Petestack Blog

First blog post for months, but why not when I’ve got a good, big run to report?

Knew I wanted something in the 40–50 mile region about now, but not what till I drew up and measured this ‘big Blackwater loop’ on the map last weekend at c.45 miles. At which point, having run everything west of the railway before (most of it many times) but never really considered a pedestrian route between Rannoch and Corrour Stations to link it all up, I was suddenly positively tingling with the anticipation that sent me out to try it yesterday. (more…)

Having previously questioned here ‘how much I want to go on banging my head off a brick wall’ and ‘whether it’s time to call it a day when […] I’m realistically never going to break two hours’, I’m probably encouraged enough by Saturday’s new Ben Race PB of 2:07:27 at age 49 to keep banging my head off that wall for a while longer. (more…)

The Coll Half’s never easy. While the island might be low, it’s far from flat and, with one section on sandy track and the virtual certainty of battling the wind somewhere as you run round what can seem like a continuously uphill loop, it’s the hardest/slowest half-marathon course I know. (more…)

Strange how the Cairngorms have become better known over the past 200 years as ‘blue mountains’ than their older generic name of Am Monadh Ruadh (the red mountain-land) when they’re so clearly coloured by pink granite rather than hazy blue close-up, but (while something’s clearly been lost through the change) who knows… perhaps ‘Cairngorms’ was just easier for visitors? (more…)

Some fantastically runnable hills yesterday, with the Strathfarrar ridge proving a fast-moving delight despite bringing the rare indignity (outside of race situations!) of being caught by someone who was moving faster than I was… (more…)

Not so far from where I’d got to on Saturday, but approached from the opposite direction (Glen Cannich rather than Glen Elchaig), yesterday’s trip along the ridge north of Loch Mullardoch produced the very tidy haul of four Munros, four Tops and four deleted Tops with much very runnable ground before the long, not quite so runnable, return back along the lochside. (more…)

Looking for a ‘quick’ local objective today with the (as yet unfulfilled) threat of thundery showers later, I chose a run over the Aonachs with three main aims in mind:

1. Do Aonach Mor’s subsidiary eastern ridge for its Tops that have been irking me for years as my only unticked Munro Tops for many miles around.
2. Revisit Sgurr a’ Bhuic as ‘insurance’ against having it ticked for umpteen years with no recollection of when I actually did it.
3. Visit the supposed new Top of Aonach Beag recorded by Andy Nisbet and Dave McGimpsey on their route Munro’s Last Ridge in February 2003.

(more…)