Patrick Kingston‘s latest search for his desired fix of hills and trail took him to Dumfries and Galloway for the Cairnsmore Hill Race. Patrick had been keeping a record of how much elevation he had racked up throughout the year and he was close to 40,000 metres.

He’d done the CxM Sierra Blanca ‘Destroyer’ in the mountains of Marbella. That was 2,800m of ascent. He’d also done the Krakonošov Hundred which incorporated 4,000m of ascent and the Mini’Hard which included three big climbs equating to a further 1,700m of elevation. He also ran 84 miles of the TDS route from the Ultra-Trail-du-Mont-Blanc which saw him add a further 9,000m of vertical to his total. The Shere Marathon brought him a further 1,200m of ascent as well.

When you consider the training that he did for all those events as well which included some long stints along the South West Coast Path and the Purbeck, it’s not surprising he managed such a high total.

The route for the Cairnsmore Hill Race headed out to Knocktrim where there was a steep climb awaiting through the Door of Cairnsmore. It the headed north along the Knee of Cairnsmore and up to the summit of Cairnsmore of Fleet. Turning south west from the trig, it’s then a long descent down to the finish for the remaining four and a bit miles.

The course length was 17.5km and included 800m of ascent. The sixth mile contained the steepest climb with 325m of ascent to get through in that mile alone. The Galloway Mountain Rescue team were on hand providing marshals and manning the checkpoints as well as serving up the post race hot soup and refreshments. Fell running experience was a must though and navigational skills could be required in the potentially wintery conditions.

With most of the first seven miles being uphill, it wasn’t an easy race but Patrick dealt with the slopes well as he usually does. Completed the course in 2 hours 11 minutes and 4 seconds, Patrick finished 27th out of 58 competitors and he was 4th M40 over the line.

The winner of the race was Robert Sparks of Edinburgh University Hare and Hounds in 1:31:49, with Harrison Stubbs of Westerfields CCC taking 2nd in 1:34:10. David Parrish of Dumfries Running Club was 3rd in 1 hour 35 minutes.

Elena Heger of Shettleston Harriers was 1st female and 5th overall in 1:43:07. Alison Banford was 2nd female and 1st lady in 2 hours and 53 seconds. Ally Wright was first male vet in 1:48:57 and he was an M50.

Patrick has a brother who lives over in Marbella and he headed out there just before the new year to get some more climbing in. He finished with 40,722m of ascent in his summit bag. It was a really impressive year of running from Patrick and he’d achieved some remarkable feats. No doubt he’ll be hoping for another year of thrills, spills and plenty of hills in 2025.