Time has just disappeared like the grains running through the hour glass when you are pensively watching.

The Race Across Scotland (RAS) is 215 miles (344 kilometres) with 9,500m of elevation (15,200 feet). It follows the South Upland Way from Portpatrick in the West to Cockburnspath in the East. It actually goes all the way to the East coast and then turns back inland for a kilometre to the finish line. It passes through (not a full list) St John’s Town of Dalry, Sanquhar, Beattock, Traquair, Lauder (where people warn there are many cows in the fields….).

The DNF (do not finish) rate for women in 2024 was 15 did not finish out of 29. So a little over half. For the men, it is easier to state it the other way around. Only 49 finished out of 137. Of those (to be fair) 13 did not start (assume illness or injury), which means 75 were DNF. In total for the race, therefore, there was a DNF rate of 58%. That’s quite unnerving. Watching you tube clips I’ve seen many quit due to bad feet. If you run through a lot of bogs and your feet are wet for too long, this can turn into a real problem. I’ll be making sure I check my beloved tootsies every 25km, changing socks whenever I can (and shoes on occasion). I’ll also be using copious amounts of tape on my toes to stop the nails from falling off. I’ve currently already got 3 black nails and lost two recently. Not great. I’m quite sure they secretly hate me.

My training for the event has been a little shy of the mark. Yes, yes, I’ve done a lot of running and definitely a whole lot of gym work. However, my starting point back in February was always a little too close to the race (6 months) to build up a proper solid base. I couldn’t follow any of the online 100 mile training plans (the recommended plans for training for continuous races) as they started at 50km of running in the first week. Back in February I was recovering from a long bout of illness, a decent bout of stress and had fallen back to just 15km a week. So I knew this year would be a tough ask.

Despite all of that I did the best I could with the time I had. If I could do it all again I probably wouldn’t do a 55km race and a 100km hike so close to the event. I’ve lost a lot of time recovering. The flip side of this is that I learnt a lot about myself from both races and that knowledge is invaluable. So in the longer term it’s probably worthwhile that I did those races. Nonetheless I wont make this mistake next year.

Speaking of the longer term….I’ve signed up to the infamous (in trail running circles) Spine race in 2026. It’s a little longer than RAS, follows the Pennine Way, is a decent amount hillier and a fair bit more technical. I’ll explain more about that in a future post. I’m content that I’ve now finally reached the 50km a week level though, so can push on from there next year and follow the 100mile plan I would have liked to do this year. As always I’ll flex and adjust it to suit my own known weaknesses.

Back to RAS. After nearly recovering from the 100km hike I managed two back to back 15km runs last weekend. I still felt a tweak in my hip flexor (a residual effect of the race unfortunately) but otherwise it seemed manageable. I was quite looking forward to going out and doing my last long run this weekend with the full mandatory kit (and new poles – I’ve discovered through RSI in my right wrist that the old ones were just too short).

However….. I started to feel ill this Tuesday. I spent a lot of the day in bed. No idea what was wrong. I didn’t have a runny nose or anything. I was just wiped out, felt slightly light headed and felt heavy/achy. A bit like when you get flu only it couldn’t have been. Wednesday and Thursday was more of the same. Watch tv, lie about, sleep a lot.

It’s now Friday and I finally feel better. Thank goodness for that. The sitting around for days has made my muscles tighter (sitting is the worst thing known to mankind) but I’ve been for a walk today and already feel an improvement from it.

I don’t yet know whether I will do my really long run this Sunday or not. Today is the first day I’ve felt really well again. I’ll see. I do know that I watched an awful lot of tv this week. From that I can give you all a recommendation.

Jaws!

Yup. You heard me. I started watching it, thinking, this will be terrible, but I’m poorly so who cares. It was actually really good. There was a decent amount of story and the main characters were interesting. Ok, so yes, there is a shark that seems dead set on coming back over and over to attack everyone. You have to kind of forget any sense of reality. Still, give it a go. It could be your answer tonight when you are bored and sipping your G&T with Pringles.

You’re welcome 😉