Second go at this race, 7 of us set off up the Stoneymollan old coffin route, in 4th place to start, turning off along the Three Lochs Way with a short detour to Ben Bowie, round the cairn and back to the start, gradually reeled in 2 of those in front passing one on the wee rise to BB the other on the way back in to the forest, finished 2nd in just over 50 mins, about 3 mins quicker than last year.
Luss hill run, Beinn Dubh to start, along to Mid Hill and down in to the glen, cross over for the climb to Coille Eughain, ridge up to Creag an Leinibh, coming back over Beinn Ruisg, Creaghan hill to Cruach Dubh, called the short way as its only about 13 miles, I have a route I would like to do that starts and finishes with the same hills but takes in the a few more hills.
Running up through Bluebell woods to start, clear skies today with a cold cold wind on the way up Beinn Dubh, views to the Arrochar Alps and beyond well worth it. Easy run along to mid hill, caught by a couple of runners on their way to Doune Hill. Down to the glen road, the day warming up now, short run to the top of the glen and a trudge up Coillie Eughains steep flank, running again on a faint path weaving round the peat hags towards Creag an Leinibh, walk the last few hundred feet as the gradient increases. Route undulates down from here on, running parallel and above the Finlas reservoir the path fades out on the approach to Creaghan hill. From there its sheep track, tussock jumping and heather bashing down to the back of Cruach Dubh picking up a quad bike track to the top then the Luss Highland Games Hill race descent path back to Luss.
Good turnout for the short tarmac race down the cycle path, 10 of us set off just before 7pm, finished 6th in just over 22 mins, about 15 secs slower than last year.
Planned a route round the three Glen Douglas Hills, cross the glen and climb Cruach an t Sidhein, Beinn Lochian and Doune Hill. Two objectives today, reach the Trig point on Monadh Tighe na Laraich on Tullich Hills North ridge and find a good descent line off Doune Hill into Glen Douglas. I had failed to reach the Trig twice before, once through fatigue and once in the clag. The direct descent off Doune Hill is full of crags and gullies, the first time I got through easily the second time cost me half an hour of re-ascent and traversing to pick my way through. Early start before 6:30, Beinn Bhreac first, no views today with cloud covering the tops, hopefully it would lift enough to reach the Trig. Ran along to Ben Reoch, the path criss-crosses a new fence line. Down towards Tullich Hill next, keeping close to the watershed to minimise height loss, the cloud had risen above the trig and I took a rising traverse towards Monadh Tighe na Laraich, hit the ridge a bit too soon giving some extra climb. This would be a good viewpoint for the Arrochar Alps on a clear day, I'll need to go back. Just over a mile to the top of Tullich Hill then the run down in to Glen Douglas through a new plantation of natural Scottish trees. I thought about stopping here but had made good time, just over three hours, and decided to stick to the plan. Set off round the Glen Douglas military base towards Cruach an t Sidhein. Steep at first following the fence line round the base then a gradual climb to a small bridge over the stream, a rising traverse to the ridge which steepens as you approach the summit, another cloudy one. Another new fence to follow down to the col before Beinn Lochain, a shortish climb then along to the twin tops of Doune Hill. Descent to Glen Douglas is off the second top, mindful of staying away from the crags I overcompensated and realised I had turned 180 degrees and was going back the way I came, luckily realised pretty quickly and only lost a few minutes. Tried again and picked a better line, avoiding the crags but not quite staying on the ridge I had hoped for, still made for an easy grassy descent to finish inside 6 1/2 hours, about an hour longer than I had hoped for probably as this route doesn't have as many paths as the other hills round Luss.
Start point same as last week at the entrance to Glen Luss early start running for 6:15 going straight up the road to the top of the glen to Beinn Eich, up and over Beinn Eich, bitter wind from about half way up. Down the back, over Beinn Lochain and round to Doune Hills main top with the trig point, no hanging about today, the Arrochar Alps looked bleak. Dropped down in to Sith Mor before the trudge up Mid Hill, back into a cold wind along the ridge to Beinn Dubh, passing 5 or 6 runners going the other way, easy run down to finish in just over 3 1/2 hours.
Abandoned Arrochar due to low cloud, snow and poor forecast, decided on to repeat of a run I did in Sept 2014, 18 miles and 8000' of ascent, all the hills overlooking Glen Luss, last time I took about 9 hours having become dehydrated. Started just after 7 up Beinn Dubh then Mid Hill, Beinn Eich and Lochain, Cruach an t Sithien, Beinn Mahanach, Chaorach, Tharsuinn, Creag an Leinbh and Coille Eughain Hill. Took just over 2 litres of juice. Beinn Dubh and Beinn Eich the bigger climbs, about 2000' each, Mahanach and Chaorach over 1000' each, the rest undulations up to a few hundred feet. Took some of my homemade nutrition, raw energy balls, made from mixed nuts, raisins, cranberries and dates with some water and ground cinnamon. Brisk walk on the ups, running the flats and the downs. Juice and an energy ball on each top/every hour or so seemed to keep the cramps away. Walk run strategy worked fine, pausing only on longer/steeper sections of Mahanch and Chaorach. Snow to start on the top of Beinn Dubh, cloud gradually broke up over a couple of hours giving some sunny patches, made the right choice as Arrochar stayed in the clouds most of the day, only the Cobbler breaking free for a short time later on before black clouds descended again and chased me down Coille Eughian Hill. In between a mixture of sun and cloud with a wee hail shower going up Cruach an t Sithein, cleared at the top for good views to the rest of the route. Good weather over Mahanach and Chaorach , the threat of snow and thunder not far away made for a steady pace over Creag an Leinbh and Coille Eughain Hill to finish ahead of the cloud inside 7 1/2 hours.
