This was the first running of the Fort William trail marathon, which has filled the gap after the demise of the Lochaber marathon.
With the start and finish at the Aonach Mor ski centre and the course taking in a few of the local places and sights, including Spean Bridge, Commando memorial and the Caladonian canal, there was never any questions about this being a bit lumpy. Nervously eyeing a finishing time around 3h40m, I’d set a pace of 5:10min/Km and planned (hoped) to have a decent buffer after the canal section.Fortunately the weather was pleasantly warm with some patch cloud to keep the sun at bay and a bit of a breeze to keep the midges away. The trails are mostly forrest roads and also the canal tow path which seemed to be dry. Theres only a few Km of true single track paths, so road shoes seemed to be the order of the day. So, I did whince when I noticed someone at the start in a pair of mudclaws.
The first climb came just 500m after the start and was a bit of a wakeup for what I’d thought was going to be mainly a 
downhill stretch to Spean Bridge. Several lumps later, there were more downhills than ups, with a nice section on narrow singletrack being a nice but brief change. A road section joined up to another forest section, then a bit more road before going through a noisy Spean Bridge where a good crowd had turned out and the Police were stopping the traffic for the road crossing.After following the A82 for a bit, we turned off onto a nice woodland path, which joined onto a section of old railway. Turning off what had been predominantly level meant the climb up to the Commando memorial had started. But the climb was worth it for the noise of cowbells and clapping from another good crowd next to the memorial.
Water onboard and half of it tipped over my head to cool down and it was a proper downhill road section down to Gairlochy before getting onto the towpath for a long stretch along to the locks at Banavie. Quiet roads lead to the main road out to Mallaig and then the junction of the A82 which was well marshaled for the crossing onto the path / cyclepath following the A82 out to Torlundy and the part I hadn’t been looking forwards to.
Turning off the cyclepath, with an average pace of 5:02min/km, a short section of road was the last of the tarmac and the route went back into the forest for some more forest roads climbing back towards the finish. Finally picking up the some of the mountain bike trails for the finishing leg. Passing under the high ropes adventure area and skirt around the carpark before one final small climb to join the track with the timing mats and a downhill sprint finish to cross the line. Presentation af a fine weighty medal, nice goody bag and water, then a well deserved sit down whilst the timing chip was removed.
Job done 3:35 and some achy legs for the journey home.
Fellow MRR Michelle Green, had said before the start that she had been naughty with the lack of training but still put in a great performance of 3:45.
Report by: Neil Purdie