The Dunnet Head Educational is delighted to introduce the Round Coast of Britain Run to northern Scotland. There is a lot of interest in a Scottish Coastal Path at the moment, and we are keen to promote this at the same time as getting support to realise a long held dream of a "North Highland Way". This need not be a path but a way to go with networks of community paths being joined to complete the trail and information made available. So please complete our short survey, pledge an amount for the runners doing the northern section, Durness to Inverness, or just sign up as an interested party. There are already established routes in other areas of coastal Scotland. As organisers of the Caithness & Sutherland Walking Festival, we are particularly interested in getting this route in place.

Founder of the race, Stu Prince, has this to say:

The Round The Coast of Great Britain relay is partly about celebrating our coastal regions and their beauty. The beauty of the Northern Scotland coast is something worth celebrating and appreciating. Enhancing the enjoyment of a coastal run and coastal walk would be a coastal path accessible to all. That is why Coasters GB are more than happy to provide support. The coastal relay started off as a dream. Please read this account of my dream and its emerging reality and ask whether it would become such a reality if our coast and coastal heritage was not so special.

It was early December before the great white and cold fall, having watched Eddie Izzard describe his multi marathon effort, that a little thought occurred to me. "Wouldn’t it be nice if I could do something like that?" I initially thought about running around the coast of Great Britain but when looking at my then level of training and the effort and expense involved in having months off work and staying in hotels, it evolved into a relay with many runners. Well, I wanted to do something different and the idea qualified, so I asked whether it was possible on a large running forum. Wearing a tin hat and bullet proof vest, expecting to be shot down, I asked whether it was, at all, possible. Surprisingly, my protective gear was not necessary. Ok, I know that runners can be up to anything but the response was amazing. People liked the idea and furthermore wanted to participate. This was the birth of the Great Britain Coastal relay.

Trawling through websites of people who had walked around or near the coastline, it was obvious that it had to be split up into sections (or stretches). Partly for the sake of getting all involved at a running community level and partly to save my fragile sanity, I felt the stretches were best to be autonomous and co-ordinated at local level . With the work of a dedicated team of equally mad runners, this dream remains as vivid as ever as I wake up to the reality. People were enlisting from the craggy corners of Scotland to the sands of the sunny South and though to Wales. Pretty soon, we had a baton named "Barry" and a great starting point , the Tower at Blackpool (you can’t miss it) and a date 9th May 2010. We decided to head North, as Scotland’s summer can be short, it was argued. This was achieved all in 7 weeks.

So this is our present situation. Sitting comfortably but not complacently, as there are some gaps in the chain we are forging. Anyway, I have give you the story and now I want any runners of whatever ability to join in this unique event and historical first. Whether you do 3 miles or 30 miles, it does not matter. If you live pretty near to the coast or just fancy a trip out, come and join us. You wont get rejected and you may be doubling up with others, too. Unlike Fletcher in Porridge, you can chose your own stretch from this list:

Blackpool to Gretna - 9th-16thMay
Gretna to Stranraer  - 16th-23rd May
Stranraer to Ayr     -   23rd - 30th May
Ayr to Tobermory   -   30th May -6th June
Tobermory to Ullapool -  6th -13th June
Ullapool to Durness - 13th-20thJune
Durness to Wick     -    20th-27th June
Wick to Aberdeen    -     27th June - 4th July
Aberdeen To Edinburgh 4th July -11th July
Edinburgh to South Shields 11July -18th July

These are subject to slight modification at worst. More information will be available as time progresses.

 

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