When our plans for an Easter holiday in Mull were made, all the appropriate fixed self-catering property was booked up. So we came up with the novel idea of a touring campervan from mullcampervans who met us off the ferry at Craignure.
I had been looking at an events calendar for Mull and discovered this event listed on the Mull Runners website which happended to coincide with our itinerary. We spent the Saturday night at the excellent Fidden campsite south of Fionnphort before rolling into Bunessan on the Sunday morning. Race information online was sparse so I was not quite sure what to expect, but we parked up near the centre of the village and awaited some developments.
Within an hour the place was bustling with men in shorts and wooly hats (it was raining and a bit parky). I made sure to register and pay my £6 in the bus shelter and then at 12:30 we all gathered at the start. When I say 'All' I mean about 20 folk. Due to the layout of the roads, there was a shorter race option that would go in the opposite direction to the 10k, both starting at the same time from the same place. A funny situation!
The organiser sent us off and I quickly settled into a pace near the front of the field. After the first loop to return back through the village I was in 4th position but I could see numbers 1 & 2 starting to stretch away in the distance. Number 3 was not far in front, still in touching distance. We were now running along the 'main' road which wasn't closed to traffic; infact none of the the race was, so we had to allow traffic to pass a few times on the single track road.
After 5km on a downhill section, I realised I was closing on Number 3 and managed to pass him as we turned left onto the Ardtun loop. We were now neck and neck for the next 4 km and I think we both kept each other going at a good pace. Numbers 1 and 2 were a loong way ahead now, but still visible in the loops and turns of the narrow road.
We were now overtaking the competitors on the shorter route and they all gave us encouragement without fail which was gratefully appreciated. The village now came into view but at the turn on the bridge back to the main road, my companion now slipped strongly into his original 3rd position and I struggled to match his pace. Nevertheless I found something and was able to put on a spurt into the finish line with the small crowd cheering.
46:53 4th position out of ??
