RSSH tackle Scottish hills during half term running tour

After the Tucks race and the House Singing Competition the previous day, it was with heavy legs and bleary eyes that the RSSH met early on Saturday morning for our journey to Perthshire.

We were due to join Sedbergh School, who had travelled up the day before with a group of around 25 runners, for a week of training, combined with an exciting package of adventuring activities while staying at Ardvreck Prep School during their half term. Our group was a little smaller at 15 pupils (11 boys and four girls) plus two staff.

The journey up was punctuated with a brief stop at the Master i/c RSSH’s parents’ house in Lancashire for a relaxed 7km ‘loosener’, followed by hot dogs and very welcome cups of tea, and we finally managed to pull into Crieff on the edge of the Trossachs National Park at around 6pm, just in time to share dinner with Sedbergh.

Sunday morning began with a stroll down to the local park to help with the Crieff Junior ParkRun, and we dotted ourselves around the course and cheerfully pointed the way, while mentally preparing ourselves for our own run later that morning. This involved a brief drive to Loch Earn, from where our group of around 40 runners began the ascent of Ben Vorlich, one of the highest peaks in the area. We took our time, and though the very Scottish weather meant that we weren’t able to enjoy much scenery, the sense of achievement when we reached the summit (about 900 vertical metres above the parked minibuses) was terrific. All 15 Shrewsbury School pupils managed this demanding climb and I was hugely impressed not only with the fitness of the group but also the positive and determined attitude.

Not all of our morning runs were as demanding as Sunday’s: Monday saw us tackle a meandering 13km route along the valley and Loch Monzievaird, while Wednesday’s was a fartlek of six 1km sections along a disused railway line leading us to the shores of Loch Earn. On Wednesday evening we were joined by a third school’s running group – that of St Anselm’s College in Birkenhead, who brought 18 boys. We had a beautiful run of 13km with them on Thursday morning, before a night run that evening, where over sixty of us donned our hi-viz clothing and head torches and ventured out into the moonlit Scottish night. This was a real highlight of the trip, as though the legs were definitely tiring by this point, the camaraderie and new friendships being formed made for a really uplifting atmosphere.

Our afternoons were spent engaging in lots of different activities, such as paddleboarding, archery, mountain biking and a trip to visit Stirling Castle.

On Tuesday we had a one-day workshop with bestselling author and running coach Shane Benzie, who analysed our running form by filming us and playing it back to us in slow-motion – quite a revealing experience! He gave us lots of useful tips to help us try to focus on improving our running action, and by the end of the day there was a remarkably noticeable difference. Sharp elbows, everyone!

Every evening we were treated to lectures on sports science from top academics at the University of Stirling, covering topics such as biomechanics, nutrition, psychology and genetics. After these we also enjoyed yoga sessions and, on the last evening of the trip, a hastily put-together party involving some fairly awful karaoke and a hired caricature artist.

The trip culminated in our completion of the Stirling University ParkRun on Saturday morning. After an intensive week of training, no one expected to achieve a personal best, but we enjoyed the chance to run alongside our new friends from Sedbergh and St Anselm’s and soak up the atmosphere before our long journey home.

We headed back down the long road to England certainly a lot more exhausted physically than the previous Saturday, but it had been such a fun-packed week and so full of different activities that we also felt strangely revived and replenished. This was an unusual trip in training alongside two other schools, but it really worked – we really fed off each other’s enthusiasm for the sport of running and the experience was definitely richer by being shared by so many. It was a really energetic, friendly, and positive group that we were able to take on the trip, and I hugely enjoyed their company. Hopefully the hard work they put in will have been excellent preparation for our season ahead.

Ian Haworth

Master i/c RSSH