Harry and Neil master the mountains
Two intrepid Scottish Woodlands employees have completed gruelling challenges as part of an elite mountain ultra-running event.
Neil White, Regional Manager for Central Scotland, completed the 50km course of the Ultra-Trail Snowdonia event in 10 hours 30 minutes.
His colleague Harry McDonald took on the biggest challenge of all - a 100-mile (163km) run, with an elevation gain of more than 9000 metres.
Harry, a Forest Manager based in Dunoon, completed the incredible challenge in just over 36 hours. He was 32nd out of 112 finishers in the 100-mile challenge, with more than 150 runners unable to complete the course.
Neil White came 382nd out of almost 1000 finishers in his category, with several hundred competitors unable to complete the course.
Harry McDonald said: “This was my most ambitious race to date, with the 100-mile course regularly dishing out a Did-Not-Finish rate of over 50%.”
“Day one was a genuinely enjoyable experience, with pleasant running conditions throughout the night. Around mid-morning on Saturday, some apocalyptic weather rolled in, which made navigation and traction a real issue and coincided with my time on the most technical part of the race - scrambling the Nantlle ridge between Moel Hebog and Rhyd Ddu.”
“I teamed up with a couple of other runners and together we navigated this treacherous section without incident. As the sun dropped below the horizon on day two, I had a second wind induced by caffeine and pain killers, and managed a strong finish.”
“Big thanks to my flatmate Brendan who gave up his weekend to crew me on this race. In ultrarunning, as in forestry, you are only as good as the team around you. Congratulations to my line manager Neil who also had a great race on the weekend. We’ll have plenty of stories to trade the next time we are on site together.”
Neil White said: "This was a big step up in technical difficulty and elevation for my fifth ultra distance race, including two ascents of Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) plus two smaller climbs. The weather conditions were very challenging with rain and wind but it felt good to test myself against some of the best runners in the sport in the stunning scenery of Eryri National Park.”
"The event organisation was seriously impressive with thousands of runners competing across five races ranging from 25km to 100 miles."
Neil added: "Massive congratulations to Harry for his phenomenal achievement in completing the 100-mile race. He is an amazing ultra-runner."