‘Peaks race was super event but I’ll never return’

BANCHORY’S Robbie Simpson vows never to do the Scottish Islands Peaks race again despite saying it was one of the best events he has taken part in.

The race included more than nine hours of running up and down some of the country’s most testing mountain courses while sailing 140 nautical miles across choppy waters to get to each venue.

Robbie teamed up with fellow Scotland international Joe Symonds (Hunters Bog Trotters) and boat skipper Richard Roberts for the challenge which started with a hill run at Oban.

They then sailed to Mull, where Robbie and Joe raced over Ben More before returning to the boats and heading off to Jura.

They disembarked again and raced over the Paps of Jura then sailed to Arran and ran up Goatfell.

The final sailing stage took them to the finish line in Troon almost 48 hours later.

Robbie and Joe produced a remarkable series of performances to smash the King of the Bens record for the combined mountain stages.

Robbie said: “We took about 20 minutes off the record, but it was really tough.”