Highlands Double Marathon

Friday 28.03.2025 - Cabrich to the Great Glen Way (solo marathon/ultra #87)

Ran from home up to the Great Glen Way (7 miles on lanes), along the GGW towards Inverness for about 6.5 miles, and then back, 26.2 miles in all.

The weather was varied, and was an immersive experience! Started off quite sunny with big gusts of wind. Heavy rain showers gradually turned into a persistent downpour of rain and hail, and winds got up to almost 50 miles an hour, at which point I regretted choosing a route along a ridge, particularly when turning round at half way and heading straight back into the wind and being blasted in the face with hail all the way home. I gradually added all the spare clothes I had, and eventually warmed up, just in time to finish. I even got a nice red glow from the hail, which isn't as good as a tan, but you have to take what you can get.

It was amazing though, watching the rain approaching, and even rainbows made it through the clouds once or twice. It's a nice route as well, and in good weather, the views would be fab. I shall choose my return after a more thorough studying of the forecast! 

Saturday 29.03.2025 - Marathon from Laggan Locks to Fort Augustus and back, along the Great Glen Way (solo marathon/ultra #88)

Started at Laggan Locks, which is at the north end of Loch Lochy, which is surely the best and most creatively named loch in the whole of Scotland. Then followed the GGW along Loch Oich, which (in my opinion) comes a very close second in the loch naming stakes. 

The weather was appalling, although in fairness not as appalling as I expected, and probably not as bad as yesterday. 

Andrew cycled, and I ran, and it was epic, such a fun day! 

Path down through the forest near the Well of the Seven Heads

View down to Loch Oich

Checkpoint!

Some of the colours were almost like autumn

The Bridge of Oich

The locks at Fort Augustus

Nessie + baby Nessie (all legends need a good succession plan)

Waterfalls in the forest

Amazing tree!

The rhododendrons will be spectacular here in a few weeks

The finish at Loch Lochy

Running GP Oulton Park Marathon, with Run Through events, 02.03.2025

Road trip for the day with my Mum and Dad - the best of days!

First time at a Run Through event, and what a great experience - well organised, friendly, and fun.

The event was at the Oulton Park motor racing track in Cheshire. Oulton Hall used to stand in the grounds, but burned down in 1926, and the land was then used during the war years as a staging camp. Following this, the Mid Cheshire Car Club established a track on the land, and the first meet was held in 1953, and the track has been there ever since.

It was great to see Karen (doppleganger), Karl, Lucas and Nick at the start. 

The marathon set off at 09.00 and was 10 laps of the car racing circuit. Also on were 20 mile, 16 mile, half marathon, 10k and 5km races, with staggered starts, so there was always lots of people around, but never too busy. Lots of friendly support too. 

I was mistakenly under the impression that car racing circuits were flat, but have since revised my opinion on that. Outlon Park is not flat.

I had a good first half, but then suddenly and inexplicably, the "not flat undulations" suddenly became giant mountains, and I struggled in the second half. But luckily, the last 3 laps I ran with Lucas. We hadn't run together for 18 months, so much chatting, laughing (Lucas' gourmet baby oil fish and chips, PBs in pants, the "10 is bad" scale), and eating kendal mint cake ensued, and it proper right cheered things up. Thank you Lucas!!! 

What a beautiful sunny day, lovely for March! 

Hot drinks and a picnic with my Mum and Dad afterwards, and really proud of my Dad for his longest walk post hospital (over 7 miles!)

Thanks Run Through for a super day 💙🤍🖤

Seville Marathon, 23.02.2025

I love Scotland, but it has been pretty cold and dark for long hours over the winter, it's true. I miss that feeling of warmth you get when you're somewhere where it's hot enough to just wander around in the sun. It's a very lucky thing to be able to go somewhere sunny at this time of year..... somewhere just like Seville.

I've also been missing my running pals, so I was super excited for a full weekend of chat-athon-ing in the sun with Sarah.

I left home just before 05.00 on Friday in the dark and rain, and drove to Inverness Airport for the 06.35 flight to Gatwick. Once at Gatwick, I had a full 8 hours before our Seville flight. Sounds boring, but I thought I would approach it from the perspective that it was like a mini city-break in Gatwick, and I loved it. Breakfast, people watching, catching up on programmes, coffee, window shopping, walking laps of the airport, and then Sarah arrived in time for lunch and our 16.20 flight. 

Once in Seville, we caught the EA bus into the centre of the city, and checked in to the Don Paco hotel. Friday night seemed to be the night for wailing in the Don Paco hotel, which was very random, but luckily everyone wailed themselves out during the night, and the rest of the time was quiet.

It was quite hot, compared to home, and the air-con in our room wasn't working. The next morning, we enquired about this, and were informed that the air-con in the whole hotel was not turned on yet, as it was the wrong season for air-con. From which we concluded, people who live in Seville have a different idea of what is hot to the idea we do.

Saturday morning we had breakfast at Holy Joy (croissants, and ORANGE juice!) 

We then walked to the Marathon Expo to pick up our running numbers. I also got some watermelon electrolyte sachets, as I'd managed to pretty much forget everything I needed for the trip, other than trainers and my passport. 

On the way, we admired the orange trees and collected some good drain covers.

From there, we walked back to town via a nostalgic trip to C&A....

...and full of happy shopping memories from times gone by, we carried on walking to find the marathon start at the Parque de Maria Luisa, and then did a nice walk around lots of the big sites, including the river, cathedral and Real Alcázar de Sevilla (aka Alcatraz). 

Then we fuelled up with poké bowls at La Mala and ice cream at Café Square, and caught an early night.

Up early on Sunday for the marathon. It was chilly in the morning dark, but it soon warmed up, and it was so nice to run in the sun in just vests, and not hundreds of layers.

The start was all well organised and the only difficult part of the whole thing was the portaloos, which I remember from last time as being a very traumatic experience. I recorded this in my blog of 2 years ago, so here it is, as there's no point in reinventing the wheel (although there would be a very good point in the race organisers in reinventing their portaloo strategy)....

There were about 14,000 people running, and it was a really good atmosphere the whole way around, with good hydration stations, DJs and music, and support. 

The route started off along the river, over the bridge to the Isla Magica and Agua Magica (aka Spanish Blackpool), through the area used for the 1992 World Expo and past the Cohete Ariane 4 rocket replica (aka Giant Tampon building), and back over the river to complete 12.5km....

....then it was back up the river, this time to do a wiggly route through more residential areas, before heading back to the old town for the last few miles, and around the Plaza de España, to the finish.

And so to complete the 40th anniversary edition of the Seville marathon - happy birthday, marathon! 

Afterwards, much of the day was focussed around food, starting with refuelling with the best crisps in the world and watching the finish line....

...then for some walking around to the Plaza de España for a picnic and medal photoshoot. 

Finished off the weekend with tapas at La Gorda De Las Setas... 

....lollies from Loco Poco and a walk around Setas de Sevilla....

...and churros for breakfast at Holy Joy.

A brilliant adventure! Thank you Sarah for the best weekend and catch up!