“There was this whole air of enthusiasm and positivity”

At precisely 10am I admit Neil Stewart into the Zoom meeting, his knack for timeliness underlined before a word is spoken. It’s a good habit to have as a race organiser and soon Neil’s face appears on the screen. He’s in his sixties, but seems younger with plenty of grey hair, a full-face beard, and glasses.

Even when sitting 30 miles away in Deeside in rural Aberdeenshire, Neil’s enthusiasm for running is clear. His measured way of speaking doesn’t undermine an obvious deep-seated passion for the subject and his eyes light up everytime we discuss the running community. “There was this whole air of enthusiasm and positivity”, he says when reflecting on his 14 years with Running the Highlands (RTH) which came to an end in 2019.

Neil turned to running to regain some fitness he felt had been lost when rugby was put on the backburner and he was starting to have a family. “When my two boys became interested in athletics, I went along with them to the Banchory Stonehaven Athletics Club and became a coach”, he explains. "I became a qualified UK Athletics Coach and really enjoyed that, continuing it for about 15 years."

• Neil Stewart on a Run Across Scotland (credit: Neil Stewart)

"I came up with this crazy idea that people would want to go on some type of running events in the Scottish Highlands"

During that time running also became a career for Neil. In 2005 he founded RTH, declining a potential career move stateside to provide running tours and training weekends for hundreds of runners who would come from all over to run in the Highlands.

“I was asked by the company that employed me to go to Houston, Texas and I absolutely didn’t want to go there”, he says. “I came up with this crazy idea that people would want to go on some type of running events in the Scottish Highlands because it’s a beautiful place to run.”

This “crazy idea” soon became a reality, welcoming hundreds of runners of all abilities to the Balmoral Estate in rural Aberdeenshire. Neil refers to them as guests, explaining that they “wanted to put people up in good accommodation with really nice food.”

He also emphasises that these guests couldn’t be typecast as they hosted “teaching assistants, doctors, dentists, lawyers and postmen. All sorts of people.” Although, there was one common thread which he did identify as running through the attendees. “One thing they had in spades is a phenomenally positive outlook”, he says.

• Image - A guided Running the Highlands run through Ballochbuie Forest near Braemar (Credit: Neil Stewart)

“You could not meet a more positive person and he was an example to so many people.”

This positivity was also reflected in the guest speakers and running guides which he invited along to inspire and motivate his guests. Indeed, renowned runners have visited Neil and his team at Balmoral on numerous occasions. “The guest speakers would go running on the guided runs at the Balmoral Estate, meaning you’ve got Olympic medallists running with our guests which was just terrific”, says Neil.

He adds: “Some of the guest speakers I had as heroes growing up and meeting them was strange, but incredibly motivating. They were all incredibly kind, considerate and enthusiastic with our guests.”

Professional marathon and mountain runner Robbie Simpson has also joined the guests on several occasions. Simpson is local to Deeside and it was the contribution of two other North-East athletes which Neil emphasises as playing an important role in RTH’s success.

His eyes light up when the conversation moves onto the late Mel Edwards, a long-time member of the Aberdeen Amateur Athletics Club. “When I started talking to Mel Edwards, I was awestruck at what he had achieved in the past”, says Neil. “You could not meet a more positive person and he was an example to so many people.”

For those uninitiated, Edwards was a successful Scottish long-distance runner, competing in countless events in a career stretching more than 50 years. In 1967 he completed a marathon in 2 hours and 18 minutes, ranking him as the fourth fastest in Britain at the time.

“Mel was very keen to get involved and he said Fraser Clyne would maybe be interested, who I knew was an athletics journalist”, Neil explains. Clyne was also a successful athlete, placing highly in several marathons abroad, with a personal best of 2hours and 11 minutes at Sacramento in 1984.

Both played an important part along with others in introducing Neil to a range of interesting speakers. “They were all individually incredibly helpful”, he says. “It was amazing the contribution that people were able to make and it was just through having informal chats with people.”

• Ben Preece guides guests around the Ripe Hill loop, taking the track between Lochnagar and Balmoral Castle (Credit: Neil Stewart)

"The idea was to pick a route which would give our guests a really fantastic look at the Scottish Highlands"

It was also this “form of informal conversation networks” which were effective in the addition of local massage therapists and running guides to the RTH team. The latter joining guests on the Run Across Scotland, a five-day running tour, taking precipitants from Scotland’s east coast near Inverness to the Skye Bridge.

Neil describes how a trip to get to know his in-laws better inspired him to add this event to RTH’s busy schedule. “I originally thought of the idea because I had met my future wife, Emma and had this idea of walking across Scotland with her father and brother to get to know them”, he says. “It was a very good bonding experience and I thought Scotland had so much to offer.”

“The idea was to pick a route which would give our guests a really fantastic look at the Scottish Highlands. It was a success and soon people who completed it were wanting a tougher challenge, leading to the introduction of the ‘Run up the Highlands'”.

This longer route of 122 miles took guests in a northerly direction, traversing the Eastern Cairngorms on an epic journey from Blairgowrie in Perthshire to Spey Bay on the Moray Coast.

