A Ben Vrackie training run

Friday, 6am. My alarm goes off and because I watched the rather inspiring Adventure Show last night instead of hitting snooze, going back to sleep and repeating this until roughly 10am. I got up and went to Pitlochry for a run. The weather looked like a mixed bag of tricks, with some low cloud and a little cold wind. For anyone that reads this that doesn't already know me you might be wondering why I got up at 6 am to go for a run that's only an hour away by car.

I don't drive- what a relief to finally admit it. This makes getting to all those beautiful places that I want to run in a little harder to get to. As today proved, it's not hard to get to pitlochry, however it is a little frustrating with the 20 minute journey to Perth on the train followed by a 40 minute wait in a cold train station only for another 20 minute train to Dunkeld, Pitlochry and Blair Atholl et al. This means that my sometimes, okay mostly, I plan to go to these amazing places but forgo it for a long lie and a lazy morning.

Today was different, if you want to know why please just watch the adventure show and I dare you not to want to go out and do something cool.

So, With the bike in tow to make sure I got a little extra in bed I went off to get the 06:50 train arriving in the amazing Pitlochry (though if I'm honest I like Dunkeld a little more but it doesn't have the Moulin Inn). But Pitlochry is still pretty amazing and has at least 10-20 walks that are easily turned into runs to suit everyone. Arriving at 08:44 I got into pitlochry and cycled up to Moulin to begin the Ben Vrackie walk.

There are many great pubs that start/finish walks but this has to be one of the best, long enough to get views and work up a sweat and with the best post walk pint in Scotland. Especially for an Autumn run. If you haven't been to the Moulin Inn before then get on it. The walk itself is fairly straight forward and the best route is found on walkhighlands with many finer walk reports than I'm about to regurgitate. This is also a great website for anyone that wants to start walking.

It starts from a car park that was empty, with an initial slightly steep climb along a well made path through some trees before it opens up onto open moor land. You don't initially get to see Vrackie, but as you work yourself up and around towards Loch a'Choire It gently creeps into view. There was a lot of mist about at this point but visibility was never really a problem.

This first section through the Forrest and up to the Loch is fairly steep but runnable for most hill runners. I ended up run/walking as I'm not a proper hill runner ;) and to make sure I had enough energy for the down. That and a blog without photo's isn't much fun.

Near the loch is pretty flat and great fun, you then hit the steep section just past the Loch where I was power walking up. At this section there was a little more mist, but you could see not too bad. This is a blog not a public service post but please take a map and compass intot he hills and know how to use it. Either go on a course learn from a friend or learn from this book, just dont buy the kindle version.

my first time in any clag, strange but it lifted quickly

 The route from the loch to the top to the top is pretty relentless but once at the top you are faced with some beautiful 365 degree views and when its clear you can see the Beinn a Ghlo hills that I would like to try running when a little better at this uphill malarkey.

Once at the top I went a little mad with the selfies. Not sure if man points subtracted is greater or less than man points gained for trying to run it. Either way, cue lots of my tired, sweaty face.

Made it to the top in 57 minutes. Once there, post selfies the only thing to do is head down. Having read about all these crazy fell runners I can only imagine the horror if they were to gaze upon my Bambi on ice footwork as I descended. In my defence wet grass, trail shoes and flat rock made me nervous about a slip. Though it's clear a faster descent would make me quicker. Once back to the loch the trail is perfect for fast descending and you can really let the breaks off (well for me). It was really fun going down and I made it back to the car park to complete the route in 90 minutes.

Once finished, I realised that I hadn't planned to be as quick. All you whippets remember this blog is called almost average runner. Finishing at 10:50 meant not even I could justify a pint in the Moulin at that time of day. However I ended up going into town and getting a coffee and Danish at a lovely cafe then making the 11:20 train back to Bonnie Fundee meaning i was back in the promised land before 13:00.
This is a great run and one that can be done by non drivers. Next week I'll try and get a run done in either Dunkeld or Blair Atholl, though it's maybe a little late in the year to head into the Munroes of Blair atholl to try and run them as most are fairly long runs.

Anyone got any trail runs that are good for Public transport? Or have you became an inadvertent duathlete by making sure you can get to the start of a trail run?