Kintyre Way Relay and Ultras

The Kintyre Way was opened in 2006 and provides a challenging walk of 87 miles from Tarbert to Duaverty. Part of it passes close to our house and each year thousands of walkers cover all or part of the route.

There is now an annual race from Tarbert to Campbeltown taking in 67 miles of the route and open to teams of 6 and ultra runners who cover anything from 35 to 67 miles. The route is hilly and climbs to over 1000 feet on 2 occasions. There is also a section of scrambling over rocks on the seashore close to where we live. Anyway, I got a call last week from the organiser asking if I would be a marshall at the Carradale checkpoint, something I apparently agreed to a couple of years ago when I met him. Having participated in many road races and benefited from the efforts of marshalls and stewards, I was delighted to be able to help out.

As Carradale is 47 miles from the start it would be about 12 noon before the first runners, some of whom had started at 6 o'clock, reached the checkpoint. The first to arrive were 2 relay runners who had taken a wrong turn and appeared behind us. They were followed 15 minutes later by a very irate ultra runner who had taken a wrong turn and been lost in the forest for more than 20 minutes. He blamed the poor route signs, but it was probably because he had no map with him. He was pointed in the right direction and left muttering something under his breath about the poor organisation!

Later in the race Colin, another ultra runner who had covered the first 47 miles, had to withdraw due to physical and mental exhaustion. Once he had a cup of tea, I got talking to him and he was full of praise for the organisers explaining that navigation was part of the challenge and down to each runner.

Not far behind him was Mark, a former soldier, who takes ultra running very seriously. I had spoken to his father who was there in support of him with food and clothing, and he told me how fanatical Mark was about his sport and many of the ultra races he had participated in. He took off his shoes and socks to "let his feet breeth" as apparently keeping the feet as dry as possible helps avoid blisters. Anyway, once his feet had dried (probably bitten a few times by the midges as well!) and he had a fresh pair of socks on, he was off. 47 miles down and only 20 to go! As this was no ordinary feat by a pair of feet, I thought they deserved to be blipped!

The rest of Mark can be seen here along with other shots of the runners.

If any blippers out there fancy a relay or ultra running challenge next year details can be found at Kintyre Way Relay.