Ah, the power of TV, well The Adventure Show to be precise. Last year this event attracted a humble 130 folk, a spot on said TV show in January and this year the event was sold out with 800 signing up across the three events, the marathon, a half marathon and a 10k. From the warmth of my living room in January I too succumbed to the power of TV and duly signed up for my first marathon.
The route starts at the red squirrel campsite in Glencoe and winds it’s up way up the Glen on tracks and paths and then some very boggy ground until after about 12k it joins the west highland way below the devils staircase. After this it follows the WHW all the way to the finish in Glen Nevis. So despite being named the Glencoe marathon, only about a quarter of the route is actually in said Glen! It’s mainly a trail run but does climb up to 568m from a sea level start and has 1,200m of ascent in total. It’s a beautiful route through some very dramatic country.
Having completed the Glenshee 9 and the Ochil 2000s in August I was hoping my legs knew what was coming and those races proved to be good training as I seemed to cope quite well with the distance and the cool showery weather definetly suited me, finishing in a time of 4:43, placing me 79th out of 417 starters. The winning time was 3:33, a challenge there next year for the fast Carnethies to have a go out. A very good event, plenty feed stations, well organised and a great route.
Results are here
Alan Renville