Scurry Around Vogrie Country Park 10k

I started off 2026 with a pretty 10k trail run around Vogrie Country Park with my partner.

A jump to start 2026 racing.

Why Scurry Around Vogrie Country Park

Scurry around Vogrie is a yearly race not too far from Edinburgh that I'd heard about for many years, but it wasn't easily accessible with public transport. But now my partner, John, has a car, so we can drive to races!

Over the holidays, I saw a social media post about this race, and in the midst of seasonal overeating, I thought it would be a good idea to sign up to a run early in the new year.

The journey

As mentioned, we drove. A very easy 20 minute drive to the park.

The race

Forgetting how to race

It was a cold morning, so after arriving and getting our race numbers, we went back to the car so I could keep my coat on until the last possible second.

Getting ready for the start.

I could tell it had been a while since I raced in cold weather because on the way to get our numbers, I realized I was wearing a thick top that I did not want to stick safety pins into. So I had to stick my number on my leg (previously, I would have worn something over my thick top to avoid this scenario).

I also didn't bring safety pins. Not that I need to as every race provides them, but I usually take my own to not accumulate more. So clearly I was forgetting how I went about racing in general! 

Luckily, I did remember the most important thing: trail runs, especially in winter, are muddy. So John and I both brought extra shoes for after the race (they were needed).

Start line.

A scenic winter run

I'd heard before that Vogrie Country Park was nice, but I didn't know how scenic it would be in the middle of winter. It turned out to be a very scenic run, despite the cold and clouds.

I didn't take any photos, but there were a few stand-out scenes. Two paths lined with trees that covered the path like an arch. A few wooden bridges over streams.

I didn't take photos, but the race photographer did.

The route was a double lap of a 5k route, which I normally wouldn't like in about a race, but I enjoyed it at this one. It gave me another opportunity to take in and appreciate what I was seeing, especially as the first lap was crowded with other runners.

An easy trail run until it wasn't

I had looked at the elevation chart the night before the run and saw most of the run was downhill, before finishing with some climbs. Two miles into the run I was thinking that this was the easiest trail run I'd done, but then came the climbs in the last mile of the 5k route. 

The first and third one were partially manageable, but I had to walk most of the second one. John slipped on it trying to run it the second time up!

Final time and race swag

My race time ended up being 1:19:07, which I'm pretty pleased with considering it was a trail run full of mud, slip hazards, and those few bad hills. I also wasn't pushing myself to go fast. I really did not want to come back all muddy.

We finished with minimal mud on our clothes.

John beat me by 20 seconds, finishing in 1:18:47. It's an impressive time considering he had to make a bathroom stop at the end of the first lap and didn't catch up to me until about 1.5 miles before the finish.

In addition to a medal, they gave out snoods as race swag. As someone who frequently wears the snood I got at the Kelpies 5k race I did in 2021, I'm happy to add another to my collection. 

My cat, Halloumi, modeling my new pink snood.

Next race

I don't have anything booked in, but I do want to run another local race in the spring. We'll see if this happens.