by a steep downhill through an ankle-deep field of cut crops! At least then it was only another half a mile along the road to rejoin the SUW proper and meet Allan and George who had everything ready for me. I changed out of the long-sleeved top I had worn during the morning and into my Miles Together orange shirt ready for the final push. Oddly enough I didn’t think to change those socks and stayed in them till the end of the race – who knows why? I had a little bit to eat but mainly restocked my pack as it had been nearly 20 miles since I last refuelled at Lauder. By this point the crewing machine was well oiled and the guys packed everything I needed in exactly the right pockets without needing to be told.
We had planned to meet again at Abbey St. Bathan’s just 3 miles further on, more as a morale boost than anything else. From the meeting point at Whitchester Lodge, I climbed again up a steep gravel track, traversed a field which allegedly was full of cows with calves (I didn’t see any) and negotiated a twisty descent on a sketchy path through deep undergrowth to reach a good forest road that led all the way to Abbey St. Bathan’s. Despite the sore feet I constantly reminded myself not to be shit and got a good couple of miles running in.
Arriving in Abbey St. Bathan’s there was no sign of Allan and George, either at the crossroads in the village, or at the bridge and ford at the far end. It seemed I had missed them and this was confirmed when I got a message “Bollocks. Slow down!” from Allan! They managed to intercept me just a few miles further on at a road crossing. I didn’t need anything but it was good to see them.
The next section to reach Pease Bay and the coast was fairly short 6 miles, but the first half was more thoroughly forgettable farmland. I am sure it’s nice enough in its own way, but I would have been quite glad to see this particular part of Berwickshire wiped off the map and have arrived at the sea already. After a tedious few miles I crested the hill at Blackburn farm and hit a solid couple of miles of downhill running on tarmac to reach and cross the A9. By this time it was early afternoon and the sun was beating down from clear blue skies. I felt good again, but I really felt bad for the folks who were still slogging away with still nearly two more days of running ahead of them in what was now forecast to be hotter and hotter weather.
With only about 5 miles still to go I finally stopped looking over my shoulder (virtually). I could see on the tracker that Dave had dropped into third place and really slowed down after several hours of hard racing with Ed (perhaps too hard?) and although Ed was keeping pace with me he was maybe 7 or 8 miles behind so I knew even if I walked slowly to the finish I would not be caught. To be honest it was a huge relief just not to have to worry about that any more and I could just focus on what I was doing and enjoying the experience of the final few miles.
After crossing the A9 the route passes through a really fiddly section of pine forest at Penmanshiel Wood and climbs a surprisingly long way up some steep zig-zags in the shade of the trees. The race route and the SUW appear to differ slightly here and I took a short detour before retracing my steps and finding the right path through the woods. A fun run down on the soft forest floor leads to a small road crossing and the final section of woodland of the Pease Dean Nature Reserve, which is notable for many steep wooden steps, some of which were quite rotten and sketchy!
Before long I reached the caravan park at Pease Bay, crossed the footbridge over the Burn and made my final crew point. I only stopped for a few minutes as it was only about 2 miles to the finish, but after drinking so much coke during the last couple of days I just wanted to drink and then fill my flask with cold, fresh water.
The last section of the race I knew well as the SUW coincides with the Berwickshire Coastal Path and we had hiked it (in the opposite direction) during the summer. A steep but mercifully short slog up the road led to a twisty, sandy cliff-top path. I was starting to enjoy myself now, thinking back over the last few days of running and all the things I had seen along the way. My feet were sore but as long as I placed them well I could still run so I was able to keep up a good pace even on the rough path. As I traversed the cliff-top, I was aware of a drone buzzing around overhead and behind me and I knew one of the event photographers must be nearby – this rather cool footage made it into the finish montage. As I approached the end of the cliff path to turn inland I was met by BYU Scotland team-mate Ross who lived a few miles up the road and it was great that he had come out to see me finish. We had a brief chat before he headed back off in his car – thanks for the support 🙏
The last mile went by in a blur, I was met by one of the camera crew, who ran with me all the way and I chatted about how the race had gone, how I was feeling, how great my legs felt – I had really started to “smell the barn” by this point and all of the aches and pains faded away and I picked up speed. The camera guy was struggling to keep up at some points 🤣
Arriving into Cockburnspath I caught up with two hikers who were just about to complete the route after more than a week – I think they were a little bit surprised to find that I had started only two and a half days earlier. In their defence, they were carrying a lot more gear than me! Into the village square and I broke into a finish sprint. Whooping and hollering I raced down the last street, turned into the village hall car park and down into the finish funnel to cross the line with a time of 58 hours 18 minutes and 49 seconds. I have been known to get a bit emotional on the run in to the finish but this time there was not a tear in my eye, I was simply on an absolute high.
