Hill runners told to ‘Keep off the Grass’
Ben Nevis Race gets longer and harder
IT is irksome enough for many of us to be told to keep off the grass while taking a gentle stroll in the local park.
But one of Britain’s most gruelling mountain races – running up and down Ben Nevis – has just got longer and harder after athletes were warned not to stray on to an area of protected greenery.
For years, the route of choice for competitors tackling the annual Ben Nevis Race up the country’s highest peak took them over a section known as the Grassy Bank, which cuts about 60 yards off the main tourist path.
Now, any of the 600 entrants face immediate disqualification for using the shortcut on the 4,412ft Munro after environmental watchdog Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) complained that the race threatened important species of plant life.
Race organisers confirmed yesterday that the bank is out bounds from this year’s event – which means that the current race records, which have stood for 32 years, are unlikely ever to be broken.
The records for both the men’s and women’s races were set in 1984 when English pair Kenny Stuart and Pauline Haworth, who later married, recorded times of 1h 25m 34s and 1h 43m 25s respectively.
Mickey Whitehead, secretary of the Ben Nevis Race Association (BNRA), said the ban on using the Grassy Bank this year would make it even more challenging to post a record-breaking time.
He said: ‘It will make it a bit harder. In the 1960s somebody came down that way and everybody since has followed.
‘But SNH said it is worried about the erosion and not to make it worse. We don’t want to be seen to be damaging the area and anybody using the Grassy Bank will be disqualified.
‘We don’t have a route as such – it is about getting up and down – but not using the Grassy Bank will make it a bit longer, about 50 to 60 yards longer.
‘The path has had a bit of money spent on it so that may help make that part quicker.’
He admitted it was surprising Mr Stuart’s record had stood so long. ‘Nobody has really got near him,’ Mr Whitehead said. ‘But the year before he set it, John Wild from Cumberland Fell Runners was only one second slower.’
While a number of races up and down Ben Nevis were organised in the 19th and early 20th century, the Ben Nevis Race officially began in 1951, with 21 runners.
It has been run every year since, apart from in 1980 when it was called off due to bad weather.
Entry is now limited to 600 seasoned hill runners for safety reasons. Those who do not reach halfway up in one hour or the summit in two hours will be turned back.
And competitors who do not complete the course in 3 hours 15 minutes will, subject to appeal to the committee, be refused entry to subsequent races.
A spokesman for SNH confirmed the Grassy Bank ban. He said: ‘If runners continue to descend the slope, particularly a narrow section inbetween two older landslides, there’s now a real risk of a large slope failure. Erosion is causing loss of habitats of European importance – species-rich Nardus grassland – in the Special Area of Conservation and Site of Special Scientific Interest.
‘There are also concerns this is causing a scar in this well-visited and spectacular part of the Ben Nevis and Glen Coe National Scenic Area and there have been concerns about health and safety due to the risk of rocks being dislodged.’