Last call for Salomon Skyline Scotland trail races
Scotland’s biggest mountain running weekend not just for Kilian Jornet and co.
Just a few days remain to enter the three trail races set for next month’s Salomon Skyline Scotland.
The events will take place over the same weekend –18/19 September – as their bigger and more famous siblings, the four Salomon Skyline races.
With all seven runs based in the bustling event village at Kinlochleven, runners of all abilities and interests can make the most of what the mountain running festival has to offer – including free Q&A sessions with top athletes and additional sessions organised by local companies Girls on Hills, Trail Running Scotland and Wild Yoga Glencoe.
As the trail races use the same start/finish line as the longer events and set off at similar times, all runners will be able to soak in the atmosphere. The schedule also makes sure that those supporting Skyrunners get a chance to stretch their legs while waiting for their friends and family to come home.
The first of the weekend’s trail events is Saturday’s Grey Mare’s Trail Race, billed as ‘possibly the UK’s toughest 5K trail race’, sharing as it does part of its start with the Skyrunners' Vertical Kilometer (Mamores VK). From there, the route climbs through rocky woodland trails before levelling out to offer fantastic views west towards Loch Leven and descending along the West Highland Way.
Sunday brings the 10K Loch Eilde Mòr Trail Race, which organisers call ‘not your average 10K’. The race heads up hilly tracks and trails towards Loch Eilde Mòr before heading down into the woods flanking the River Leven, picking up the Ciaran Path and heading for home.
Organisers call the last trail event of the weekend, the 18K Three Mealls Trail Race, one of their ‘boldest’, as it offers ‘big hills, wide views and the most memorable single-track running’. After following the 10K route towards Loch Eilde Mòr, 18K runners head deeper into the hills and behind the three Mealls themselves before picking up the Ciaran Path and heading back to base.
Entries to all trail races close this Sunday, 22 August.
Image: Salomon Skyline Scotland (© No Limits Photography)
