Waking up in the van by Loch Morlich to the sound of the wind outside and peeking out the window to see an inch of fresh snow on the ground the thought of running up Geal Charn Mor sent me deeper into the glorious goose down warmth of my sleeping bag…
15 minutes later the alarm sounded and we headed down to Aviemore soon after for a FREE bowl of porridge at the Active Cafe (highly recommended, only available until 10am, T&C apply) then made our way to Alltnacriche to register for the race.
The Geal Charn Mor race is a new event organised by the Cairngorm Runners. The proposed 10k route followed a well defined land rover track for 4k up the “Burma road” before breaking off across open hillside to the 824m high summit of Geal Charn Mor and returning by the same route. Unfortunately due to near whiteout conditions on the plateau the organisers shortened the route at the last minute to 7.8km with a turn around point at ~700m at the Polson Memorial Cairn.After a race brief the 54 hardy (mad?!) runners assembled at the snowy start line, one particularly hardy soul from Highland Hill Runners in a vest and short shorts!! The race started with a pretty steep start up onto the Burma Road then a steady, unrelenting climb up the Land Rover track to the col. The wind was cold and stung the eyes and it was a relief to see the cairn come into sight at last. 
The descent was fast and not too technical and it seemed like no time that we were all shuffling into the cozy confines of the kitchen for soup, homemade bread, cakes, tea and more cakes.
Prizes were provided by Ellis Brigham and went to local husband and wife James and Jess Tullie who won first male and female in 34m 24s
and 39m 53s respectively. Fellow Moray Road Runner Euan Patterson won the M60 category in a time of 39m 48s and I stumbled over the finish line as 6th female in 50m 06s.
A big thank you to the Cairngorm Runners for organising such a fun race and the Alltnacriche outdoor centre for providing the fantastic lunch and hot showers afterwards. Maybe next year we’ll get to the summit?!
Report by: Gem Munro