George Reid and the Kintyre Trail

George Reid completed the Kintype trail last weekend. He says what a great club relay this would make. There is a picture above and the following is an extract from a newspaper:

Weather forecast had not sounded good, but in fact the sun shone all day, and participants were able to get full benefit of the wonderful scenery, with clear views over the sea to Arran, Gigha, Islay and Jura. Add to that the all-pervasive sweet smell of the yellow gorse blossom and a friendly welcome (and plentiful refreshments) at five different community halls along the way, it's no wonder many of the runners and walkers came away saying this was an unforgettable experience.

In the runners' event, the winning relay team was Motherwell Athletic Club (team of 6) in a new record time of 9hrs 41m Their runners also set new record times on 3 of the 6 sections -
Clachan-Tayinloan: Russell McCoull in 1hr 26m
Tayinloan-Carradale: Alan Tait in 1hr 50m
Saddell-Campbeltown: Joanne Clark in 1hr 46m

Runners-up were last year's winning club, Giffnock Hillbashers, in 10hrs 55m. Their 3 runners made good use of the unusually flexible relay format of this event - Philip Coupar ran sections 1 and 4, David Logan ran sections 2 and 5, and Jim Galbraith ran sections 3 and 6.

Hero of the day was solo runner George Reid from Stonehaven, who not only ran the entire 66 miles from Tarbert to Campbeltown (in exactly 13½ hrs), but did so only one week after running 53 miles in the "Highland Fling", a similar event on the West Highland Way.

In the walkers' event, 24 took part, starting from either Tarbert or Torrisdale and all converging on Tayinloan. Two couples came from as far away as Yorkshire, and other groups came from Kyle of Lochalsh, Glasgow, and Taynuilt.

The day was rounded off with a fine buffet meal and ceilidh-dance in Tayinloan Village Hall, where runners, walkers, marshals and locals got together to relax and enjoy the music and dancing.

Event organiser Rob Reid said, "Plans are already in hand for next year's event, which will be on 1st May. We hope to attract a growing number of people from all over Britain and even from overseas. And scheduling it for the May-Day holiday weekend means it will be more worthwhile for visitors to come from a distance and stay for the long weekend"