Competitors in the Vango Scottish Ultra who have suffered a week of wet and windy weather, making it more of a challenge than it perhaps initially seemed. [image courtesy Carl Reavey]

After cancellation of the last day due to atrocious weather the final results of the 2009 Scottish Ultra are: 23.33.36 Andrew Murray, 24.04.15 Rob Holding, 24.43.00 Rick Gannon, 25.18.04 Donnie Campbell, 29.52.56 Michael Evans, 30.18.45 Murray Resinski, 30.38.05 Jo Kilkenny, the only female contestant (Irish), 31.01.10 Jon Williams, 31.04.15 Craig Liddle, 31.44.55 Richard Shaw, 31.52.41 Rob Lewis, 32.43.28 Jas Baillie, 33.58.21 Andy Willday, 35.15.18 Justin McLaurin, 39.32.21 Mark Caddy, 40.32.48 Tony Gilmour. Click here for day to day results

Islay’s Niall Colthart has a report: ‘I have not taken my camera on the hill as there was not a dry part of my kit to put it in. Conditions on the hill have been as bad as I have ever seen them at this time of year. This has led the race route to be constantly amended as we have had to put twice the resources in, in terms of feet on the ground into each section, so where we might have had two hill sections we are doing one with a road section. Sunday’s section passed over the bealach between the Paps in visibility of around 20 metres with winds gusting to around 50kts. One group of five were temperarily disorientated and ended up back at the check point that they had left an hour earlier.

‘One problem that we encountered yesterday quite early on was deteriorating river crossings, with all the major crossings having to be assessed at regular intervals and in some cases manned. By the time Karen Sidall, Phil Briggs and I had swept the runners off the hill last night, we were wading over our waists. ‘Today’s section has been amended to a road run from Loch Tarbert to the Corrievreckan and back. With an eye on the weather, we have amended tomorrow’s section to go out Loch Tarbert to Glenbattrick, then up Evan’s Walk to camp at Corran Sands. The race will be completed with a short run in to the finish on Friday at Jura Distillery. ‘There are currently nineteen runners still going. Retirals have been due mainly to hypothermia, and one broken foot. Cam Carter from Australia in particular found the environmental conditions hard to adjust to, on top of lack of sleep from jet lag.’

The Vango Scottish Ultra – Day 2 from ileach newspaper on Vimeo.

Below a video from day 1 of the 2008 Race. I hope to receive some images tonight from a friend on Islay. If anyone else wants to share their images of this years race please send me an email. Thanks very much!

The event attracts some truly tough nuts. One girl who came last year is planning to swim to the start line from the mainland while another guy is competing having lost a leg in the Falklands conflict. He is now the High Constable of Perth. Niall says that the organisers are keen to see some local athletes competing. He says: ‘It is possible to do the route without actually running. Each stage can be completed at walking pace – and at least one competitor did exactly that last year. This is where the event differs from the likes of the fells race with its timed cut off stages. It is however being tipped as the toughest multi-day event in the UK.’ Competitors carry everything with them as they run, including all food and a tent, camping in makeshift villages overnight. The only thing supplied at support stations is water.

The Route
Day 1 – Sunday 3rd May: Ardbeg to Bunnahabhain via Claggain bay, Beinn Vicar, Kynagarry and Balulive above Finlaggan.
Day 2: Bunnahabhain to Feolin via Rhuval. Killinallan, Craigens and West Carrabus. Then Knockdonn, Loch Skerrols, Scarrabus, Balole, Loch Finlaggan and down to Port Askaig to camp across at Feolin on Jura.
Day 3: Feolin to Glenbattrick via Inver through the Paps, Knockrome, Evans Walk to Loch Tarbert at Glenbattrick.
Day 4 (the shortest but toughest!!) Glenbattrick to Rhuantailain along the shores of Loch Tarbert
Day 5: Rhuantailain to Tarbert Standing Stone via raised and shiant beaches to Corpach and then following the corpach river up to the watershed and then decending down to the road over five miles of tussock grass and bog north of Tarbert.
Day 6: The runners run down from Tarbert on the road to finish in the filling store at Jura Distillery for a well earned dram.

Niall is also appealing for volunteers to marshall some of the sections saying: ‘We hope to grow this event in the future to add another date to the island calendar and bring people to Islay and Jura in particular who might not otherwise have come.’

for more info visit the website www.scottishultra.com