This is a 50 mile trail set up around the hills south and west of Inverness primarily aimed at horse riders. You can get more info here and maps here. I fancied running it primarily as it on my doorstep and it would be good training. Having have a look at the maps I realised the route was quite complex and spent a couple of very enjoyable days with Owen checking some sections out. In hindsight I wish I had spent more time checking out the route as the waymarking (either posts or white stones) is a bit scant in parts - not helped with the overgrown nature of some of the trails. Probably take more heed of the trail notes than I did!
The weather forecast for Monday was good - overcast, not too much wind and only showers forecast, so at 7am I started out from near Cullaird. All went well until I got lost just after Loch Ashie, but I don't think it mattered too much time-wise. The trail uses all sorts of surfaces - road, forestry track, grassy rides, single track and some seriously off-road knee-deep heather sections. The views down the Great Glen were superb and the area in general has some great scenery. Soon after the momentous heather-bashing section to Tom na Croich (I couldn't resist going up this rocky knoll) it all went wrong again in the woods surrounding Creag Innis an Daimh Dhuibh. I got badly lost (I had to get the compass out) and added a few miles on the the days mileage. At least no-one was about the hear my rantings and ravings.
The section around Loch Mhor dragged and after about 5 hours I hit the wall. With little motivation I staggered on, only regaining my sense of humour on the superb trails that drop you down to Inverfarigaig.
Emily and Owen had kindly driven to the FC carpark and a 30min sit down with IrnBru and a cheese sandwich made the prospect of finishing the route all the more likely. The big climb out to the Pass of the Fairheaded Lad went well, despite the forecast heavy showers arriving a wee bit early. From here on in it is about 12 miles of forestry track. Not overly interesting, but it was great to see the distance to Dores and Inverness steadily decreasing and it didn't feel too bad. Finally the finish was in sight after 10 hours with a run time of 9 hours 30 minutes. This was pretty much spot on as I predicted. The running and views were much better than expected and having a bad spell is always to be expected so all in all I am pretty chuffed with the days efforts.
I am pretty sure know the Paddy Buckley is off - mainly due the cost of travelling down for an attempt and anyway I have to leave something to train for next year : )
