Race Date: Sunday 6th October 2019

Inverness is a highland city in the far north of Britain. It is ideally situated for touring the attractive hills and glens around, while maybe  taking in highland games including the famous “Caber Tossing”. A couple of tossers, Richard Pegg and Carl Thompson, visited the area with Jo Carne and Teresa Mitchell to partake in the local Marathon. Jo and Rich are  Striders. Carl is a plastic honorary Strider who is a keen runner. He and Teresa, his partner, often visit towns and countries to race events.

The “Baxters” Loch Ness Marathon is a popular point to point marathon. As with any point to point in Scotland it is worth remembering that at the far point it can be cold. At the event competitors are encouraged to wear disposable clothes and bin bags to discard in pre-set areas. So we did spend Saturday afternoon wandering around charity shops and stores looking for suitable clothing. Carl had to go to his charity shop of choice and got a fetching caravan and camping club hoodie. Richard chose to get a cheap destroy the planet Vietnamese slave labour Primark sweat shirt. Jo went for charity chic jumper and scarf. Pragmatism v Hedonism v Style.

On the day, there are around 3500 runners taken by a huge fleet of coaches out into a spot in the wilderness where there is nothing but an inadequate number of toilets and, luckily, a small fir tree plantation.  The run back down to Inverness is a largely enjoyable drop down by Loch Ness.  There are ample water and gel stations. The route is well maintained and traffic free. There are some wicked hills – the worst being at 18 miles at the point where you need the most help! The finishing area, as often in these events, was a welcome place to be. The finishing announcer was very engaging and  entertaining. We think he was paid by the amount of times he mentioned the sponsor at the “Baxter’s” Loch Ness Marathon. At the end there was good hearty food, copious amounts of beer to purchase and entertainment that could really get you off your feet  – if they could move.

All three runners got back into town at various times:

• Carl Thompson in 3hrs 51 mins (excellent debut run)
• Richard Pegg in 3hrs 58 mins
• Jo Carnie in 4hrs 24 mins (monster time considering she had flu 2 days before)

The winning male was Isaiah KOSGEI in a time of 2 hrs 29 mins.

The winning woman was Katie WHITE in a time of 2hrs 42 mins.

There was a group of runners from Totley AC. Unfortunately we missed meeting them. On the run three of them were well ahead of us, anyway! We also missed Nessie who failed to show up.

All-in-all a very good event well worth trying. If you do it just remember warm disposable clothes for the start point where you are dropped off in the wilderness.

Striders results