Scotland 50 & 100 Race Director Interview

Some of the best running routes in the world are in the heart of Scotland. This year runners got to experience the country in all its glory on the Southern Upland Way. We did a race director interview with Ian Yates for the Ultra Scotland 50 and 100 mile race to find out more about the route and the winners of each event.

We started off at 6am in St John’s Town of Dalry which is part of the Southern Upland Way route along the Scottish borders. Just before the start we held a minute’s silence for Umin hitchel who sadly passed away. He was due to take part in the race, so it was only right that we remembered him. 

Prior to the event we had a special feature. We had a piper who was present on the field to set the runners off. They began running over a little wooden bridge in the town of Dalry before picking up the Southern Upland Way. 

This race is part of our Scotland race series, one of the feature events is the Race Across Scotland. Some people use this 100 mile race as training for the 215 miler later on in the year.

What does the race route look like?

After leaving Dalry the runners for both the 50 and 100 miler follow the same route. It starts to go upwards to Benbrack arch, one of the Striding Arches that was sculpted by Andy Goldsworthy. It’s a stunning location day or night. After that you descended into the village of Sanquhar and we had our checkpoint in the village hall. You leave Sanquhar and head up to Wanlockhead and that is well known for being Scotland’s highest village, it’s 467 metres above sea level.