Having travelled by road and sea, MACs Craig Allen and Peter Wilmot started the Tiree Ultramarathon at 8am on Sunday 8th September. The Isle of Tiree for those unfamiliar with the Scottish Hebrides (like me before entered the race) is just below its neighbour, Col and north west of Mull. It is 11 miles long and 3-4 miles wide. The island has many beautiful white sand beeches and the sea has a beautiful and inviting Barbados blue colour. It is however known as a windy isle, with it being quite flat and as there isn’t much shelter, not many trees. I’m not sure I recall seeing a single tree whilst travelling around isle. If you like windsurfing it’s definitely worth considering as a holiday destination. The 35 mile race starts on the beech on Gott bay and works its way round the coast of the island crossing many of the islands beeches and many adjoining fields, headlands and roads and eventually finishes back where you started. The race really shows off the island’s beauty which certainly keeps you distracted from the slog of running on sandy beeches (not the easiest of terrains). As of 8:46pm Monday 9th September there are no results. We do know Craig and I finished between 6 and 7 hours with Craig finishing many places ahead of me. One bit of extra advice for any runner, always double/triple check the starting time. I had convinced myself the start time of the race was 8:30am, when in fact it was 8am! I only managed to get to the start line in time by pure fluke, as I’d forgotten to hand in my drop bags the previous night and went to do so at 7:56. I looked and saw loads of people on the beach and thought, they’re keen. I casually mentioned this to another runner who was heading that way and they informed me that the race was about to start. Thankfully my camper-van was nearby so I sprinted back to get the rest of my kit! I managed to get back to the beech with seconds to spare. So lucky! 😅
