Aberfoyle Trail Half Marathon

Podium with Craig Mhor behind

Outsider Events had organised a Trail Half Marathon in Aberfoyle, the route was a loop in the forest south of Loch Ard including my favourite section of trail alongside the southern shore of the Loch. I have not been running races since Covid but I was sorely tempted. It covered the routes that had been my staple runs for over thirty years, I must have run the various sections of the trail on over 2000 occasions. Gregor entered the race, he has only been running seriously for 8 years but has built impressive palmares in recent years. I collected him and drove him to the start and whilst he registered and started the race, I took myself up Lime Craig on the steep path that begins at Dounans camp. 

Lime Craig is the other run/walk that I have visited on over a thousand occasions, either as a run, a walk with the children or in recent years as a fast walk ascent and a run on the descent. I never tire of the exercise it gives, the forest and mountain landscapes and the wildlife. Today, we had the first frost and one of the rare days of sunshine in the last month. The conditions were sublime, and Autumn colours were making the views spectacular. Ben More and Stob Binnein were capped in the first snow of winter. I ran down the longer route to the David Marshall Lodge, overtaking a cyclist who was gingerly negotiating the gravel track damaged by last week's floods. I was back in the village twenty minutes after the race had started so decided to visit some old neighbours, whose son was Gregor's best friend at school. He was also running the half marathon. I was provided with a coffee and enjoyed playing with his two young children before taking them to watch the race finish.

Gregor won by a few minutes despite having been knocked over by a dog during the run and losing a couple of minutes whilst he was checked out by a physio, the friend of the dog's owner. He and another runner had been going too fast for the bike rider who was supposedly leading the race but could not keep up with them on the undulating terrain with over a thousand feet of climbing. He saw the funny side of it and apologised to them after arriving a few minutes after them at the finish. 

I had first taken Gregor out on these trails as a six or seven-year-old for two-mile runs. He shares my love of them and seemed quietly determined to secure a victory on the trails that have kept both of us happy and relatively sane for most of our lives. 

Approaching the finish on Manse Road

The lead cyclist apologises to the lead runners

A family affair

Craig Mhor and Aberfoyle from Lime Craig

My bench at the top of Lime Craig

Ben Ledi and Ben Vane from Lime Craig