Chris Worton, Store Manager from The Climbers Shop Ambleside, reports on his stunning Race Across Scotland success in August 2025.
My planning and training for this race really began in 2023 after I withdrew from RAS with a grade 2 hamstring tear. This happened at mile 12, but I managed to carry on until pulling out at checkpoint 7 (120 miles) when Plantar Fasciitis kicked in due to the tightening of my leg muscles caused by the hamstring injury.
I now had a score to settle!
Fast forward two years and I am back on the start line waiting for the bagpipes to begin the countdown to the 6am start.
My wife Jo was supporting me again this year, and we had arranged several places to meet, with her providing me with water and food top ups, and kit changes if necessary. I had sorted my food into 4 separate bags, one for each day I planned to be racing for. Each bag had a mix of gels, flapjack type bars, jellies and VOOM Pocket Rockets, some with added electrolytes or caffeine depending on what I thought I would need at different times.
The weather forecast was warm and humid with an occasional shower, so I started off in shorts and a t-shirt with a light windproof jacket to fend off the early morning chill.
6AM came and the race started. We followed the coast for a while before turning inland and started heading east, where the windproof came off as we were now sheltered from the morning breeze. An uneventful few miles went by, until my first target arrived, the exact point where my hamstring pinged two years ago, I smiled to myself as I carried on strongly to the first checkpoint and my chance to check everything was ok and restock on food before the next 35 mile stint and the next place where I could meet Jo.
The day was very hot and sunny, with lots of sun cream needed and frequent water refills. I was carrying 1.5 litres of water in a bladder, this had electrolytes in, and I also had 2 x 500ml bottles with ‘Tailwind’ in each to provide me with energy and some more electrolytes. This whole setup worked very well.
Everything ticked over well, until after 100 miles or so a change of shoes was needed. I have been wearing ‘Dexshell’ waterproof socks which I swear by for these long ultras, but my feet had swelled a bit causing tightness and a couple of blisters to appear, so I jumped into my trusty ‘Scarpa’ shoes which gave me the extra toe space I needed.
My tastes had now changed. With a dry mouth caused by prolonged heavy breathing, as well as the warmth, I could no longer take down the flapjack type bars, they just ended up in a claggy mess in my mouth. Not nice. Tailwind helped me keep up my energy levels, and I had switched to the VOOM bars as these were much better in my mouth. Not dry, just easy to chew and get down a block at a time, and the caffeine ones steered me through nights.
I had my first sleep when night 2 arrived at 122 miles. Just a couple of hours in the camper van before setting off again into the central hills.
Then it started raining…
Donning my ‘Rab’ waterproof jacket and trousers (I didn’t want my waterproof socks filling up with water running down my legs) I carried on into the night.
The next day dawned very hot, sunny again, and no wind to speak of. More sun cream needed, and plenty of fluids. My energy intake now just consisted of Tailwind drinks and VOOM bars while on the move, and “cheesy beans on toast” at the checkpoints. Jo also had a stack of rice pudding pots in the van which went down nicely. All these variations of food were easy to get down with my dry mouth and gave me a mix of tastes and food types. One surprise came from a local lady who had set up a table of tasty snacks at her front gate, which came after a particularly arduous stretch. Watermelon and coke were the stars of the table for me, with the dry pretzels receiving a very wide birth.
Some very picturesque sections followed, with a couple of fleeting glimpses of snakes on the trail – and flying ants.
Oh my god! Flying ants.
Picture this, you are sitting in your back garden, a lovely hot summer day with not even a breeze to stir the bushes, a perfect day for your small ant nest in the corner to spout their flying ant population into the air, the hundreds of harmless creatures get everywhere, and eventually you are forced indoors to escape them.
Well now imagine a footpath in a particularly exposed section of moorland, miles from anywhere, and what seemed like ants nests every six foot or so, with each one throwing up thousands of ants into the air, swarms and swarms of them, they landed in your hair, your face, your “head, shoulders, knees and toes”. Twenty minutes of this ensued, with arms flailing about in some form of attempt to clear them away. A bit annoying to say the least.
The next night came, another short sleep and back out into night where the rain paid us a second visit. This was becoming a pattern. Hot sunny days and wet soggy nights.
The next day dawned. Another day of hot sunny weather, high moorland, and more flying ants! At some point my water bladder sprung a leak. Without thinking and probably in a bit of a strop I emptied out the rest of the water onto the ground, now relying on my partially used 500ml flasks of Tailwind. In hindsight I should have topped up both of these, but I didn’t and so was suddenly into water conservation mode. On the plus side though, my pack was very much lighter, not having to carry a full bladder, I was nearly floating along.
Jo replaced my duff bladder with my spare bladder (I have spare everything in the van “just in case”).
Food intake now solely consisted of cheesy beans on toast, Tailwind, and VOOM.
Now very tired and sleep deprived I left the last checkpoint for the final 22 mile leg towards the finish line. Giving a herd of cows a very wide detour (cows are scary) I headed off into a very confusing section of woodland, with diversions in place taking us through overgrown paths and steep inclines before getting us back on route.
Then the darkness came, as did the hallucinations and brain confusions. Examples of which were when I was “judging the quality of fruit trees planted by UTMB competitors to see if they (the fruit trees) warranted a front runner place in the UTMB or CCC races”.
Thinking that I was being diverted into a circular route by people who were laughing and giggling behind the hedges, and finally, the feeling of going round and round in the forest “like a Helter skelter” and getting nowhere.
Teaming up with a couple of other runners near the finish helped drastically and I could start to think straight again, although I was convinced another group of runners were behind us threatening to catch and overtake us, which I was having none of!
Finally, I could see what looked like the finish area in the distance, although it seemed ages before it started to get nearer, still convinced we were getting caught by the other group of runners, I spurred my “team” on and sped up a bit. Then we hit what I knew was the final village and the finish area. I was now sprinting and had left everyone behind. Banking round corners, running in a blur I finally saw the finish line and I flew through it, collapsing on the floor in an emotional heap.
I had done it, I was ecstatic. Finally, RAS was mine!
The icing on the cake was being presented with a silver buckle/medal, which were reserved for finishers 25-75 (I finished 53rd).
Sleep came quickly and easily.
Stars of the show:
Rab Phantom waterproofs. Very small and light, but did the job extremely well.
Ultimate Direction Ultra vest. No bounce and swallowed all my kit, food and water needs perfectly.
VOOM Pocket Rockets. The only solid trail food I could manage for the second half.