The finish was an absolute dream, I was almost lost for words when presented with my very own SUW waymarker trophy and the huge finisher’s buckle. I was asked to summarise my race and I didn’t really know what to say, I was just overwhelmed by the enormity of the whole experience!
After photos, more photos and photos of me signing the finisher’s wall it was time for more mundane but no less enjoyable tasks – shower (amazing), hot food (and second helpings – doubly amazing), clean clothes (lovely), recovery sliders (super comfy), and a can of Erdinger Alkohofrei – we may have liberated a few for the journey home too 🤣. In the end Ed Payne finished second about 2h50 later and Dave Walker-Blair a few hours further behind. Anna Troup finished as first lady and fourth overall . It would have been nice to see them finished but I was simply overcome with exhaustion and fortunately Allan’s final act of crewing service was to give me a lift home… I slept almost all the way 😴
Final Thoughts
When I started writing this post in late August, I didn’t think it would take me more than a month (in several chunks of writing) to finish it! It’s simply been hard to make the time in among busy family life, work and running but I have enjoyed the process of reliving the race and I hope you enjoyed the journey along with me. Looking back the lasting feeling is a great sense of satisfaction – not just of the win, but of what I think was a very well managed race. It was roughly 50 miles longer than By Way of The Glen (my previous longest point-to-point) and although I had run 250 miles in stages at Cape Wrath Ultra and 200+ miles in the Backyard format it was still a big step up and a huge challenge. The inevitable minor issues that cropped up during the race were kept under control and nothing ever reached the point where I had any concerns about not being able to finish.
In terms of pacing, I was about 6 hours over my planned completion time, about 10% slower than I’d aimed for. In hindsight the plan was just a little bit too optimistic. I spent about an hour longer with my crew than planned (most of that was the extra sleep stop before Lauder), but mostly the difference was due to being much slower on the night sections than I’d expected. I don’t think I could have given much more than I did during the race, so that’s something I can build in to pacing plans for future races.
My crew of Allan and George were absolutely great – after a few stops they both knew exactly what I needed both in terms of feeding, resupplies and encouragement / tough love. No major issues throughout, although Allan actually took quite a detour after Glentrool but still made it to the next meeting point. The only meeting points that we missed were The Watch (where I was well fed by the checkpoint anyway) and Abbey St. Bathan’s which was not an essential stop anyway. Messaging ahead to “pre-order” specific items worked really well too. Special mention for the emergency meet-up on Monday morning when I was falling asleep on the way in to Lauder. I think they both enjoyed themselves and I hope to be able to return the favour some day soon.
In terms of nutrition and hydration I was quite pleased with how I got on. The first day I ate well and for the middle section where I felt a bit sick I managed to keep enough calories coming in through gels, KMC bars, ISO-Mix, coke (almost 12 litres in total!) and any solid food I could stomach. By the third day my stomach started working again and I was able to take on solid foods with no issues. The mixture of stuff I brought allowed me to switch from plan A to an effective plan B and it’s encouraging to know that I can go for roughly a day without much solids and still race strongly.
My gear and clothing choices worked absolutely fine as usual, although the weather was excellent for 90% of the race,which helped. I stayed in the same pair of Salomon Sense Ride 5 for the whole race, but changed my socks several times as needed. The combination of Trench cream and using Dexshell waterproof socks worked really well. I kind of switched off a bit on looking after my feet on the final day, which was a bit daft although in the end it didn’t matter. They were a bit uncomfortable from being damp for so long but no major blistering so I got away with it. Note to self: don’t neglect the feet near the end of the race!
My mental game was really positive throughout. Sticking closely to my pacing plan helped and that gave me lots of confidence even at the beginning when many people were streaking off ahead. I was focussed on my goals throughout, and neither stomach issues, tiredness or general aches and pains distracted me from that. In fact, I found that the vast majority of the race was genuine “type one” fun – I actually enjoyed it at the time! I used the race situation to my advantage, firstly keep up a strong pace passing many runners during the first afternoon and night, then chasing the leaders from about half-way at Daer Reservoir and finally using the pressure of being chased to keep me going at a good pace right to the end. It’s clear that I thrive under competitive pressure and the strategy of starting slowly and moving up through the field that Julie has used so effectively on many races worked really well for me too.
It wasn’t long after crossing the line that the GB Ultras team asked me if I would come back and race again. Never say never, but I have plenty of other things planned so it won’t be in 2026. It feels at the moment that I don’t have any unfinished business with RAS and I don’t want to risk spoiling the great memories I have from this year but let’s see what happens in the future!
If you’re thinking of entering the race, I hope this post has given you a good flavour of what’s involved and some useful hints and tips along the way too. Don’t forget, if you want some help preparing for the race then check out our coaching services and make use of our collective experience of the race to get the most our of your training, preparation and race strategy.
At least for 2026 we’ll be dot-watching with the rest of you (probably with a good amount of FOMO too). Best of luck!