Ben Nevis 2024

Four Glens Runners made the journey over to this year’s Ben Nevis Race. 3 to compete: Jonny Steede, John Marrs (myself) and Dom McLarnon with Anna Steede in a supporting role.

Departing from Larne the outward journey could scarcely have been more pleasant. Jonny, on his 14th Ben Nevis Race and having already hiked the full 96 mile West Highland Way (with Anna), makes for an able tour guide. The scenery as you travel north up the coast from Cairnryan is pleasant enough but after Glasgow (just don’t make eye contact you’ll be fine) the drama ramps up as you enter Loch Lochmond & The Trossachs National Park. By Glen Coe you’re fully ready to sell up and move over such is the majesty of the mountains, lakes and valleys spreading far into the distance either side of the route, each new vista outdoing the last. Then our guide draws our attention to an old cottage near the roadside, sadly now abandoned, in serious disrepair and adorned in graffiti not befitting it’s surroundings – Jimmy Saville’s old house. I’ll stay in the Glens for now.

Race day was hot…. 27 degrees and not a breath of wind to be found. Reports coming through from marshals that the summit was hardly any cooler were, we would discover, accurate. All were agreed a conservative start would be the order of the day, after-all there is no quick fix to overheating while tackling a 1345m climb inside 8km. Then as the pipe band finished and the gun went off the majority tore away at max revs regardless. Some coped (Jonny) while some couped (me) and others DNF’d (nearly 100 poor souls). Every drop of water to be found on the mountain would be needed. This amounted to a few rare and depleted gullies, a very busy but welcome Red Burn, a patch of damp moss on the approach to the summit and the occasional kindness of strangers. Finish times would be down across the board with a winning time that would barely make the top twenty in past years. The Steede acquitted himself admirably, breaking the top 20 in 2:09. I struggled across the line in 2:33 (a full 25 minutes slower than last year) after blowing up having lived well beyond my means in the first 3km. Dom would come in on the 2:43 mark and instantly make his 2nd biggest mistake of the day (only surpassed by choice of this day to make his Ben Nevis debut) by disappearing into the crowd/toilets/undergrowth? thus missing out on the finish line Fanta Anna had been administering to those of us most in need. It worked wonders!

Finish line Fanta, a shot of Nevis Dew and a dip in the Nevis River would be restorative enough that we considered doing another lap but alas dinner was booked for 5:30.