 I mean it's just bloody stunning why won't anybody answer the phone look at that life is uncertain and that uncertainty makes life thrilling and frightening if everything in life was guaranteed there would be nothing to strive for nowhere to go if you knew every time you started a race that you would cross the finish line or achieve your time goal where's the adventure where's the challenge in that surely we have to experience failure before we can truly appreciate our successes so we are in the queue for the Glencoe Skyline and Ben Nevis Ultra there are two queues behind me one for Glencoe and one for Ben Nevis under no circumstances should anybody join the Glencoe it is certain death so we're going for Ben Nevis which is just certain DNF what would you rather have having failed to complete the Ben Nevis Ultra on my two previous visits I was back in Kinlockleven for a third attempt at one of Britain's toughest 50k races let me know in the comments which you think is the toughest this is actually far more technical than anything we're going to do in the race this is gray mare's waterfall behind me to get to it you have to clamber along these chain ropes we've been and we're just coming back it's 7 30 in the morning and these are the Glencoe Skyline runners off on their journey have a good day guys the Ben Nevis Ultra may be tough but on its inception the 52 kilometer Glencoe Skyline was dubbed the death race by some sections of the media so they're going on the nice scary race and we're going on the uh we're going on the baby race all the races at the Skyline Scotland weekend start outside the ice factor the ice climbing center and cafe in Kinlockleven I arrived at kit check wearing my Zwift singlet Salomon Sense Pro 10 liter race vest and my new innovate mud claws there were only five minutes to go before the first wave starts good morning welcome to film I run we're a bit late didn't get into the starting pen I was the last one in the starting pen this is the Ben Nevis Ultra this is our third time of trying this we are going to finish this time we are confident we're happy I've got Clive here to help me along I've got Marcus here to help me we are going to get this finished this year right let's do this thing here we go good luck guys enjoy it enjoy yourselves yes buddy oh that's inspired you then isn't it you can look at this one we're going to get this done today after a kilometer through the town we were on our way up the Ben Nevis Ultra encompasses around 4 000 meters of elevation gain as it traverses over loose rock boulders wet grass mud deep bogs and fire track if you're looking for a sky-running adventure with a bit more bite this is undoubtedly it now I have no problem with the terrain I love it the issue historically for me has been covering that ground at a pace fast enough to beat the cut-offs which for a mid-pack runner like me are aggressive we are 10 kilometers in to the Ben Nevis Ultra one hour 48 minutes this is what we're climbing over now it's cool but it's not freezing cold it's cloudy but it's not raining everything is good Ben Nevis is over there in the clouds we're going to go along here and down in a minute and then along the river these early miles held no surprises I was moving well and feeling good about nine miles in two hour 18 minutes so we're now running through the valley it's very foggy on the foot so you can see the level at which I went down into the water at one point and we still got to keep our eyes on very technical rocky terrain on the foot as well as bog it's easy to believe you're not good enough not fast enough not strong enough but more often than not it's a learning process and we can be good enough when we tap into our full potential rather than admit defeat after my two DNFs I'd convinced myself I had more to give I was sure I could do better and I wanted to prove it to myself right we're about 12 miles in nearly 19 kilometers so that's the valley we've just come through that is Ben Nevis up there that is Cairnmore Deg up there and we are following the red flags up the hill it's tough going but the weather is almost perfect it's like it's not hot but it's it's definitely not cold so it's just right doubt will always find a way to creep in and as I started the ascent to Cairnmore Deg I was reminded of my fear of heights and how I sometimes struggle on exposed sections of rock I had to have a bit of a chat with myself I told myself to carry on doing the small jobs all day following the red flags one foot in front of the other to the next flag so this is the ridge up to Cairnmore Deg it's not too bad at all and usually there's a beauty well not usually but there is a beautiful view behind us there sometimes I think it's better to be in the cloud so you have no idea how far you could fall okay top of the CMD red on the top of the CMD and now we've got the CMD red which you can't see because it's just all shrouded in cloud but believe me it looks awesome and the top of Ben Nevis is over there and we've got two and a half hours to get up and over Ben Nevis and down the other side for the checkpoint so this is CMD Arete it's basically just a boulder field a knife edge boulder field you just have to be careful come on buddy you go through okay we've made it across the Arete so now we just need to climb up to the summit of Ben Nevis and then we've got a couple of hours to get down to Glen Nevis and the checkpoint at the bottom of the mountain okay so we've made it to the summit of Ben Nevis this is my third summit of Ben Nevis I really shouldn't be messing around we should be getting down to the bottom we've got an hour and a half so we should be okay no views unfortunately today on the top of Ben Nevis just the old weather station and that's it the summit of Ben Nevis is probably a good place