It was a lovely day for running in Newtonmore, nice and still, dry and fairly mild.
We arrived around 10am to a warm reception from all the organisers and were offered a choice of a Wildcat beer or ‘Stag’s Breath’ liqueur just for turning up which was well received!
The race started and finished in the same place, just beside the hall and was a fairly flat out and back route along a path at the side of the road going through Kingussie and taking in lots of beautiful scenery. I have to say the way out was easier than the way back! There were a few sneaky inclines that I’d forgotten about, especially the last mile and a half but I’m not sure if that was just the fatigue setting in!
Once we’d finished we were given a bottle of water and asked to put our numbers in a bag so we could be entered in to winning a spot prize, which I think everyone did!
I finished 3rd lady, 9th overall in a time of 65:09 which is a PB for me and won a lovely painted tile along with a book on shinty for my spot prize.
Garry also ran extremely well and came 5th Male Vet over 50, 22nd overall in a time of 70:41 and won a lovely painted tile also along with his spot prize of a bio freeze pack.
We both thoroughly enjoyed the race and I would definitely go back, the people and surroundings really make this race special and the spread at the end was also amazing!! Definitely worth the hard work, would highly recommend.
Report by: Louise Cartmell