Dean and Gillian Carr at the inaugural Marathon Hebrides

Dean Carr reporting on more Hebridean antics which is clearly a bit of a Carr speciality - this time the Marathon Hebrides on Harris:

Gillian and I headed over to Harris with a couple of friends from Corstorphine AAC to take part in the inaugural event of the Marathon Hebrides.
Weather didn’t bode well on the crossing on friday a pretty rough crossing from Uig on Skye to Tarbet on Harris.  It was a pretty wet registration at the Talla na Mara centre.
On the day of the race the weather was dry but pretty windy and we were bused down from the Talla na Marra to start down in Rodel in South Harris just outside St Clements church.
The race started with a small 6 miles loop around Rodel included a 1 mile off road section before heading north to Finsbay then along a very remote isolated stretch to Leverburgh.  That was the first 15 miles of the race and it was very lumpy and gusty.  I took it quite steady letting a lot of runners race off but I felt a steady consistent strategy was the best. The final 11 miles was north right up the west coast of Harris to the finish on Seilebost beach. 
Normally you get a south wind pushing you up the coast, but however on the race we had a very strong headwind which was energy sapping to say the least (I overtook several cyclists !!!).  However I started to catch struggling runners and this spurred me on to a strong final few miles.  The last mile of the race was cruel 1 mile on the soft sand to the finish line.
It was a spectacular run, but pretty tough marathon.
I was very pleased with 7th place 3:32:58 and Gillian was 9th and 2nd lady after a tough battle for first in 3:36:24. Full results here.