As we blogged last week, the Endurancelife Real Relay is following the entire route of the official Olympic Torch around the British Isles in one continuous non-stop journey, running every step of the way.

Starting from Land’s End at midnight on Monday, May 28, 10 days behind the official Olympic Torch, the Real Relay will involve hundreds of runners running through the day and night on an 8000-mile mission to reach London in time for the Olympic Games opening ceremony.

On Friday at 5pm the Real Relay baton was handed to FionaOutdoors outside the infamous walkers’ drinking pub, the Drover’s Inn (the place of many stuffed animals!), Inveranan. The distance was meant to be 11 miles to the next handover point of Tyndrum. In the event, the run was closer to 13 miles!

How did the Relay Run go?

Friday was very, very wet and windy but by 4pm the sun managed to make a bit of an appearance, although not for long. But it was mostly dry for the entire run.

The previous runner, Matthew Shelley made excellent time and so I was able to set off a bit earlier than planned. I had been expecting a baton the size of a school athletics meet but the real Relay baton is actually about 3ft long and quite heavy because it has a GPS attached to it.

I decided to carry it in my rucksack and although it was heavy and the rucksack rubbed my neck badly it was definitely better than carrying an awkward baton 13 miles along a tricky off-road trail.

While many people have been sticking t the roads for this event, I decided that the West Highland Way would be the most pleasant option. The Way runs all the way from Milngavie to Fort William and my section of the relay tied in with the Way from Inveranan to Tyndrum.

But this is not an easy route. It’s generally uphill, includes many steep sections and the track is rough and rocky. Added to this I had a headwind. But the views are gorgeous. The Highlands scenery never fails to inspire me and I enjoyed running a route I’d never been on before.

Pride in running in a major event

This year feels special in terms of British sport and I felt proud to be taking part in an event that is aiming to achieve a major result. Finding runners to cover 8,000 miles in this non-stop challenge is pretty awesome. I liked that this event is low-key too. Yes, it would have been great to have a few fuel stations and a massage tent at the end, as well as a goodie bag, but it also felt exciting and adventurous to be running as part of a relay that was relying on good-spirited runners, correct communication and a sense of “just being part of something historic”.

Without Facebook and mobile phones this event would not have been possible. I was able to make contact with both the runner before me and the runner after me via FB and then mobile phone. We kept in contact easily thanks to modern technology.

Even as I joined the relay there were still stage gaps further north in the Highlands for early the next morning but thanks to social media networking, text messages and good old-fashioned landline phone calls these slots were eventually filled.

By the time I reached Tyndrum after a 13-mile off-road run I was pretty exhausted. I was very happy to see the next runner, Alison Marshall, doing a few stretches and clearly ready for the off. She would be handing the baton on to her partner David some 10k further on. We exchanged a few cheery words, had our picture taken and then Alison was off.

The Relay has since made it’s way north, been over to Orkney and is now in Shetland. It will be heading south again this week. All places seem to be filled except on June 25 when the baton reaches Brigswath. Check this out if you can run a section. You can also keep check of the real Relay baton progress on the tracker