Happily Ever After
Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running
Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.
Tomatin 10k
by Russell Turner - 21:00 on 17 May 2025
My final long run weekend coincided with the very homespun Tomatin 10k, staged just south of Inverness in aid of the (Yorkshire-based) Gamekeepers Welfare Trust. I wasn’t sure what to expect – this was only its second running – although a non-chip-timed race suggested nothing posh. However, I had 60mins to run in training and the race entry was a mere £10.
Only 81 runners had signed up for 10k and 5k events, but accompanied by friends and family that was more than enough to fill the Strathdearn Hub where we collected our bibs and slapped on extra sunscreen to combat sun blazing out of a cloudless sky. It was going to be a hot one. Despite the low take-up, runners still ranged from racing snakes to the more portly, and schoolkids to the aged. Green was the dominant colour because race shirts were handed out at the start, rather than the finish. I’d chosen not to take one because I’m already overloaded with racewear (although I’m looking forward to this year’s London shirt and medal, which are in the post).
Just before 11am, an organiser with an inadequate megaphone gathered everyone in the car park. Schoolkids were wrangled into a front line, a hooter sounded, then we were off, 5k and 10k runners together, me attempting a sensible pace on an incredibly hot day with little breeze, turning right out of the car park and right again, down a minor road that passed beneath the huge rail and road bridges, then up again and across a more modest wooden footbridge that spanned the River Findhorn. Undulation would be the theme of the next hour.
The runners had soon spread out, leaving me mostly on my own, but marshals at key junctions kept me on the route. Homespun it may have been, but the event was well organised and the scenery, on the fringe of the Cairgorms, worth viewing. Some walk breaks were needed (did I mention the undulation?) thanks to a faster-than-necessary pace but I plodded on, past the 5k runners’ turn-off until tarmac track turned into bumpy and unshaded trail leading to Balvraid Lodge, presumably frequented by the grouse-shooting classes.
The route looped around the Lodge, which was either hidden from plebeian eyes or I was in no state to see it because after 2.8 miles I’d arrived at the beginning of a climb which rose 40m in just under half a mile: not a huge challenge but unwelcome on such a hot day. I walked it. Loop completed, the route returned the way it came. The mostly flat final mile produced my fastest one of the day, despite another brief walk break. I even passed a trio of toiling runners.
Finishing under 1:05 on such a day was satisfactory, although 1:15 might have been more sensible the week before the Edinburgh Marathon. I’ve plenty of time to recover. How many people ran the full 10k, and where I finished among them, I might never know, the day being unchipped. I can live with that because much of the race entry fee must have gone into a decent free spread of burgers, pasta, salad and drinks – impressive for a £10 event and very welcome after a tough race. The potato salad went down particularly well. The finishers’ medal was less impressive but I’ve collected worse. There are also free photos, yet to appear on Facebook.
For anyone not keen on busy, expensive big city 10ks, this is highly recommended. I might feel differently if the day had been cold, wet and windswept – parts of the route are very exposed – but today was a good one.
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