Clear blue sky and sunny, but the still air freezing cold as we ran through the shade of the forest towards Conic kept us moving, you could taste a freshness in the air. Once out of the trees there was a little welcome heat from the sun. The views opening up over Loch Lomond a hint of what was in store.
By now we had split into a few smaller groups as we settled into an easy pace to tackle Conic Hill. The frozen track made for a slow careful climb.
The views from the top made up for the bitter wind streaming through us.
The run off Conic a pleasure as usual with an easy jog down through the forest. Moving fast enough to keep warm we ran over pudding rock and along a few undulations past Milarrochy bay and some happy winter campers to our turning point at Cashel.
Jogged along the straight and back for a few minutes to re-group then set off at a nice steady pace for Garadhban. We soon met up with the next group who were only a few minutes behind, the rest had turned back earlier and we wouldn't meet them until we finished.
The route was busy now, with walkers and quite a few runners, most seemed to be training for the Fling and WHW races in April and June.
We struggled to keep pace with some canoists hugging the waters edge as we ran through the woods on the approach to pudding rock, missing the turn off as we watched them paddling along in the bright sun, doubled back, we couldn't be seen to miss a hill. A quick up and down and then we were soon trudging back up Conic where we took a slight detour to go over the top. Paused for a couple of minutes to take in the views and some photos.
We picked our way down the icy track off Conic hill and filled our water bottles in the freezing stream for the last few miles, the water only slightly coloured. Started to cool down on the way back through the forest. An exhilirating run in superb winter condititions finishing in 4 hours 53. A few pictures in the Galleria.
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