FRIENDS and family have paid tribute to a runner who organised Scotland's toughest long-distance race, after he collapsed and died scaling a mountain.
Dario Melaragni, 46, had a suspected heart attack as he approached the 3,789ft summit of Lochnagar in Aberdeenshire. The personal trainer from Perthshire collapsed on a 20-mile jog with friends.
Mr Melaragni organised the West Highland Way Race
, an endurance race so arduous runners sign a death disclaimer before taking part.
John Kynaston, a West Highland Way Race veteran and close friend, said: "I was so shocked when I heard the news. Dario was at peak fitness and at 46 you don't expect someone to just collapse and die like that."
The West Highland Way Race website has received more than a hundred tributes to the runner, expressing shock and sadness at his sudden death and the gap it will leave in the Scottish ultra-running scene.
In her tribute, Mr Melaragni's sister Diane said that discovering running as a schoolboy "had been the making of him".
"He had found something he was good at and the harder the challenge, the harder he pushed himself and the greater his success in completion," she said.
"He never expected to be first but never contemplated not finishing."
He gave up a job as a tax inspector aged 45 to become a personal trainer and focus on his sport.
This year, he ran the 62-mile Cateran Trail Relay Race and was training for the 43-mile Devil o' the Highlands event.
Adrian Stott, a friend and a fellow competitor in ultra-races, said that his death would leave "a hole" in the sport.
He said: "The way Dario organised the races pushed so many barriers back in terms of ultra-running.
"I've been running ultra-races for the best part of 30 years, but there was something different about the West Highland Way run. It attracted some of the top runners from across Europe and Dario brought his enthusiasm and selflessness to give it a special character all of its own.
"I'm so lucky to have known him as a good friend."
Mr Stott, who is 55, said that Mr Melaragni's death "had given him pause for thought" over his own running challenges, but added that his friend would expect him to keep going.
The West Highland race is 96 miles and the overall climb is 14,760 feet – three times the height of Ben Nevis. In the three times he ran it, Mr Melaragni avoided illness and injury.
