Jane Sadler and Sue Philp are running the ‘Kyles 10 miles’ race on Saturday 13th September in aid of the RNLI. We both volunteer in our local RNLI shop and at fundraising events, but saw this as another way of raising funds for this vital charity.

We are lucky enough to have an inshore lifeboat stationed in our village of Tighnabruaich and it plays a pivotal part in our community. The crew and support teams are all volunteers working together to provide this essential, lifesaving service to our coastal communities and anyone out on the water.

Both keen to get back into running, we started training together in September 2023 and completed the Couch to 5k programme. The Kyles 10 miles was mentioned as a “stretch target” 😊 but that seemed a long way off. In 2024 we progressed to Couch to 10k, and started to feel stronger. In a moment of madness earlier this year we signed up for the Kyles 10.

The Kyles 10 miles race starts in our village of Tighnabruaich and winds it’s way up and around parts of the Cowal Peninsula for an 10 undulating miles with the finish line in our neighbouring village of Kames. It is a stunning route but has several challenging hilly bits. Do check out the gradients on the Strava segment!

It will certainly be a challenge for us to up our distance from 10k to 10 miles especially as one of us is now much closer to 70 years than she is to 60 but we felt that it was a great chance to push ourselves and raise money for such a worthwhile cause.

The RNLI provides an amazing voluntary service and needs all the support it can get to continue. If you can spare any money at all to help us achieve our target we would be so grateful.