 Recently, I travelled to Scotland to take part in the Ring of Steel Skyrace. If you'd like to see that video, that is linked up there. The Ring of Steel is part of the Skyline Scotland weekend and that encompasses the Ben Nevis Ultra and the Glencoe Skyline amongst other races between 5k and up to 80k. We've known for some time that this would be the final Skyline Scotland weekend and there has been a lot of speculation around what is happening and why. So, I sat down with race director Shane Olly to find out a little bit more about the future of the event. I started by asking him what these races have meant to him over the years since the very first Skyline Scotland and Glencoe Skyline race back in 2015. Well they're very special to me, Glencoe Skyline particularly. I absolutely love that combination of mountain running and climbing. It's just amazing. So yeah, it's very kind of mixed feelings about moving on from Kinlock Leven but it's definitely the right decision for the long-term future of the event. There's no doubt that the main three races, the Glencoe Skyline, the Ben Nevis Ultra and the Ring of Steel, have all become iconic races in their own right. Kilian Journay holds the course record for the men's Glencoe Skyline. His wife Emily Forsberg holds the women's record for the same race. Both Tom Owens and Robbie Britton were there last weekend and Sage Cannaday has run the Ring of Steel and the event has hosted the Golden Trail Series, the Skyrunner World Series and the Skyrunning World Championships. So I asked Shane why the event has to move from its current venue at Kinlock Leven. There's a whole number of factors. There's no one single one that is pushing or pulling us in any direction but I guess the pull factors are we want a bigger venue that can have greater capacity for car parking, can accommodate a bigger footprint of an event and we've maxed out Kinlock Leven as a village. So that's the pull factors. Push factors, car park that we're currently used here will be built on at some point and there's lots of factors but various things like that have kind of made us realise that if we want to be ambitious and think about the future of the event we're going to need a different venue. So I suggested that perhaps Skyline Scotland might find a new home in nearby Fort Williams say or perhaps somewhere else close by where we could run the same races on the same routes. So the simple answer is probably not. So the Glenco Skyline as an example is not really a commercial event. It's no accident I don't think that the Tram Tromso Skyraces are also ending this year. With that very technical ground we've got you know 100 odd runners taking part today. You just can't make it commercial and if you honestly look at the risk versus the reward as the organiser it's really hard to justify. So there's definitely no intention to do anything as technical as Glenco Skyline in the future. Quite where this event lands we're talking to two different venues in Scotland. We've actually drafted some routes, test runs and routes. We've got the pretty firm ideas of what the options look like but we haven't quite committed. We need a bit more negotiations and permission work to be done. Scotland's a big place for the wonderful mountains. So Shane clearly wasn't giving anything away about possible new locations, new venues for the Skyline Scotland event. So I moved on to ask about a persistent rumour that UTMB International is interested in buying the Skyline Scotland races. I have been in touch with UTMB about Matters Trail running for many many years. It's no secret they are on a buying mission of events and they're UTMB walking around here yesterday looking at how we do things because they're interested and it's a amicable friendly relationship but there's no plans to sell to UTMB at the moment. Now I had already heard that UTMB representatives were in Kinlock Leaven and it was interesting that Shane said not yet at the end there. Clearly there are conversations ongoing between Shane and Ure events and the UTMB team. However we don't know what those conversations consist of, we don't know the detail. As it stands the Skyline Scotland races don't really fit with the UTMB model of races but as that Skyline Scotland event has now ceased to be those races no longer exist and so Skyline Scotland is effectively a blank slate. Shane says himself that the Glencoe Skyline race is simply not a commercial event and they will be looking to create something far more commercial with the next iteration of Skyline Scotland. Will that have anything to do with UTMB? Will it be in conjunction with UTMB? We simply don't know we're just going to have to wait but it was interesting that just as I turned the camera off at the end of the interview Shane said this. Thank you very much. Thanks a lot Shane. Of course if they offer me a stack of cash. Now obviously that was said with tongue firmly in cheek. Shane is a very well respected and competent race director and he will do what is right for the event in terms of its growth, their future commercial aspirations but also in terms of the location that they choose and respecting the environment in which those race routes are set. If you've enjoyed the video please do hit the like button and if you're not already subscribed I'd be eternally grateful if you could do that as well and once you have subscribed perhaps you'd like to watch this film of my incredible day running the Ring of Steel race at the final Skyline Scotland event. Until next time we'll see you on the start line. Bye bye.