Hebridean Half Marathon Series - Part 1: Stornoway

Back in October Joanne and I entered the Heb 3 series. Months of planning and finally Friday 24 May came around, the start of our first adventure.  For those not familiar with the Heb 3 series this is a challenge in which you have to complete at least 3 out of the 5 Hebridean island half marathons - Stornoway, Benbecula, Skye, Barra and Harris.

Our first race was to be Stornoway.  We travelled up to Ullapool on Friday to catch the evening ferry to Stornoway.  Unlike our ferry trips to Islay we had not banked on the journey being rather choppy.  However we survived the journey and arrived in Stornoway.  We had to register on Friday night and luck would have it that our hotel was directly across from the church hall where the registration was taking place.  At the registration we met a familiar face to the Harriers in Gerry Connelly, a member of the host club Stornoway.

The hotel we had chosen was in such a central location that we were only a few minutes from the start line.  Saturday morning came and so we both lined up at the marina at the harbour.  A piper led the runners along the harbour to the start line.  The first mile involved a lap of the town centre.  The next few miles took us around the wider area of Stornoway, on a mixture of roads and trails, including running through a farm yard.  At around mile 7 you enter Lews Castle grounds and this was mostly trails, taking us right up to about mile 12.  This was also a hilly section of the run.  The trail paths eventually led us back to the opposite side of the harbour and the last mile was a loop to get back to the finish line on the opposite side.

It was worth noting that a 10k race also takes place, starting about an hour after the half marathon and joins in on the same route as the half marathon.  I was a bit taken aback when the leading female runner came flying past me.  It was only when a few other runners flew by that I noticed they were wearing a different colour of number - thank goodness I thought to myself - I knew I was beginning to struggle with a lot of recent racing in my legs but I didn’t think I had slowed down that much!

Due to our handy hotel location we were able to head back to the hotel and get showered before heading for the buffet and prize giving.  Stornoway Athletic Club had laid on a fantastic buffet which included 3 choices of soup and many, many cakes!!!  [for anyone possibly thinking of going in a future year Stornoway AC put on a Ceilidh at the golf club on the Saturday night].

Now for the history lesson- the prizes were trophies which had been made by ex-harrier Gerry.  Each trophy was an individual replica of one of the Lewis chessmen.  The chessmen were discovered on Lewis in 1831.  93 pieces were discovered and they are currently displayed between the British museum in London, the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh and in Lews Castle in Stornoway, which Joanne and I visited after the race.  I was the third female home and was lucky enough to get a trophy.  What a unique prize and all the more so that we had the connection to Calderglen Harriers in that Gerry made it.

All in both Joanne and I agree that it was well worth a visit to Stornoway and I am sure we would both like to visit Stornoway again.  The short time we had was not enough.  Thankfully the sailing on Sunday was no way near as bad as coming, although this may be because we got on the ferry quickly and bagged a seat in the upstairs observation deck.

As many of you know we both like our gins and this series of trips is going to be characterised by a gin from each location.  So on our way back at Ullapool we stopped to both get a bottle of the Highland Liquor Co experimental series gin, a gin which is distilled in Ullapool.

Thanks to Gerry for a warm welcome.  Stornoway AC put on a great race and this year they had record finishers in both the the half marathon and the 10k.

So we roll on to the next trip which takes us to Skye (via Kyle of Lochalsh)

Julie and Joanne