New summer trail half marathon for north-east
Run Banchory launches new off-road distance challenge
One of the North-East’s newest running festivals has just added a trail half marathon to its roster of events.
Run Banchory will take place on Sunday, 28 August, starting and finishing in the town’s King George V Park.
The new Half-Marathon will complement the event’s existing races: the 10K trail run, the 2.5K run (S1–S4) and the 1K run (P1-P7).
Funds raised from Run Banchory help support the Banchory Outdoor and Active group, which aims to increase fitness in the local area. BOA’s current focus is on rejuvenating and increasing the size of the town’s derelict football pitches and improving access to the facilities when complete.
Organiser Scott Birse is excited about his new race. He told runABC Scotland yesterday, ‘It was always my goal to expand the event each year and I’m delighted to be offering runners a new challenge.’
And a challenge it will certainly be. Birse describes his new event as being quite similar to the 15-Mile Trail Race at neighbouring Run Balmoral: ‘not easy, but fair’. The accurately measured route will be a mix of road and trail, but with nothing too technical to discourage novice trail runners. Being Banchory, the new half will indeed present runners with some elevation, but, as Birse reminded us, ‘for every up, there is a down’.
The route itself will follow that of the 10K for the first three miles, branch further off-road for its middle part, then rejoin the 10K for the final three miles.
The new race will be a challenge for organisers, too. In addition to needing to recruit more marshals, some of the new route has been affected by damage from storms Arwen and Barra. Both Birse and Forestry and Land Scotland are confident that the route will be clear by August, however. ‘If not,’ Birse, a fitness instructor, joked, ‘I’ll get out there with my own chainsaw’.
Entries to Run Banchory are now open, with limits of 400 in the half and 400 in the 10K.
Image: Run Banchory (facebook)