A great day out on the Deeside Way with the wind mostly going in a favourable direction! Winds were around 30 km/h and it was feels like -9 temperature! A pretty typical Scottish day in December.
I set off just after 8.30am in an icy Ballater, successfully dodging all the black ice and settled into the FKT attempt! I ran solo for the majority of the distance with company from my husband for the final 4K approximately. There was no talking until it was over!
Overall, I felt really good and it went really well. Some extra distance was covered due to three reasons. Firstly, a toilet stop at the Banchory public toilets. Secondly, a there was a short closed section of the Deeside Way at Culter station due to deforestation and a landslip (this meant running extra elevation up station road east to the main road and along the pavement before dropping back down Pittengullies Brae). Thirdly, I had forgotten to check the exact finish location of the FKT in Duthie Park so ran a wee bit extra (~50m) at the end to make sure I didn't run short!! Silly mistake!
I started with 2 bottles and my gels for the first 23K then my husband met me at Dess, Kincardine O'Neill, Scolty Carpark (Banchory) and Drumoak. I was typically grabbing 1 bottle at each of these locations and the gels I needed. There was no need to stop at all with this kind of help which was great - just grab and go!
Delighted to have ran a 50K PB, my 2nd fastest marathon and 30K times... as part of a 70K! I felt confident to go out fast since it wasn't a very hilly route. I would have liked to have closed as hard and fast as the amazing Jason Kelly on this route but I am not as amazing as him plus the fuelling wasn't going well at all from Drumoak (18K ish to go).
A good day out! Highly recommend people to give the route a run and it is very easy to have support along the way with it's ease of accessibility.