This year’s race was the twentieth so, operating under ‘any excuse for a party’ rules, we decided to add in a few specials to the goodie bag and to have a party.
One hundred and two runners, from the UK, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Australia signed up to take on The Middle Section from Tayinloan to Campbeltown. The route crosses the peninsula twice, sea level to sea level, with some steep climbs and descents and a couple of beach sections. The majority is on forest tracks, making it the most accessible section and arguably the easiest in terms of underfoot conditions.
In the men’s race, Glasgow’s Donald Mcpartlin led from the start and built up a steadily increasing lead throughout the day finishing 12 minutes clear of Calum Greenlees and the only runner to finish in under 5 hours.
The women’s race was won by Pippa Dew from Sheffield, who placed third overall reeling in runners who didn’t pace themselves quite as well. 2nd and 3rd ladies, Venetia Lindsay and Isabel Beveridge were only just over 6 hours.
The supervets (50+) were as usual well up the field with local Tarbert runner Chris Tillapaugh in 6th place overall and Michelle Hetherington in 18th. The oldest runner, 70 year old Tim Warner clocked 9.48 on the line but wasn’t last. The lantern rouge goes to Fiona Beveridge and Aline Adams who were practising for walking The Wall. Good luck with that, ladies.
Once again we were blessed with good weather, sunshine and clear skies to show off the views, but a chilly wind to keep the temperatures down. We are always learning and hope you enjoyed the extra water stations and supplies this year.
Apologies for any navigational problems. We suspect local interference at Carradale, an incorrect gpx at Torrisdale where the signs were all good, and confusion at Dellwood for anyone who remembered the days when we finished on The Green.
At the prizegiving we were able to put right last year’s omission of Kali Heaney as the lady with the 3 fastest times. If any of you number crunchers feels like volunteering to go through our results and create a system which we can more easily monitor, please get in touch!
Race Report here
Solo Times and splits here
Relay Times and splits here