Sunday 7th September 2025

Please read below Alice’s 🐈 fantastic race report from the Isle of Tiree. It’s full of energy, grit, and island spirit! 🌴 ⬇️

14 beaches, 31 and a bit miles, circumnavigating the Island of Tiree in the Inner Hebrides; this was a great adventure!

It took a train 🚂, plane ✈️ and car 🚗 to get to Oban on the south coast of Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 , and then my friends and I boarded a 4 hour ferry ⛴️ with lots of other slightly anxious runners to arrive in the beautiful island of Tiree.

Race day dawned and we all squashed into the back of a fellow campers car, and made our way to the start. In true Scottish style, a bagpiper led the runners up the hill, and we were off!

We wound our way across the moorland onto Gott Bay, a vast expanse of white sand, and straight into the headwind 💨 ! It was gusting 50mph, so very hard going, but really added to the adventure factor, with the waves 🌊 roaring beside us and the wind howling around us.

I spent the first half of the race trying to keep up with lots of strong Scottish Women from a hill running club, but alas, they all disappeared off into the distance, undeterred by the wind and enjoying the lack of hills.

I battled through the next 10 miles or so, on sandy beaches and moorland tracks, until I spotted the hill ⛰️ we had climbed the day before looming out of the mist. This meant we were just about to round the headland down to the home straight.

The headwind really picked up at this point, as we got the full force of the gale off the North Atlantic. The only way for me to maintain forward momentum was just to

keep on running otherwise, I was stuck!

Unfortunately my hat 🧢 blew off at this point, so I had to chase after it in the opposite direction as it blew away! I put on quite a spurt of speed (aided by a magnificent

tailwind) so determined to try and up the pace a bit as I faced back into the wind.

This particular section was likened by one spectator to a zombie apocalypse, with runners strung out across the beaches into the distance trudging wearily along.

I enjoyed the last few beaches 🏖️ , spurred on by some lovely spectators, and rounded the road up to the finish line, just in time to miss the rain. My friends joined me shortly afterwards and we quickly embarked on the pale ale 🍺 marathon recovery scheme.

As always, it worked a treat, and got us well

prepared for the evening Ceilidh (a Scottish Country Dance) and prize giving ceremony. This was especially lovely, as it is not often you do a big event with such a nice ending, with everyone still there to enjoy it (more folks than usual, as the evening ferry ⛴️ was cancelled due to poor weather!).

They did say that it was the worst conditions they had ever run it in, which I was glad about, as it would have been highly demoralising to find that this was just their normal weather.

We then wended our way back to our tents ⛺️, and had a good sleep before the ferry in the morning.

Before boarding the ferry, we said goodbye to Tiree with a dip in the sea 🌊 which was beautiful, and very enjoyable once our painful toes had gone numb with cold.

The ferry back was peaceful and relaxed, with everyone proud of their achievement and basking in a post race glow. This was a great weekend, with lovely camaraderie from start to finish, heroic marshalls (as always), and wonderfully welcoming friendly islanders making the whole experience one to remember.

I would highly recommend this race and would definitely be up for doing it again!

🎤 Just inceedible Alice.  To complete this in 5:06:54 finishing 25th overall and 9th female is outstanding 🤩 I think most of us would still be there.  A fantastic report that really tells your story, thank you so much and congratulations to your friends too.

For anyone inspired by Alice and would like to take part in this event, next year’s race will be held on Sunday 6th September 2026 and entries open on 26th October 2025.  there’s also a relay option available 🙌