A Race! Report! – Scottish Hill Champs 2020

Originally billed as ‘elites-preferred’, there was a strong field assembled at Comrie Croft last Sunday – all the usual fast guys n girls of the Scottish hill-scene and a sprinkling of handy-looking road runners keen for a race. (Apparently…
, , , ,

Lairig Ghru Hill Race 2020

The Lairig Ghru Hill Race is badly named. I have no issues with the first half of the name. Right enough it follows the Lairig Ghru, but hill race? 640m in 43K?! It's a trail race. Putting the modest elevation aside, it's a stunning route, slicing…

Trigs of the Campsies

Westies Non-Mountain Marathon

Historically June has brought us the LAMM, and more recently its replacement, the SMM. These multi-day orienteering events have been a source of many a good pub yarn for Westies young and old. So in the spirit of this, since lockdown…

Les Diablerets 3D

Finally this week we put the skis away until next winter. Leyre and I were pushing to squeeze the last spring juices out of a severely curtailed ski touring season given an unusually hot spring and some strange type of Coronavirus that some…

National XC 2020

National XC 2020   I meant to write a race-report straight after, but never got round to it. I remember thinking that this was the most enjoyable race I’d done all season and that ‘the National’ definitely lived up to the hype.   My…

Westies at the Boat Race 2020

At long last the lockdown has been lifted, and amazingly it was just in time for the Boat Race to go ahead. The MacDonald family organise it and always put on a great event, but with the race only getting the go-ahead on the week leading…

Stuc a Chroin 2012

Stuc a Chroin 2012 was my first Long Classic hill race.   In preparation I’d done a few 13 mile runs around the West End on the basis that Stuc was about 13 miles. Coupled with my general diet of hill-walking/climbing at the weekends…

#GiveCOVIDtheBoot

Pollok Parkleys Marathons 2020

It was a bright warm day in April and the sound of birdsong was striking, I’m sure Tom F would have been able to distinguish at least thirteen different species. As I studied my map and prepared for the physical and mental torture that lay…