Ochils Hill Relays
Race Date: 07 March 2026
A new race for 2026, the Ochils Hill Relays is a three-leg relay for teams of four, with the final leg being a paired leg.
Leg 1 covered 9.75km with a total 660m ascent, most of which was gained on the steep climb from Alva Glen to the top of Ben Ever, with a loop round to Craighorn and a finish to the west of the Nebbit back to Alva Glen. Leg 2 (8km, 715m) shifted to the east a wee bit with a climb up Wood Hill, followed by a nice long ridge to Ben Ever before returning over the top of the Nebbit. Leg 3 (9.5km, 880m) then shifted west, up Wee Torry and along another ridge along to Bengengie, returning to Alva along Alva Glen. As is always the case with races starting in Alva, the ascents and descents were steep! Legs were started at 15 minute intervals, with winners decided on aggregate time i.e. the overall time for the three legs to be completed.
Many thanks to Monica Thomson for the following race report: Strathearn did very well. Special thanks to a remote Graeme Warren for coordinating a lot of it for us and affectionately naming oor trio of Teams with Squirrel-related colours. We had a tricky week of reshuffling members due to injury but luckily had late availability from Andrew Grant and Daniel Harrison. The Reds and the Greys Men's Teams were very close in overall times and placed an impressive 5th and 7th overall. Strathearn Blue Squirrels (ladies) came 3rd F team and 21st overall. Post race pies were a highlight!
First Open team and first overall were the Felkour Squad in 2:26:57. First Female team were Heavy Breathing Tortoises from HBT in 3:16:02 and first Mixed team were Kinross RR1 in 3:27:38. As well as the category winners, the Lanterne Rogue prize sponsored by Ochils Coffee Roastery for last team overall was won by There's No Hills in Musselburgh.
Over £1000 was raised for local charities on the day. The organisers were delighted to hear lots of positive feedback from participants on the day and intend to follow-up with a short survey to help identify what went well and what can be improved on to inform future runnings of the event.