to say that if you're enjoying this video or finding it useful or interesting then please do subscribe to the channel click the thumbs up and share it around with your friends it really does help us out okay we're below the clouds now we've got three miles to go 5k to the aid station the checkpoint to the bottom of the hill we've got 54 53 minutes to do it in and the lake that you can see down there is halfway lake so when we get down to that lake we know we're halfway down the descent the tourist route off Ben Nevis is mostly runnable it's not trouble-free by any means but if your quads aren't destroyed you can make it down the hill in good time looking at the footage and hearing myself back I sense a little complacency creeping in we often balance on a tightrope between confidence and complacency between self-doubt and self-belief so about a kilometer and a half to the checkpoint we've got about 25 minutes so we're going to do it easily in time perhaps I always feel I'm a stronger runner than I really am whether it was complacency lack of fitness or a combination of the two I was slower on the descent than I should have been and found myself with less time than expected when I eventually arrived at the only aid station on the Ben Nevis Ultra course need to get out of here quick don't we right we've made it to the checkpoint um and uh we've got 15 minutes so but we need to get out make sure we hit the next cutoff on time this time right that's it we're off there's both so I've got sausage rolls I've got apple I've got crisps and a saurine bar that'll do me made it to the checkpoint thank you buddy three miles of flat all right thank you right there we are three miles of flat to the next checkpoint brilliant waterfall here and I remember last year somebody diving off there into that that was much more full of water last year somebody jumped off it that is the last cutoff before the end so I can now run to the end now whether I get to the end of the run within the cutoff like the finish line has a cutoff of 12 hours so I've got to get there as well to get my finish time and medal so I could still fail but when I got off car last year at the waterfall that is no longer a cutoff as far as I know nice easy path this really easy there's no technical stuff here now in fact the cutoff time had been extended by 45 minutes which was going to become particularly relevant in the final few kilometers who are you heather hi heather cheers go through the car park where people walk to see steel falls which is a very beautiful spot which we're going to pass in a minute thank you the route between the car park and steel falls had been slightly altered to take out a gnarly climb making this section slightly easier and given the removal of the river crossing checkpoint I felt I could relax a little on the way to steel falls when I arrived at the river it was a full 20 minutes after the cutoff time here last year that actually feels really nice look at that fabulous I was now in uncharted territory and I wasn't entirely sure what was to come in my head there was only one significant climb left up to the summit of Angirinac officially my third Monroe of the day at 982 meters less than 10 k to go now nine hours 20 minutes tough climb this one but it is the last one however whilst this was the last really big ascent there were still two smaller moon rows to summit and a very technical ridge to negotiate on tired legs I was not moving fast and I was still under the impression that the finish line cutoff was 12 hours and I was losing time right one more summit to go is that cannot leave him down there finish line is down there that's cannot leave until we've got to go up that ridge there and then we can go down absolutely shattered we've got less than 8k to go to get down to that finish line and we have all an hour and a half to do it in I think that's going to be tight it really is going to be tight for the finish line cutoff top of the final climb at the still sunshine down cannot leave both the looks of it and we are on our way home nice case to go cheers bro enjoy thank you that was a very gnarly climb as well hands and knees and everything look at that beautiful view that is amazing at the top of the final Monroe I believed I had 50 minutes to do around six kilometers down the hill into Kinluck leaving now on any normal day in any normal race that would of course be perfectly achievable but not today not for me I wasn't going to make it but then as the wet bog gave way to gravel path a marshall informed me that the course didn't close until 8 30 p.m incredibly I still had time the light is desperately fading I've got 3k to go but I need to push it to get in under the cutoff hopefully hopefully I can do it I'd managed to avoid putting my head torch on and ran through Kinluck leaving to finally complete the Ben Nevis Ultra made it inside the cutoff but I also wanted to get in like under the 12 hours I have absolutely no idea what I was going on about here I crossed the line in 12 hours and 28 minutes it took me two hours to do the final 8 kilometers and if this had been last year I would have missed the cutoff by 28 minutes but the Ben Nevis Ultra was kind to me this year could I ever make it in under 12 hours well I'm not sure we'll ever find out well I've had a hot chocolate I've missed food at the ice factor so I'm going to have to go to the chip shop but that was and Clive will agree with me absolutely horrendous the second half that I've never done before is far and away worse than the first half but we're finished we did it and Clive and me never have to come back here and do this again that is it now we are done so thank you very much for watching this has been film my run yet another epic ridiculous adventure take care we'll see you next time bye bye