Glentress Trail Marathon, High Terrain Events, 16.02.2025

I entered this marathon a few weeks ago, as I was struggling with enthusiasm for running on hills, which is a problem, living where I do. I thought that the thought (lots of thinking - scary) of an upcoming hilly marathon might serve as good motivation. It turned out that I was sufficiently terrified of the thought to be galvanised into some sort of action, and stopped avoiding hills on my runs, and tried to try a bit more when going up (and down) them. I wouldn't say that as a result of this, hills feel any easier, which is disappointing, but then I would say that I hate them less than I did at the beginning, which is a definite positive.

Although in Scotland, the marathon wasn't actually anywhere near us, and was in fact 4 hours drive away. I am still learning to appreciate quite how big Scotland is. But thanks to this, we got a weekend trip down to Peebles (about 30 miles south of Edinburgh, and somewhere I've not been before). Preparations were hampered somewhat by getting car sick on the way, which is a new experience for me (one I'd be completely happy never to repeat), combined with a migraine, with the end result being throwing up the evening before the run, rather than enjoying the Peebles experience. Which is a shame, but these things happen.

I felt OK enough to try the run the next morning, which was good, and strangely, the more I ran, the better I felt.

The event was organised by High Terrain Events, and consisted of a 4km, 10km, half marathon and marathon, all starting and finishing at the Glentress Peel Visitor Centre, which had great facilities and was a good base. The route was 2 laps of 13 miles each, and had 5,300 feet of ascent.

The route I would say was tough, but absolutely beautiful. Running through the forests, up to the tops and through the snow and watching the stunning views appear was magical, and worth the hard work.

It was really friendly, and a great atmosphere, and the marshals were brilliant, standing out in the cold weather and at the top of hills to keep everyone right!

On reflection, I feel my training was sufficient for the first lap, but I found the second much harder and completely ran out of energy. Still, that's a good base to work on, and it was an enjoyable adventure.