The Glen Ogle 33 Ultra starts and finishes in the village of Killin and skirts round Loch Tay, Loch Earn and Loch Voil and a lot of beautiful forest and trails in between.
After Craig’s late withdrawal due to tendonitis, I was left the only Harrier running but I was joined by my brother-in-law Gareth and my niece’s partner Adam for the journey up, with Caroline and Georgia supporting too.
Bill Heirs the race director gave us a humorous race briefing and we were on our way at 8am sharp. The weather was perfect with no rain just a hint of a smirr in the air and it stayed that way for the whole of the race.
Gareth shot off with the leaders and since it was his first ultra, Adam suggested that he would run with me but being a young lean 6-footer, I knew that he would soon be off on his own and he was after a few hundred metres.
The race starts off through the village then quickly turns into a steep ascent through the forest for 4 miles and everyone settled into groups of people hiking the steep parts and running when we could till, we reached a turning then it went straight down again for about a mile and a half before hitting the path which takes you over the Glen Ogle Viaduct. This path goes down on a gentle slop for about three and a half miles then drops steeply on a switchback path that was to have negative consequences for me later in the race.
This was about the 10-mile mark, and we now had a stretch of about 6 miles to the halfway point in Strathyre (or so I thought) to get my drop bag and start on the second half of the race. Sixteen miles came and went seventeen, seventeen and a half eighteen no checkpoint then near eighteen and a half miles I heard the sound of cheers and cattle bells and at first, I thought my watch was out due to the hills and trees but was assured by others that was the correct distance which was a pleasant surprise having covered that extra mileage. I took on my usual carton of custard and a bottle of coke refilled my bladder and was in and out of the checkpoint quite quickly straight onto a steep hill which went up for two miles of walking and jogging when I could then a steep two mile descent on the other side by this time I was settling into a group of about a dozen runners who would be with me for the next 10 miles.
After a few miles of flat trail path, we then hit the steep spiral path that I bounded down on the way out this was a quarter of a mile and a few hundred feet that really sapped the legs then back onto the viaduct path and only four miles of a gentle incline before the downhill back into Killin. Along this path the dozen or so runners I was with took turns of leapfrogging each other running a half mile then walking a few hundred meters being passed then passing them which gave us all something to concentrate on. My quads were really starting to nip at this point with all the downhill bounding throughout the race, but I was looking forward to the last downhill section ahead which I would normally relish. After starting on the descent, I realised this was going to be a painful finish every step was like an electric shock though my thighs and I tried to adjust my gate so that it wasn’t sore, but nothing worked so I thought just grit my teeth and run till I had enough, take a walk break and repeat which I did. On my last mile into the finish I had strategized in my head that I would take a wee walk break then have a good finish at the end but I was into the village before I knew it Caroline and the crew were there cheering and taking photos so I had to run on, a bit further Gareth was there taking a video again I had to run on, down to the park a crowd were at the entrance cheering again I had to run on into the park then I just had to keep going to the finish its amazing how you can keep going if you can manage to dissociate yourself from the discomfort. I could hardly walk after the race my legs have never felt as bad as that before and are still nipping just now, but I really enjoyed the race, well organised, great marshals no chance of getting lost great scenery and good runnable paths all the way. I’d love to do it again and would recommend it to anyone who hasn’t done it before. Not knowing the course, I had a rough target of getting under 7hrs and I managed 6hrs 36 mins and finished 195th from 284 finishers so was absolutely delighted with that and makes all the hard effort worthwhile
