My painful first trail half marathon | Glentress race vlog

My painful first trail half marathon | Glentress race vlog

Glentress Forest in the Scottish Borders is about 30 miles from Edinburgh. It is also the site of my first ever trail half marathon. This video documents my painful first trail half marathon experience.

I admit to being woefully naïve about what to expect from this race. I hadn’t quite appreciated just how much climbing would be involved. The total ascent of 2953 feet is just short of the full height of a Scottish Munro (mountains in Scotland over the height of 3000 feet). For some reason, this information either didn’t compute with me or I had conveniently chosen to ignore it.

Standing on the start line alongside 250 other brave souls, I had a mixture of nerves, excitement and apathy. Apart from the hills, I had little idea about what lay in store but I was aware that the opening to the Glentress Half Marathon was going to be a baptism of fire.

Every other race I have run in the past has been more or less flat and I have a good idea about how fast I need to run in order to leave with some energy at the end. I didn’t know how to pace this race and when I was confronted with an unrelenting uphill course, I didn’t know how much energy to exert – especially in these early stages. I just didn’t want to burn out after 20 minutes.

Glentress Forest is known as one of Scotland’s finest Mountain Bike trails. The trail half marathon there is also one of the hardest runs I have ever undertaken.

#scotland #trailrunning #glentress