Peter Wilmot reports
On Saturday 6th June 2025, MACs Craig Allen and Peter Wilmot took on GB Ultras Scotland 50, setting off at 6am next to the banks of the ‘Water of Ken’ river in St John’s Town of Dalry (Dumfries and Galloway). For Craig, this race was part of his preparation for his big objective of the year, the Race Across Scotland in August.
We had ordered fine weather and no midges but our race organiser which Craig had sourced via his immense podcast guest list seemed to have completely misunderstood and as we faced very wet conditions, torrential rain showers and more midges than I thought was possible. Scotland does seem to have what must be the entire world population of Midges because there simply can’t be any more than we encountered on Saturday. Anyway, we braved our way through the Midges like Bruce Lee going through all the henchmen in the world in the film, Enter the Dragon!
After 26 miles of continuous epic countryside (no other populated areas in between) we reached our first decent Checkpoint where we could gorge on all sorts of food and sugary sweets and treats! Then after feeling like Augustus Gloop from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I tried to leave the checkpoint with Craig but someone in Sanquhar thought it would be funny to submerge the town into a lake or a loch (we were in Scotland) and so we had to wade through the submerged town until we reached higher ground!
We then had around 9 miles of very soggy countryside to get over to Wanlockhead, Scotland’s highest village where another feast awaited us! Lovely. At this point a much more disciplined Craig ditched the roly poly Peter and set off probably a good 15 minutes before. From this supposedly so-called highest village we climbed for ages up to the Lowther Hill Radar Station (now this was high) but no effort appeared to have been made to suggest it was highest radar station.
After this there was more soggy, rainy and midgy countryside to cover until we eventually reached the outskirts of Moffat, our finish location. Craig was now well in front of me and he headed like text book/Gpx file to the Rugby club to finish, whereas I, inspired by our very own Club Chairman, thought I would choose my own route into Moffat and chose to go round the back of the town, adding on another half mile to the route. You should have seen the face of the Marshal when I reached the finish location from she described was the wrong side! Gpx files are just a guide I told her, as I sobbed in her arms.
Craig joined in with the sobbing when he realised I had been given a dinner plate sized gold medal just like his (they really are huge!). GB Ultras issue gold medals to the runners who finish in the top 200! Which meant that all the finishers got one as there were less than 200 finishers.
What a route and race! It mainly follows the Southern Upland Way and snakes through what can only be described as epic and beautiful countryside. There are many genuine breath-taking views along the way. GB Ultras organise a great race with the route being a must for any explorer, hiker or runner. The winner finished in just under 9 hours and the first women followed in just over 12 hours, Craig finished in 12.36 and I came in at 13.38. (Had I not gone wrong at the end, I probably would have won – but we will never know).
I would recommend the race, it’s well signposted, so not much navigation is needed (apart from the end of the race). The distance ended up being around 57 miles with nearly 10,000 feet of ascent.
Or you could choose to run the 100 mile race (which is run on the same day and goes on for another 40ish miles). Not that I have deliberately avoided mentioning the longer route in this report, so we looked super tough! Absolutely not. In fact I heard one 100 mile runner as she came past me, who clearly said ‘the 100 miler is far easier than the 50’.
