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In an attempt to increase my Munro count and combine my hobbies of running and hill walking with my work opportunities in Scotland, this was my first attempt at running a Munro. This is not quite true as I attempted this two weeks ago, but despite having read the route and studied the map on numerous occasions, I still managed to leave the track at the first exit before the dam and got lost in the peat hags and the clag when the path ran out!
However, with the BST starting and a glorious evening, there was to be no mistake this time. I managed to run the first 3.5K, but as the gradient steepened, fast walking became a quicker option than running and I kept this up when the route left the track until I reached the brow of the plateau. From this point I could run again and followed the fence posts to the summit. This was reached after 57 minutes. I spent 10 minutes at the summit having a drink and soaking up the views (and removing my shoes for the obligatory summit photo). I then headed back down and was back at the car 30 minutes later.
Thoroughly enjoyed this experience and have plans to run many more over the course of the next few months if work, weather and time allows.
As a footnote, for those interested, I ran in Inov-8 Roclite 286 GTX fell running boots. They were excellent on the rough terrain and offered excellent ankle support on the rough terrain.
A few photos to enjoy
[url=https://flic.kr/p/TgiP93]
Ben Chonzie by
paul wilson, on Flickr
Ben Chonzie by
paul wilson, on Flickr
Ben Chonzie by
paul wilson, on Flickr
Ben Chonzie by
paul wilson, on Flickr
Ben Chonzie by
paul wilson, on Flickr
Ben Chonzie by
paul wilson, on Flickr
Ben Chonzie by
paul wilson, on Flickr
Ben Chonzie by
paul wilson, on Flickr