Afternoon run in Arrochar, straight up Narnain, over to the Cobbler, descending the ridge to An t Sron, from their down to the Buttermilk Burn at the top of the zig zags, crossed the path onto the argo track for a nice easy run down this grassy trail.
5 of us for tonight's trail race, a lap of Balloch Park to start then up Fairy Glen and out round the Whinny Hill lollipop route, on the way back follow a path through trees behind the park coming out at the castle. A couple of minutes slower than last year on this trail race that used to be a cross country before the hardcore paths were built. Started in third place, made it into second at the seat and kept that until the end.
Sunday afternoon run over the hills that surround Auchengaich reservoir off Glen Fruin. There's a few car spaces at the bottom of the access road to the dam. It's warm with a threat of thunder, these hills provide easy escape routes should it turn nasty, set off through the gate and straight up Auchengaich hills steep flanks, tussocky run then trudge as the gradient increases. From the top its an enjoyable run with a cooling breeze, there's a quad bike track, paths and fence lines to follow in poor weather, over Tharsuin and Chaorach and back down into a warm and windless glen. The climb to A Mahanaich follows another fence shielding a deep gully, mostly walking up here. From the top gentle grassy slopes lead down over Maol am Fheidh and The Strone.
This was my 17th go at the Stuc, and my first long hill race for a couple of years. 200+ started with a few drop outs along the way. The first couple of miles undulate up on forest roads and grassy tracks to reach open hillside, across the moor beside Meall Mor before a steep drop into Glen Ample, not so easy on the way back, steep climb up Beinn Each, 1500' in under a mile, heather and a rusty old fence helping on the steeper parts. from Each to the Stuc its about 2 miles along a rough undulating ridge, dropping 500' and climbing 1000' a mixture of running, walking and scrambling gets you there, from the cross over at Bealach nan Cabar you have to avoid the runners in front on their way back as you grind up to the Stucs summit. No time to take in the views running back along the rocky ridge, there's a few ups and downs but most of the climbing is done for the day, apart from Glen Ample. From the cross over drop down steep pathless grassy slopes to a stream crossing where a faint ankle trashing path takes you back along the glen to the start of the climb out, a slow jog at first then everyone slows to a painful trudge as the 600' in half a mile climb sucks the energy from your legs. From the exit from Glen Ample its a 3 1/2 mile run to the finish, across the moor then grass track and forest road, mostly down hill with just enough rough ground to keep you working hard all the way to the finish, 167th out of 196 finishers.
