The Clyde Stride is a new race on the ultra marathon scene. It starts at Partick in Glasgow and finishes 40 miles later at New Lanark, mostly following the route of the Clyde Walkway in between. It's almost entirely flat with just a few bumps near the end, and there's quite a lot of road and hard path surface in the first 30 miles so road shoes were possible throughout. As such it's an ideal race for a first attempt at an ultra so there were quite a few first timers on the start line. Five Carnethies took part with Lucy Colquhoun finishing first lady and second overall. Well done! I was next in with 6:52:18 followed by Steven Mcfarlane 6:52:21, Gregor Heron 6:52:23 and Andy Millard 7:14:07

Just under 100 runners toed the line at Partick, and after a quick word from race organiser Lee Maclean we were off, very quickly settling into a pace that was a bit faster than our planned 10 minute miles. Initially Steven, Gregor and myself were in a group containing a few seasoned ultra runners, with Andy up ahead in another group. However as we made our way through Glasgow and out into the countryside the field thinned and the four of us were left with just one other runner, who thankfully had previously recce'd that section. The first checkpoint was 10 miles into the race at Cambuslang and here we collected our first drop bag which contained far too much food. A quick refuel and we were off again, heading for CP2 at Strathclyde Park. This section was mostly through fields or wooded trails with a short section of road prior to Strathclyde Park. CP2 came and went and so did our companion Lawrie as he succumbed to the pace.
Andy had ran on ahead at CP2 and it was a few miles before we caught up with him. A quick chat and bit of walking to refuel and we were off and running again. Andy decided to drop the pace a bit here so we left him with a view to meeting up again further upstream. We were now running at a very steady pace and feeling good, in fact too good given that Steven was now into uncharted territory in terms of time on the hoof! By CP3 at Mauldslie we were on home turf and, barring any major incidents, looking forward to a finish that was well ahead of our initial 8 hour target. However, the hardest section lay ahead so we kept the pace steady and started to walk on the short climbs that were encountered. One of our friends met us at Crossford to give some encouragement and then we met up with 'Tinto' Ken MacDougall who had ran down from Lanark to accompany us on the final miles. We were still going strong at Kirkfieldbank and passed a few runners who were now walking. Although the race finished at New Lanark the route actually went through the village then took us on a mile loop upstream to finish back in the village at the SWT picnic site. As this was our first ultra we were pleased to finish still feeling strong in a time and position much better than we had dared dream of. We waited for Andy to come in then headed for a well earned pint up in Lanark.


This was a great day out and would recommend it for next year. There was something aesthetically pleasing about leaving a city and heading into the countryside,
where the scenery got better as the race progressed, and also the fact that we were essentially running home!
Full results and details on www.clydestride.webnode.com