Saturday 12 September 2026 - Ganavan Sands parkrun

Fort William parkrun was cancelled due to a mountain bike race - the second time this year that we've missed it for that reason. Anyway, we left Linnhe Holidays after a pleasurable week in the mobile home, at 7:45, and enjoyed the scenic drive to Oban, where Ganavan Sands parkrun has the disadvantage of being rather hilly (60 metres ascent) but the advantage for some of being next to a good beach.

We lingered near the start, expecting a few midges, but the breeze was sufficient to deter them.

The story of the Appin murder was provided on an information board. Click on the image to see the detail.

It's a lovely beach.

9:30, and the time to run or walk up a steep hill had arrived. Sue ran, I walked.

Long before I reached the turnaround point, the lead runners were returning along the good tarmaced path.

Sue would normally come back along the route to walk in with me, but today was a no-brainer for her - a dip in the ocean would always take precedence over a run back up the hill.

We'd come armed with coffee and cake as we didn't want to hang around in a coffee shop when we really needed to be getting on with the 330 mile drive home.

The last of Ali's excellent carrot cake went down very well. Thanks Ali.

We left just as a rescue boat hit the waves to look for any parkrunners who had overshot the finish.

Full results are here.

Sue finished in 28:00, much slower than usual - position 31 out of 79 finishers - many first timers at this event - people like us who were on holiday.

Meanwhile I took a leisurely 39:52 in position 72. Not much slower than on Penrith's flat course last week.