The Great Glen Ultra 2014
9 watchers
Nov 2013
8:45am, 5 Nov 2013
145 posts
|
mikey_a
Well, Bill and I have been talking about putting a race on along the Great Glen since before we organised our first Glenmore 24. And we genuinely thought we'd get beaten to it by someone else, but here we are launching our third ultra marathon which I think means we now have a "series" on our hands. The Great Glen is a stunning route along a fault line running from Fort William to Inverness. Its approx 72-73 miles long and while I know how this will sound, the last 40 miles or so are a real challenge as the route climbs way up in to the forests alongside Loch Ness before coming back down to local villages at Loch-level before climbing all the way back up, then coming all the way back down...... We ran the race with five friends acting as guinea pigs this year to test out the route in terms of marking, checkpoints, timing etc and they all really enjoyed it so we're opening it up to 100 or so runners for next year. Its a unique location and is a nice distance for anyone who has their eye on going longer than the typical 40-50 mile ultra races, especially if you're planning to take on something like the WHW race. So, the race will start from 1am next Saturday 6th July from Neptune's Staircase outside Fort William and will finish on the track in the Inverness athletics stadium. Prizegiving will be held there on the Sunday lunchtime and we're putting on buses to get you from Inverness to Fort Bill to try and make it as easy as possible for people to run it. You also don't need support crews as we're using a drop bag system along the length of it. All the info you need should be on our website: greatglenultra.com Cheers, Mike. |
Nov 2013
8:53am, 5 Nov 2013
2,056 posts
|
STOOSH
Sounds good Mike but i'll leave it few a few years yet, I'm still recovering from Glen Ogle!! 
|
|
Nov 2013
9:02am, 5 Nov 2013
146 posts
|
mikey_a
Ach, its "only" another 40 or so miles Stoosh.....
|
Nov 2013
11:54am, 7 Nov 2013
420 posts
|
Dave_K
On the Start List
|
|
Nov 2013
9:43pm, 7 Nov 2013
2,059 posts
|
STOOSH
Think i'm going to really struggle at the fling next year....not one of my brightest ideas and that's quite a bit less than the Great Glen Ultra. Think i should go back to a more comfortable running distance like 100yds to the bus stop;-) |
|
Nov 2013
6:02pm, 9 Nov 2013
19 posts
|
Cameron
entered
|
|
Nov 2013
11:49am, 11 Nov 2013
147 posts
|
mikey_a
Thanks to everyone who has entered so far, we're really pleased with how the race is filling up and it's going to be a really strong field. For anyone who isn't familiar with the route, it's well worth checking out for training on as even by Scottish standards it's pretty special in terms of scenery and there's some great climbs in the second half for those of you who think the first 30 miles are a bit on the flat side. Over the 72 miles there's just under 11,000 foot of climbing to be done. |
Nov 2013
12:19pm, 11 Nov 2013
48 posts
|
The Bogman
sounds great, perhaps too much for me at this stage but one for 2015 maybe...and my wife would go mad at the cost of another trip across the Irish sea...but I shared this on the Ultra Marathon forum. do you have any view as to cut-off times along the route, or estimated completion times? (apologies if on website but I didn't see reference to that) |
Nov 2013
8:27am, 12 Nov 2013
728 posts
|
RedWineRunner
I am in, and very excited.
|
|
Nov 2013
9:08am, 12 Nov 2013
148 posts
|
mikey_a
We've said 24 hours for cutoff time to complete, with no cutoffs at cps. To be honest, this may change after a couple of runs of it as we'll start to see average and slowest times between sections etc, but as with our other races, common sense is the main rule we have. The 5 who did it this year were a strong field, so it'll be interesting to see what times are posted in 2014. The first 30 miles or so are fairly runnable, with the big climbs in the second half of the race, so we expect move people will make good time over the first sections and then slow later on. So that makes things easier for us from a marshalling, pc and sweeping perspective. The main rule we have at all our races is that common sense should be used by runners and we try to do the same as organisers. We won't compromise the safety of anyone involved in the race, but at the same time, if a runner is moving along the course steadily and is in no trouble we're not going to just time them out for the sake of it. |
Related Threads
-
Devil o' the Highlands
Dec 2024
-
West Highland Way Race
Dec 2024
-
Glasgow-Edinburgh Double Marathon
Nov 2023
-
Cateran Trail Ultramarathon - http://cateran55ultra.webnode.com/
May 2022
-
Altra VIRTUAL West Highland Way Race
May 2022
-
HOKA Highland Fling 2017
May 2017
-
Highland Fling 2016
Mar 2017
-
HOKA Highland Fling
Mar 2017
-
Highland fling 2015
May 2015
-
West Highland Way Race 2014
Sep 2014
