Thursday 23rd March 2023
The Skye Events Team are excited but with a little hint of nervous energy for Saturday 26th March and the return of Race Dunvegan. It’s been three years since we were last able to hold this race in the stunning gardens at Dunvegan. Custodian Cecilia [we love this job title!] and Marketing Guru Rocío Albiñana, who we know as Ro [but her name is too fabulous not to use in full] are the Dunvegan dream team. It's been an absolute pleasure to work alongside them. We’ve been dotting the ‘i’s’ and crossing the ‘t’s’ and now all we need is you lovely runners & walkers. We’re crossing fingers that we’ll see an eager, perfectly formed, lycra clad crowd down at the Castle slipway revved up to 10k or 5k or fun run.
Don’t know about you, but March is one of my favourite times of the year. Yesterday was the Spring equinox, and we all know that literally means the sun’s rays shine onto the equator while the Earth sits with its axis tilted neither towards or away from the sun. Bosh - 12 hours of sunlight almost everywhere on Earth, and all while we go about our daily lives completely oblivious to the fact. We need to stop and take more of a breath. Despite the massive spring tide it brought with it, and the tiny worry for those of you who live by the shore, what it does mean is warmer days on the far Atlantic horizon. Sunday sees the clocks spring forward and evenings getting brighter. Frankly, I’m OK with one hour of lost sleep if it means the rain will just stop. Saturday also marks Earth Hour which does what it says on the eco friendly packaging - celebrates our amazing planet. We can celebrate by switching of our lights for an hour, or spending an hour doing something positive for the environment. Get involved, look here: https://www.earthhour.org/
Dunvegan Castle celebrated very stylishly with their hosted Snowdrops Open Days last month. And although those little white jewels are starting to return to the soil, we hope to see the first daffodil shoots at the weekend while we run through that beautiful forest.
The whole year renewal thing always seems a good time to refresh those ambitions to get out and run away, sorry, run a bit more. We know it's good for us, but it's hard to be motivated when the days are dark and dreich. So think of Race Dunvegan as an awakening. Not in the Kate Chopin 1899 novel of a woman with certain desires who dares to leave her husband and have an affair, or the movie of the same name tracking down ghosts at an all boys boarding school in post-World War 1. It can be that if that’s your bag, but no - this awakening is the freedom of simply running. It can be towards or away from anything, but I think of it as liberation - like flying a kite or riding a bike fast downhill. It’s a fact of evolution that humans evolved as runners over two and a half million years ago, and endurance running became a thing so we could hunt. Our achilles is, in effect, a mighty spring, storing and releasing energy, improving the power of the human gait and making us naturally built to run for a long time. Hardly seems possible. So it's a good thing Race Dunvegan is back because I for one do my food hunting at the Portree Co-Op and I’ve been sitting about looking at my phone for way too long. Running in a forest is just the ticket [you can register on the day] - and it’ll be just like the good old days 2.5 million years ago except there are prizes, goodie bags, a great t-shirt you can buy for £15.99, and the Cafe will be open for soup.
Eds note: Thanks to Dunvegan Castle Estate. Their sponsorship of this event makes our hearts sing and the whole day possible. Check out their website here: https://www.dunvegancastle.com/ AND they open for their new 2023 season on 1st April.
Equal thanks to Isle fo Skye Fudge Company & Isle of Skye Candle Company for their amazing support. You got to be in it to win it! https://skyefudge.co.uk/ https://skyecandles.co.uk
Fiona Baker, Race Director