Mull of Kintyre Half

 

I’d fancied doing this race for a few years, since I’d seen a picture of it and saw that it had previously been voted most scenic in UK in Runners World magazine but the distance away had put me off. However, after getting a campervan last year, decided that this year would be the year to do it and we could make a family weekend of it as it also coincides with the late May bank holiday weekend.  With the kids also having the Friday off school I took the day off work and we set off on Friday morning, stopping in Luss for some water fun on Loch Lomond and staying overnight at the campsite there to break the journey up. With the great weather we had had for all of May I knew it couldn’t last and sure enough the rain came on about 6pm-ish and stayed on until after we set off for Campbeltown the following morning. We arrived in Campbeltown about lunchtime in plenty of time for the kids races that I had entered Rebecca and Max in. It had also stopped raining by now and the sun even came back out too. The kids races were well organised and had been split into separate races for boys/girls and different age groups. The kids were delighted with their goody bags and finishers medals. The half marathon and 10k event was the following morning at 10:30. As forecast the wind picked up during the night and I cant say it was the most restful night sleep with the noise of the wind and rain however at least the rain stopped in the morning, unfortunately the wind didn’t die down. I had heard it was a tough course so was targeting a time of around 1h45ish but with the wind I re-evaluated this to between 1h45-50. The race started and finished in the park near the harbour and sport centre in Campbeltown and had a pipe band playing at the start/finish area. There was almost 800 runners taking part with 585 of them doing the 10k and 201 doing the HM. The start is combined and after about 500m the 10k runners turned off and the Half Marathon went straight on running up the A83 before turning onto a smaller road heading towards Macrihanish Dunes, where you eventually turn onto an undulating grassy trail section before dropping down through the sand dunes onto the beach.  For this first half of the course it was a headwind all the way and it was relentless. I had been aiming for around about 5min/km pace but in hindsight this was probably too fast for me as this was also mostly uphill aswell as being into the wind, I lasted with this for about 3 miles before it dropped slightly, dropping even more on the beach section.  

Race winner - on beach

The beach part was absolutely stunning, you drop down through the dunes onto the wet sand and run up to a turning point about 500m away before heading back the way and up the dunes. It was hard work climbing back up the dunes but it was a welcome relief for the wind to finally be behind me. The race headed back the way we came in for a couple of miles before turning off past Campbeltown airport and back to Campbeltown. I was aiming to pick the pace up here now that the wind was behind me and it was mostly downhill and I managed it for a couple of miles but started to struggle again between miles 10 and 12, the final mile was significantly downhill so I did manage to pick the pace up here and was delighted to be finally finished in a time of 1:51:06, slightly over my target time, in 68^th position overall (15^th female/4^th FV40).

Close to the finish!

The race was very well organised, with chip timing, 4 water/Lucozade stations throughout the race, plenty of portaloos available pre-start, well marshalled and a goody bag at the end with caramel wafer, Lucozade, bag of sweets, wooly hat, T-shirt, draw string bag and a pottery medal. The kids goody bag had slightly different contents but was equally high quality. The race weekend also incorporated a ceilidh on the Sunday evening, that you could buy tickets for (we didn’t), and in the end decided to go home after a family swim on the Sunday afternoon, not fancying another night of wind and rain in the campervan.

I would recommend this race to anyone who wouldn’t mind the long journey to get there, the finisher in front of me was from Boston so he had a longer journey than most!

The highlight for the kids was seeing a group of 8 ladies, running the 10k in a joined up caterpillar costume, raising money for the Mairi Semple fund (a local charity to Campbeltown), I was informed that the wind did tear their costume before the end but it was impressive.