This second tour was perhaps for the more serious runners and Neil emphasises that there was an important element of leisure in the original Run Across Scotland. “We wanted to try and ensure it was seen as a holiday above anything else”, he says. “A way to relax and to get away from it all in beautiful scenery.” It’s not difficult to see why it proved popular with so many.

• Jon Musgrave guides two guests on the Run Across Scotland (Credit: Neil Stewart)

"we thought we’d have this 10K and see what happens”

Away from RTH, Neil was the organiser of the Lumphanan Detox 10K for several years. It’s an event which has become a well established part of the North-East’s running calendar and he was the brains behind the challenging route which is a bit of a mixed bag. Over ten kilometres it taunts competitors with a steep climb at the start and an often treacherous farm track inside the last two miles.

“The first year we did it was in 2004 and I think I still have a t-shirt from that year”, he says. “I was on the Lumphanan Village Committee, and we were trying to get a derelict tennis court into workable shape. We needed to raise the profile of what we were trying to do to get some more involvement and support, so we thought we’d have this 10K and see what happens.”

The Detox gets its name from the date it is held on every year. The 2nd January is a time when there has likely been some festive over-indulgence and when running a hilly 10K is the last thing on some people’s minds. Some people.

“We expected we would maybe get 50 people at the most running in this event, but we’re absolutely shocked when nearly 200 showed up”, says Neil. “Lumphanan probably has a population of around 600 at the most, so it was a shock when all these cars started showing up. It was really terrific!” Again, his eyes light up when discussing the running community’s unexpected reaction to this new event.

"To my horror I would often Discover ice had replaced the muddy puddles "

The Detox is actually a personal favourite of mine and I’m keen to delve into how Neil came up with the varied and quite unique route. It turns out he has little sympathy for any moaning about that “bloody big hill at the start”.

“If you’re going to get into running in Deeside, there’s no avoiding hills and it used to be one of my training routes”, Neil explains. “I had got interested in the physiology of running and the different paces you should run at the time. I actually used that route as a tempo run, jogging the first mile, and then running at tempo for the rest of it.”

Sub-zero temperatures can often cause issues for the Detox however, but this doesn’t tend to bother the hardier runners. Which let’s face it are most runners who choose to step outside in shorts in January in Scotland.

“In the early years of the Detox, I used to go along the farm track where to my horror I would often discover ice had replaced the muddy puddles”, Neil says. “I would be breaking up the ice, bringing bags of sand and pouring them out.”

He recalls: “I remember talking to Dan Whitehead after he had won the race one year and he said: ‘What did you put all that stuff down for? I love running on ice!”

• Near the start of the 2019 edition of the Lumphanan Detox 10K (Credit: Magnus Nixon)

"by the time I started the race I was absolutely knackered!"

Neil also organised the Crathes Half Marathon for several years after it was established in 2011. However, he sees another annual event further up the Deeside Valley, the Balmoral 10K as more comparable to the Detox because it also includes a lengthy hill.

The small network of tarmac roads around Balmoral Castle has previously attracted some of the best runners in British athletics. Neil describes how Kelly Holmes has previously made an appearance while World Champion marathon runner, Paula Radcliffe broke the five mile world record within Balmoral’s grounds in 1999.

Again, Neil was in the presence of Olympians, but this time from a distance. “I remember watching Paula Radcliffe warming up for her race” he says. “I tried to copy as much of her warm-up as I could and by the time I started the race I was absolutely knackered!”

He laughs as he describes how “I started very quickly and realised I wasn’t too far behind Dan Whitehead after a mile. It didn’t last, but I was very much inspired by Paula Radcliffe.”

Whitehead has been one of the strongest runners in the Deeside area over the years and keeping up with him over any distance is no mean feat. But as time dwindled away on our free Zoom meeting, I was interested to explore Neil’s thoughts on inclusivity in running. It’s a key theme which I felt had been underpinning our whole conversation.

• Two guests on the Run Across Scotland (Credit: Neil Stewart)

Everybody's welcome I'm afraid and that's the bottom Line"

Firstly, Neil provides some background, stating: “The number of people in Britain getting good marathon times has declined considerably and yet, the number of people running has increased massively. Running the Highlands was part of that in a sense because we always wanted to make it as inclusive as possible.”

He continues: “As long as they were a paying customer, we would make sure they had a good time and that stemmed from myself through to the Mel Edwards’ and the Fraser Clynes. By definition we wanted to ensure everybody enjoyed themselves, regardless of their running ability.”

It’s a message which is surely so important to the running community and Neil underlines it when he says: “Everybody’s welcome I’m afraid and that’s the bottom line.”

Lastly, I ask Neil what advice he would give to less experienced runners or to those who run intermittently. He recommends taking different routes, finding a running partner for those longer training runs and perhaps, joining a running club.

There is, however, another piece of advice which runners will maybe find most relatable. “If it becomes a chore then that’s when it’s very easy to lose heart or interest”, he says.

Its important advice from a man whose legacy has been interwoven into the fabric of North-East Scotland’s running scene.

• Running the Highlands guests and guides outside Balmoral Castle (Credit: Neil Stewart)