Running Stories from Alasdair Meldrum!

The day started early with a 3.10am alarm call, and a 3.45am pick up by Mark Canning who was going to provide driving support for the rest of the day. The official start of the Ayrshire Coastal Path is a small carpark at Glenapp half way between Stranraer and Ballantrae. I have a bit of history with the ACP as 8 years ago I had bravely (or rather stupidly) suggested I could run it over two days. So with a 12hr run from Glenapp to Ayr, an overnight at home in Ayr, followed by a very painful 12hr stint saw me complete the 88mile route in 36hrs. This time I was aiming to do the extended route which took in local landmarks Burns Cottage, Dundonald Castle, Kilwinning Abbey and Knock Hill which according to the official guide book is 100miles. The longest I had run before was the 95mile West Highland Way Race in 2019 and I failed in my attempt to complete it in less than 24hrs https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/4258126451196007456/2139774810999115412 After doing the Ring of Fire ( ...

 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...