Petestack Blog

So I wanted an easy hill run for the weekend before the big race, took Irvine Butterfield’s description of Meall Ghaordaidh as ‘quite the dullest hill in the Southern Highlands’ as a cast-iron recommendation and set out to run it this afternoon. Took some time to get down a busy A82 (Dalmally/Oban traffic still being diverted through Glencoe following Sunday’s derailment) with big tailbacks at the Ba Bridge roadworks, but the A85 and A827 were quieter and I got there in the end. And Butterfield was right, with the south side of Meall Ghaordaidh being devoid of character and the neighbouring Corbett of Beinn nan Oighreag little more interesting, but both somewhat redeemed by fine views far and near (nice prospect of the Tarmachan ridge and Ben Lawers range from Beinn nan Oighreag) and being an absolute romp to run with the gentle, grassy ridges that tend to be such predictable components of the ‘dull hill’ package. So that was 10.3 miles and 4,100 ft of ascent dispatched with minimal effort in under 2 hours 19 minutes to give me exactly what I’d been looking for, and now I’m thinking no more than a couple of low-level runs (maybe Monday and Wednesday) to complete a textbook taper (still wondering when the wheels are going to come off after months of getting things ‘right’!) in the six days remaining before the big one…