Great Britain mountain running international Robbie Simpson vows he won’t simply be going through the motions when he lines up with 150 others for tomorrow’s Bennachie 50k ultra trail race.
The Banchory athlete has been starved of regular high level competition during the past six or seven months and is keen to make the most of every racing opportunity.
Last month he won the Lairig Ghru mountain marathon between Braemar and Aviemore, despite taking a wrong turning in the early stages of the 43k race.
He followed that up by picking up the Scottish hill running title with an impressive performance over an 11k course in Perthshire.
This weekend’s route takes in 5,000ft of climbing over many of the peaks of Bennachie including Millstone hill, Hermit Seat, Oxen Craig, Little Oxen, Craigshannoch and Mither Tap. And Simpson has an eye on the record of 4hr 22min 31sec set last year by Metro Aberdeen’s Kyle Greig.
He said: “I’m not just turning up to run round. I’d like to race it properly and have a go. I’ve tapered off my training a little bit this week just to freshen up and find out what I can do, although I don’t have a specific time in mind.
“Much will depend on the weather as we’ve had some really wet days recently and that will affect performances.”
Simpson doesn’t anticipate experiencing any of the navigational problems that put paid to any chances he had of challenging the Lairig Ghru record in September.
He said: “I haven’t checked the course, but I know parts of it through having run there a few times in recent years, so I have a good idea what to expect. I think it’s pretty well marked, so I’m not too worried about that side of it.
“I’ve studied the course profile and it looks fun, although it’s not as hilly as many of the mountain races I’ve done. But it will still be tough because most of the hills come in the second half.
“So I’ll probably be quite cautious in the early miles. It should be quite comfortable to begin with as it’s relatively flat and I’ll be able to save energy for the hills later on.”
Jason Kelly, winner of the Dee 33 mile race in March, is likely to lead the battle for the remaining podium positions.
The Metro Aberdeen runner was in fantastic form prior to lockdown and showed he had maintained his fitness over the summer by finishing second in the Lairig Ghru race, recording his fastest time for the course.
Richard Strachan (JS Kintore), the 2019 Dyce half marathon champion, is also expected to feature strongly in his first ultra distance race.
For the organisers, the challenges of staging a long-distance race over testing terrain have become increasingly more complex.
Andrew Gordon is one of a small team that has grappled with the regularly changing guidelines to allow the race to go ahead without compromising public safety.
He said: “We’ve had to put in place a number of measures, the main one being at the start which has been broken down into waves of runners.
“It’ll be quite a regimented process, with runners having to turn up at allotted times to register, be screened with temperature scanning being used, then set off.
“We are grateful to the Forestry Commission who own the land and who granted us permission to hold the event as well as the Bennachie Trust and COTAG, both charitable organisations, who have helped greatly to enable us to stage the race.
“We are happy to be donating all profits made from the race to these two organisations.”