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Salomon Skyline Scotland 2022 – Race Director's Report

Salomon Skyline Scotland 2022 – Race Director's Report

27th Sep 2022

Introduction

There is a real energy to Salomon Skyline Scotland®. As a spectator in the event village, you can feel it, and as a participant on the trails, you experience it up front and personal!

My inspiration for Skyline Scotland came from racing and visiting European mountain races. I wanted to recreate that incredible buzz of excitement where the community of mountain, trail and sky runners come together. This year we had entries from 2,500 runners from 56 different countries, confirming that there really is nothing else like Skyline Scotland® in the UK.

There is a dedicated team of permanent staff at Ourea Event who work year-round to make this event happen with the support of an incredible team of professional and volunteer staff, who bring the weekend to life. I am greatly indebted to each and every one of them, and wish to express my sincere thanks and praise for their efforts. What a brilliant group of people!

The implication of Queen Elizabeth II's death may not have been immediately apparent to runners and supporters at Skyline Scotland® this year, but it did have potentially huge implications for the event (there is a longer blog post about this here should you be interested). Should the state funeral have occurred over the weekend, it would have been virtually impossible to deliver the event, with various event stakeholders expressing serious concerns about holding a large sporting event at the same time. There would have been practical implications to consider as well, with public transport and other essential services disrupted. We certainly had an anxious few days waiting until the funeral was confirmed for Monday the 19th.

After all this uncertainty, I was delighted to witness the event village coming to life, and see runners gather from all round the world for another incredible weekend of trail and sky running.

It was an exciting, action-packed weekend ©No Limits Photography

Personal Highlights

There was universal praise for the new trail races from runners this year. When we designed these courses, we wanted to capture the essence of trail running, but have a distinct difference to our sky races, which are very focused on running the skylines of Glencoe and Glen Nevis. Given the nature of the terrain in the Scottish Highlands, both the Mamores Stalker 27k and Lochaber 80 were always going to be very tough (and at times, muddy) challenges… nothing like their European and American counterparts in the Spartan Trail and Trail Ultra World Championships. I was particularly amused by Spartan’s Global Head of Trail Running saying that the Mamores Stalker 27k, was “Scottish trail running”, as he crossed the line covered in mud, but with a huge grin.

I am aware that one of the biggest challenges facing trail running is encouraging more female participation. The solution to this is complex and certainly worthy of an entire blog in itself (watch this space), but I would like to highlight Phillipa Williams’ brilliant outright win in the Loch Elide Mòr 10k in 53:34. Increasing the visibility of inspiring female role models is part of the solution to this challenge, and I was there to witness the impact Phillipa’s win had on the local school kids handing out medals on the finish line.

Finally, a little personal highlight for me was the fact that no participants’ cars were towed this year! For many years, the police have towed participant cars that have been illegally parked in residential areas of the village. Thank you so much for respecting the local community and using the official car park. This really does help us foster a good relationship with the village, allowing us to continue delivering the event in future.

Phillipa Williams had an incredible run ©No Limits Photography

Course Closure and Cut-Offs Times

There is no doubt that our established Ben Nevis Ultra™ and Glen Coe Skyline® races have tough cut-off times. The cut-off times are based on the final Course Closure time, and we work backwards through the course based on data from thousands of runners over many years to calculate these times.

Each year, we have difficult conversations with runners who feel that the cut-offs are unfair, and 2022 was no exception. The purpose of these cut-off times is all about safety, and safety is focused on BOTH the runners and the staff deployed to the hills. The intention is to have our backmarkers off the most consequential ground and heading back down towards the finish at Kinlochleven by the time darkness sets in. Please also bear in mind the time required for the remote checkpoint staff to walk into these locations, be there for the duration of the first to last runner, and then walk back out again. Some staff face an epic day in the hills, not dissimilar to that of our participants, and there is a limit to what we can feasibly ask and expect from the course marshals.

The cut-off times are also there out of respect to the community of residents in Kinlochleven. Understandably, they don’t want vehicle traffic, commentary, music, clapping and cheering very early in the morning or late at night, and therefore there will also be an earliest start time and latest finish time that each race must fit between.

Results

The results are now available – you can view them here:

VIEW TRAIL RACE RESULTS
VIEW RESULTS FOR THE SALOMON RING OF STEALL
VIEW RESULTS FOR THE SALOMON BEN NEVIS ULTRA
VIEW RESULTS FOR THE SALOMON GLEN COE SKYLINE

Antonio Martínez Pérez had a successful run in a very competitive 27k ©No Limits Photography

Thanks to the Event Team

This event could not have happened without the hard-work and dedication of our awesome Event Team, who worked tirelessly over the weekend to deliver the event. I am, as ever, truly grateful to each and every one of you for the enormous contribution you made to this event.

