RACE REPORT – The River Ayr Way Challenge 2017

The River Ayr Way Challenge

TIME: 6 Hours 26 Minutes and 45 Seconds

OVERALL : 10th/69 finishers

GENDER: 1st/15 females

After a few months of a blog hiatus I think I’ve finally found my run and write mojo again! My recovery from the Great Glen was slow, painful and tedious and even after a 2 week holiday which was spent gallivanting around Eastern Europe and over a month of “easier” training, I still didn’t have the desire to push myself 100%. Even new kit didn’t inspire me and my lack of speed was really getting me down as I watched friends getting faster and faster and I was struggling to complete an interval session without getting frustrated.

And then something suddenly felt right again. Whether I had just taken some pressure off myself or had finally recovered from the pounding I put my body through at the Great Glen, I don’t know. But I finally felt positive about my running again, I wasn’t feeling out of breath after the first mile and I was ready to get things back on track. After a few months of deciding what races I really wanted to focus on in the latter part of the year (I think this plan changed about 5 or 6 times, but I think I’ve finally got it right!), the River Ayr Way Challenge was chosen to be my next big push.
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River Ayr Way Ultra race report

The River Ayr Way Challenge

TIME: 7 Hours 03 Minutes and 21 Seconds

OVERALL : 20th/70 finishers (2 DNF)

GENDER: 3rd/16 females

I entered the River Ayr Way race in a total moment of madness. I’d heard really good things about the race from a couple of club mates who ran it last year, and then when I discovered they were going back this year to run the relay I thought I might as well stick in a last minute entry and join them for a lovely day out and run an ultra I’d never done before. Silly, silly decision. I manged to write the dates down wrong in my diary and only discovered the week before Glenmore that the RAW race was actually only 2 weeks after Glenmore, not 3 as I had initially thought. But never mind, the season is coming to an end and it was a pretty quiet race, so I thought I might as well give it a bash and at least enjoy a nice day out with my Wee County Harrier ladies.
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