While holidays closer to home have been encouraged over the past year many of us have taken advantage of the beauty that the north of Scotland has to offer, but two brothers each took on the challenge to run some of the country’s most iconic routes - and become record breakers in the process.
Earlier this year, ultra runner Luke Ivory set himself the challenge of running the entire North Coast 500 route.
The 38-year-old from Brora began the route on July 15 from Inverness Castle, running clockwise followed by a support vehicle.
Each day he ran the equivalent of two to three marathons, consuming 14,000 calories to cope with the challenge.
He arrived back at Inverness Castle at 5.53am on July 21 after running for an incredible total of five days, 23 hours, 4 minutes and 17 seconds - the fastest known run time of anyone to complete the route.
The previous record was held by pensioner William Sichel from Orkney, when he ran the route in eight days, 19 hours, seven minutes and seven seconds in 2019.
Speaking earlier this year Luke said that the fact his hometown of Brora was on the NC500 prompted him to take on the route.
He said: "I fancied doing a multi day run myself because I thought it would be something I’d be quite good at and the course that sprung to mind was the North Coast 500.
"It was a route that meant something to me, it was a record that I wanted to have.
"I looked at it and I thought ‘yeah, that’s something I’d quite like to do’
"Definitely gave me a big boost running through Brora.
"Both my sisters and niece ran with me and quite a few people came out."
Just two months later Luke’s brother, 44-year-old Ally Sutherland who lives in Inverurie became a record holder himself after completing another scenic Scottish route on foot.
The North East 250 travels through Speyside, the mountain passes of the Cairngorms National Park, the famous castles of Royal Deeside, Aberdeen, the North Sea coastline to the east, and the picturesque seaside villages of the Moray Firth Coast.
He had thought about taking on the challenge of the NE250 for a couple of years and after aiming to complete the run in 3 days, Ally began the route on September 16 this year.
On September 19, completed the route in 65 hours, 54 minutes and 43 seconds - the fastest known run time set on the NE250 route.
“I felt like running 80 plus miles a day was achievable,” Ally said, “It gave me a focus to try and get 100 miles each day. I actually got 103 on the first day and 85 on day two which meant there was a bit less on the third day - but it didn’t make it any easier, it was a tough slog.
“I’m not ashamed to say the last few hours my legs had stopped running and I was walking the last bit with my family and friends but it was something I'll treasure for the rest of my life. It was amazing.”
Speaking about supporting each other on their mammoth runs, Ally said: “Luke and I had spoken about multi-day running and then in the summer he turned up out of the blue to do the NC500. He gave me a bit more belief that I could do the NE250 after seeing what he went through on the run for almost six days, my run had three days knocked off of that.
“I went with him for a couple of days on the NC500 and I knew he was coming up for my run.
“He joined me about 150 miles into my run so it was nice to have someone through the majority of it.
“It’s a bit cliche, if you do a lot of long distance running they always say that’s just one part it’s about the crew - but now that I’ve done it I realise that the running is tough, but it’s only one part because there is absolutely no way without the crew I had in place I would have managed.”
Despite being able to boast the records they hold, there is no signs of the brothers slowing down with Luke planning to attempt the fastest known time for Land's End to John O'Groats next summer, and Ally hoping to head to Utah to tackle the Moab 240 race.
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