It takes an awesome group of people to put on such an epic event ©No Limits Photography

Catering Team

Claire Wickham
Eleanor Smith
Finlay Harrison
Fiona Massey
Hilary Malyon
Laura Smith
Tim Glasby

Course Marking

Colin Harding
Fiona Brannan
Gavin Bussey
Lisa Watson
Mark Caldwell
Peter Gavin
Russell Mabon
Susan Nicol

Thank you to our course markers for doing such an excellent job ©No Limits Photography

Course Marshalling

Alistair Cox
Bethany Walsh
Ceri Powell
Chris Huntley
Daniel Spencer
Duncan Anderson
Emma Hadley
Fiona Murphy
Gillian McColl
James Greig
Marie Cheng
Martin Slack
Morven Walsh
Nik Radnedge
Paul Hadley
Jamie Bankhead
Jessica Byrne
John Milloy
Kat Bennett
Zakius Benaton
Lawrie Brand
Neville Shortt
Richard Taylor
Bess Robson
Charles 'Chas' Ward
Garry Campbell
Gillian Parker
Hannah Francis
Kirsty Gillan
Beatrix Teasdale
Casper McKeever
Dan Topping
Dave Anderson
Nathan Adam
Phil Nelson
Sally Hudson
Abel McLinden
Ali Rose
Anne Rebecca Schwarz
Ben Smith-Price
Bethany Carol
Brian Morrison
Chris Haworth
Christian Howell
David Lamond
Douglas Fransson Lee
Ellie Ulyatt
Euan Larter
James Coomber
Joe Flanagan
Kieran Watts
Malcolm Airey
Mark Warner
Mike Mason
Peter Cleghorn
Peter Cuthill
Ramsay Mackay
Rich Pyne
Simon Verspeak
Ewan McNaught

Course Operations

Gary Tompsett
Matt Harmon
Paul Aitken
Tom Withers

Ecologist

David Broom

Information Point

Alec Major
Sandra Williams

Marquee Team

Jess Byrne
Seb Boulton Oliver
Zak Benaton

Media Team

Charlotte Workman
Christiaan Le Roux
Harriet D'Alessio
Jimmy Hyland
Kevin Sloan
Martyn Warwick
Reuben Tabner
Scott Seefeldt
Steve Ashworth
Steve Small

Medical Team

Ben McCartney
Charlotte Hattersley
Georgina Shepherd
Hannah Phelan
Iain Hettle
Isobel Robertson
Louisa Bostock
Morag Bowie
Sam Perry

Race Control

Abbi Forsyth
David Taylor
Matt Gemmell

Registration Team

Adam O'Pray
Angus Davis
Brid Hendry
Debbie McCart
Iain Young
Jacob Henderson
Katie Robertson
Lisa Robertson
Matthew Smith
Nathan Holland
Paul Weaving
Phil Anderson
Robert Campbell
Robbie Driscoll
Rory Logan
Wanda McMillan

Our registration team made sure things were running smoothly ©No Limits Photography

Response Team

Alison Gallagher
Dan Romberg
Dave Howarth
Iain Airth
Katie Cole
Naomi Dodds
Paul Horabin
Stuart Smith
Tom Chivers

Start/Finish Team

Agnes Kon
Alfie Smith
Daniel Pizon
Debs White
Guy Redmond
Jonas Paulius Rekertas
Kate Peel
Lyndsay Cameron
Matthew Luck
Michael Stewart
Patricia Lyon
Paul Devlin
Paul Imrie
Rebecca Bibby
Ruth Howie
Ruth Kelly
Tom Warman
Warren Renkel
Wayne Smith
Will Terry

Support Point Team

Anja Powell
Dagna Wójciak
Esther Terpstra
Gavin Grimsey
Hamish Robertson
Ian Cowie
John Irvine
Liam McGregor
Mike Schiltz
Peter Huzan
Zainab Kenny

Technical Services Team

Kevin Nairn
Phil Sturgeon
Tom Rouse

Timing & Tracking

Alastair Baillie
Chris Mills
Daniel Carrivick
Ian Nicol
James Thurlow

The timing and tracking is a crucial element of the event ©No Limits Photography

Ourea Management

Charlie Williamson
Eleanor Claringbold
Graham Gristwood
Greg Mickelborough
Janie Oates
Jen Edson
Lisa Knipe
Lucy Scrase
Neil Davies
Shane Ohly
Sue Dowker
Tom Hecht

Thank you to all for your hard work ©No Limits Photography

Thanks to Event Sponsors and Stakeholders

I would like to thank our event sponsors – Salomon and Event Scotland. I am also grateful to our event partners: JAHAMA Highland Estates, the John Muir Trust, National Trust for Scotland, Forestry and Land Scotland, Nature Scotland, Killiechonate Estate, Corrour Estate, Black Corries Estate and Nevis Landscape Partnership, without whose support we would not be able to put on the event. I'd also like to say thank you to all the brands who came along to the event village – it really was a wonderful atmosphere.

Event coverage

We hope you enjoyed our live coverage of the event on social media. You can catch up with all the action on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Films

Jimmy Hyland and Steve Ashworth were out on course shooting some incredible footage to produce the event films. These are now available to watch on our YouTube channel – relive the highlights!

Photos

No Limits Photography were also on the ground every day capturing some amazing shots for the official event photography - to be used on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, on the website, and in the press.

Bib Number Photography were also in attendance. They had a team of photographers out on course taking some excellent shots of each participant on every race. These photos are now available to view (and purchase) here:

Salomon Glen Coe Skyline

Salomon Ben Nevis Ultra

Salomon Ring of Steall Skyrace

Salomon Lochaber 80

Trail Races

Feedback

Feedback is very important to us. Whatever you have to say, positive or negative, we are keen to hear your thoughts. Whilst we don’t promise to incorporate every piece of feedback received, we do promise to read and consider it carefully. Participant feedback has helped refine and improve the event from one edition to the next and it has been instrumental in polishing the details and the event is better for it. So, please don’t be shy and send any comments you to [email protected]

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