Scottish Ultra Marathon Series (S.U.M.S.) 2012

2012 was a great year for me. I completed the Speyside Way Ultramarathon, the final race of my season, on 25th August with a new PB. What’s more, I felt good for the duration of the event, experiencing no real lows. It was a fitting climax to a year which saw me attain 6 new PBs and saw me finish my first ever West Highland Way Race despite apocalyptic weather conditions, stomach ‘issues’ and projectile vomiting! Writing this summary, 2 days after Speyside, I am tinged with sadness that my events are once again over for the year but, at the same time, am delighted to have got through them all, something that seemed like a tall order at the beginning of the year, and then again in the aftermath of the 95 miles of the West Highland Way Race, when my body was signalling that I had taken on too much, too soon.

This was also the year when I really started blogging properly, something which has really taken off for me. At the time of writing this 2012 summary, my Running Bug blog, started on 20th September 2011, is nearing 20,000 views, and my personal website www.pixelscotland.com is steadily gaining in popularity, with just under 4000 views since I started gathering stats back in June. My personal site has also now been expanded to include reviews of events and of equipment, some of which I have bought myself, and some that has been kindly sent to me by companies.

It’s great to think that my experiences offer something to others, especially when I started blogging purely to log events for my own recollection. The events of this year are too numerous to do justice in a single summary, as can be seen from the prolific number of race reports contained below.

Here’s to 2013 which, for a number of reasons, will present entirely new challenges.

2012 Races

Please note, links open external race websites.

• D33 Ultramarathon, 33 miles
• Hoka Highland Fling, 53 miles
• Cateran Trail Ultramarathon, 55 miles
• West Highland Way Race, 96 miles (WHW Race Forum)
• Clyde Stride Ultramarathon, 40 miles
• Devil O’ The Highlands Ultramarathon, 43 miles
• Speyside Way Ultramarathon, 36.5 miles

Race Reports

• D33, 17th March 2012
• Hoka Highland Fling, 28th April 2012
• Cateran Trail Ultramarathon, 19th May 2012
• West Highland Way Race, 23rd June 2012
  • Build Up: The West Highland Way Race – The Final Countdown
  • Build Up: 3 Sleeps Until #whwrace
  • Race Report: Against All Odds – The Quest For A WHW Race Goblet
  • West Highland Way Race Gallery
• The Clyde Stride, 21st July 2012
• The Devil O’ The Highlands, 4th August 2012
  • Devil O’ The Highlands Race Report
  • Devil O’ The Highlands Gallery
  • Stubborn Goes A Long Way (Running Bug Devil O’ The Highlands Race Report)
  • Men’s Running Devil O’ The Highlands Race Report
• The Triple Crown (Highland Fling, West Highland Way Race, Devil O’ The Highlands)
• Speyside Way Ultramarathon, 25th August 2012

S.U.M.S. Yearly Review

• S.U.M.S. 2010
• S.U.M.S. 2011
• S.U.M.S. 2012
• S.U.M.S. 2013