Running Stories from Alasdair Meldrum!

 The day started early, up at stupid o’clock (3.15am) and drive down to Loch Trool for an attempt on the Galloway Ring of Fire. For background there is some history on the route  on https://www.gofar.org.uk/ring-of-fire-galloway . In brief it is a loop starting at Bruces Stone at Loch Trool, taking in the Minigaff Hills, the Rhinns of Kells, the Loch Doon forest drive and then returning via the Range of the Awful Hand, taking in a total of 30 summits, across some remote terrain. On arrival at car park, it was almost full – the joy of the covid lock down!! I managed to squeeze in just beside the Merrick path. First challenge was finding Bruce’s stone, which I had never been to before, but managed to find it quite easily surrounded by campers!! Faffed about a bit to try and take a selfie but failed miserably so gave up!  No point hanging about so at 4.51am I set off along the forest path. I tried to settle into an easy jog, but heart was racing and it took a long time to s...

WHW 2019 Saved by a Sleep! First attempt at writing a blog about any running event, but I feel grateful for all the previous blogs and podcasts which gave me some great tips for my first WHW attempt so feel it is only right that I contribute in some small way. My 1 st WHW attempt was on the back of limited ultra experience (2 x River Ayr Way and one Fling), but after crewing for Iain Young last year, I took the plunge and put my hat in the ring!! Training had all gone reasonably to plan with some big runs including north to south WHW over three days, Lairig Ghru out and back, Galloway hills, Ayrshire coastal path, and the dreaded Lochside – Drovers to Rowardennan and back. I had also done Calendar park 8hr race in Feb (which I loved and manged just over 45miles), and the Fling where I knocked 1hr 14min of my time coming in at 10:43:46. Weekly mileage for the year is low by many peoples standards averaging at 37miles per week but about a year ago after constant n...