LIKE THE WIND
If there was ever a route for which the magazine title Like the Wind seems less apt, I can’t think of one. It seems an age ago that I completed the Ring of Inverpolly, and the article I wrote subsequently was first published by The Fell Runner. But the memory of slow, rough heather and tussock bashing remains sharp. Perhaps it was simply the contrast with what might arguably be described as more mainstream running, but the story seemed to appeal to the editorial team at Like the Wind too, and has now been published in issue #50.
A few slight tweaks were made to the copy - nothing factual of course, but I rather liked the change of title: ‘The culprit was Alec Keith’, a quote from the Scottish Hill Runners website where the round is documented. Completed in 1998, Alec’s innaugral round has since seen remarkably few completions - seven including my own to date (to the best of my knowledge), of which at least three were undertaken as a team of two or three, and at least two of these were repeats. The total number of people who have therefore completed the round stands at around eight.
It is a remarkable round in many ways, unique perhaps, and certainly one worthy of greater attention and requiring more of the aspirant than either its 40 miles or 15,000ft of ascent might suggest.
As for The Fell Runner, the images used to illustrate the article in Like the Wind, were all taken on previous runs among the Coigach and Assynt hills. My own round was completed solo, without any form of support and without GPS - navigating the route is one of the challenges, for while the summits are all popular enough in their own right, linking them by the route Keith devised is perhaps something only those intent on the Ring of ‘Polly, would ever contemplate.
