For a lot of North Highland Harriers members the Statkraft Winter Trail Series is the highlight of the runing calendar. This year we started the series at Baillie Wind Farm on 21 October. It was a cold and blustery morning for the first trail with either a 2.3 or 5.1 mile option available. Baillie is run mainly on the wind farm tracks and offers some tough hills throughout. Forty runners completed the long course with Greg Shearer finishing first in 29.28 and first female finisher was Hannah Patterson in 39.08. Three runners completed the short course with Fiona Stockan coming in first in 22.10. On the 4 November we returned to Olrig Hill, which was re-introduced last year to the trail season after some time in abeyance. The clue to what to expect is in the trail name, and in addition to the main hill offers a number of other uphill sections. This is a tough run but the view from the top of the hill on a clear, crisp autumn day was worth it. The long course was 6.7 miles with 34 runners completing this run. Kenny MacGruer came in first in a time of 42.35, with NHH’s head coach Sophie Dunnett leading the ladies in a time of 56.36. The short course of 4.6 miles was completed by 8 runners, with Paul Steven being the first finisher in 36.45 and Sarah Armitage the first female in a time of 41.56.

The Baillie Wind Farm results can be found here and the Olrig Hill results can be found here.