They say the sun always shines on the righteous and on Sunday we certainly must have had our fair share of righteous runners at the Antonine Trail Race. The most glorious autumn day saw a record 210 of the 225 entered runners start the race. That’s up from the 169 who started last year from the same number of entrants! A whopping 41 more people showed up. Wow! And our first highlight was not a single DNF.

Pat McCann was our guest starter and got the race away at 10am prompt. With a few racing snakes seeing the new course for the first time it was going to be interesting to see how fast they covered Croy Hill.

Whilst the front 3 went the right way the next 3 took a wrong turn and cut almost a mile off of the course and had to be made to backtrack at halfway to cover the distance. All 3 recognised the error and ran well, showing great understanding when they were told they’d be ineligible for any podium/prize positions.

Meanwhile, the men’s race was shaping up as a battle from early on. There were 4 runners fighting it out for the podium. Chris Upson led almost the full way, with David Gow hot on his heels. They were closely followed by Brian Sharp and Gerry Craig. Indeed, it wasn’t until coming over Croy Hill where David finally got in front of Chris and put in a strong finish to win the race in 1:30:03, and by just 38 seconds. Brian managed to hold onto the final podium place with Gerry Craig unable to close the constant gap between the two.

Anything the men can do the ladies can do better (obviously) and it was even closer in their race. Rachel Hunt (3rd at the ATRX in May) held off a strong finish from 2017 West Highland Way champion Lynne Allen to win the ladies’ race by just 18 seconds in 1:43:44. Louise Tyler rounded off a high quality podium.

In the Vets’ races (over 50s), Nicola Watson was our ladies winner and local running legend John Duffy won the men’s race with a run that shows a return to strong form for this great friend of the race.

In the most keenly contested competition of all, the Best Costume prize was won by Mairi Fox and Colin Gray who came as a monkey and a banana. Some of the on course photos are hilarious.

The team at Antonine Trail Races would like to thank the Co-op Distribution Centre at Newhouse, Nairns, Jordanhill Garden Supplies and Tunnocks for their generous support.

To our race team, we love you almost as much as our volunteers who are amazing and make this race what it is.

Below is a link to our results file. Please contact us at antoninetrailraces@gmail.com with any queries.

2017 Results, ATR, v1.0 (171030)