T-shirt<\/a><\/strong> and medal, you get eight whisky miniatures at the finish, a thoroughly civilised way to dull any post-race aches and pains from 26 miles of highland trails. <\/p>I thoroughly enjoyed it the first time I did it \u2013 I think, I don\u2019t actually remember that much after deciding that despite not being in pain, I\u2019d better drink my miniatures just in case.<\/p>
This time alas, despite the storm having passed and left the course sodden but runnable, we arrived to find that some further and un-forecasted heavy rain on top of already wet ground had flooded parts of the course and left it impassable to all but the most determined swimmer.<\/p>
The organisers did their best to soften the blow of the late cancellation by offering a free dram of Balvennie to anyone who came along to the race HQ in the morning to hand their timing chip in. <\/p>
Not everyone fancied a whisky that early in the day, but I had no such qualms, after all if it\u2019s socially acceptable to drink in airport lounges at seven in the morning I don\u2019t see why a village hall in Dufftown should be any different.<\/p>
I really felt for the race organisers who had done everything possible to put the race on, who were ready to stand out in the pouring rain and marshal us as we sludged past, and who had to watch a man from Coventry drink all their Balvennie after saying, \u2018I\u2019ll have theirs\u2019 whenever a chip-returning runner declined a drink.<\/p>
It was the right decision to cancel though, the weather was still wild and it\u2019s not as though they could switch the race to a different discipline. <\/p>
I\u2019ll definitely be back to do it next year \u2013 weather and not being blacklisted by race organisers permitting.<\/p>
Top illustration credit: <\/strong>Dan Seex<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n
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