The Devil o' the Highlands: 43 miles (allegedly) over some big hills. 9/08/08
A flapjack, a chocolate brownie, a banana, two bars of tablet, a rice cake, three lucozade sachets, a lucozade sports drink, and at least four cups of tea. And that’s only what I had during the race….
Since doing underwater sprint training with Lynn’s folk at club on Wednesday, I’d been dreading spending a long day in the pouring rain. So it was a huge relief when dawn found us at the start line in the dry. I was too busy chatting to Robert to notice the countdown to the 6 AM start, so started pretty much at the back. There’s a noticeable climb for the first mile, but this just helps you start off sensibly – 9:36, 9:24 – before a gently undulating but very runable first stage to Bridge of Orchy. The cars on the main road across the valley are all full of the support teams, and toot, wave and stop to take photos at regular intervals. I get caught up in the fact this is a race and I’m at the back – 7:38, 8:12, 8:27, 8:09 – and start moving up the field. In mile 5 I catch Robert, muttering darkly about how hard it is to pace since his Garmin has let him down and refused to turn on. Not sure what my excuse is.
Back across the road down a steep tarmac section to the support teams waiting at the first checkpoint at the actual “bridge”. No time to chat beyond picking up supplies and heading up the first big climb – 10:09, 12:14. I’ve already decided to walk the three “big hills”, but everyone else seems to be doing the same. The rain starts – just at that irritating light level when you might be able to avoid having to stop to put on waterproofs. As a compromise I put on Mary’s super-thin shell, and my cap. The second half of the climb is runable, and over the top there’s a long fast descent to Victoria Bridge. Half way down I discover why everyone else is picking their way gingerly down, as I fail to lift my trailing foot and dive full length onto the rocky track. The guy behind stops to pick me up. This is typical of my part of the race – everyone checks up on each other as they pass, often slowing for a chat in doing so. It is us against the challenge, not us against each other. I suspect things are different for Ben!
I’m winded by my trip and run very much within myself down to the lovely tarmac at Victoria Bridge – 8:36, 9:20, 9:25 – but I seem to have largely escaped except that my right leg is already cramping up where I’ve lain on a rock. From Victoria Bridge to the Glencoe Ski Centre is a long gradual climb to Ba Bridge (8:46, 8:30, 9:25), followed by a gentle track to one last ridge (8:56, 9:37) and a steep descent (8:01). It is more exposed, and the rain is also getting into its stride. Fortunately the wind is behind me, so the rain keeps off the glasses. This is a very lonely stretch, running very much on my own, just catching a group in time to run down to the next checkpoint and aid station, where Amanda is waiting in the rain with tea and flapjack. There is time to chat here as I need to get my breath back (12:01). So far, so good. The group I’ve been running with don’t stop – silly them: I’ll be seeing them again right enough.
From the Ski Centre to Altnafeadh is perhaps the flattest part of the race, and I make good progress (8:16,10:38,9:29) – there is one obvious hill to walk up, but the stretch isn’t the promised five miles, and Amanda has done well to get more tea and a banana to the bottom of the Devil’s Staircase before me. The rain is getting heavier, and the track is now sodden underfoot, as are my shoes and socks – but the views over to the cloud-shrouded Buchaille Etive Mor are spectacular. Amanda complains loudly that I’m ahead of schedule, and a passing runner assumes he’s been told off – correctly as it seems, since when I pass him much later he mumbles about hitting the wall. A fairly long stop this (15:09), before the hardest climb of the day up the Devil’s Staircase, a thirty minute walk (16:30, 11:06) over Glen Coe’s north wall. The weather is foul at the top, and I feel cold and damp as I pick my way over rather broken ground passed the highest point (10:38) – but the path soon improves, and there is a long descent down to Kinlochleven (10:32, 8:52) on good track. Going down is painful now – far worst than going up – from the growing cramp in my legs. I whinge to a passing lady vet, and she tells me to get my act together – “it’s only pain” she says, before disappearing off ahead of me.
Amanda is waiting in Kinlochleven with freshly made tea - the deckchair is out and she holds an umbrella over me at the same time as trying to change my shoes. This amuses the other support crews – heaven knows they need some entertainment, standing around in the rain for eight hours or so waiting for their runners to come in and be rude to them. The stops are getting longer (16:31), but the pain isn’t getting any worse, and I know the rest of the way from the Lairig More race earlier in the year. There is a long walked climb out of the town (17:31), but with the obvious extra cushioning from the new shoes and the anger at seeing the lady vet in the distance, I then settle into a productive hour of steady jogging (10:30, 10:51, 9:29, 10:41, 10:14). I’ve drunk and eaten everything in my pack by now, and had expected to have got to the next aid station. Warned by Peter’s earlier report on WHW, I’m prepared for hallucinating, but am disappointed when the group of support crew I’m smiling at turns into a pile of logs. I’ve run down the lady vet by now, and am on my own apart from a steady stream of walkers – most of whom either offer encouragement or jump aside startled as if they’ve never seen a runner before. I copy the lady vet’s habit of running through the deepest parts of the streams and puddles – certainly helps keep the feet cool, and saves lots of dodging about. But not recommended until your feet are already wet. Most of the walkers are foreigners – given the weather, I hate to think what they’ll tell their chums about Scotland…
Another mile goes past (10:24), and I start to think Amanda is lost. I’ve lost any ability to think clearly by now, and seriously think about going off the course to try and find her. Before thought can turn into action however, a strange lady is calling out “well done Richard” from the Lundavra signpost. Amanda has left goodies with her whilst returning down the muddy track to get the deckchair. This is an even longer stop (19:09), and I put too much stuff in my pack. I don’t realise this at first and struggle to work out why I can’t get going (12:18, 14:25). The penny drops, and I half drink/half throw away the liquid I’m carrying – that’s better. Another runner (Brian) comes alongside and paces me through the forest – we’re walking up any inclines at the moment, and especially down a couple of flights of steps: ouch! (14:18).
Out of the forest and it’s all downhill to the finish. I can’t really run downhill, and watch Brian disappear, but I can jog steadily (9:40). As a reward for running a whole mile without any walking, I replace Mary’s shell with my Portobello vest (too late for me to get any wetter!). But transferring my race number from my shirt to my vest takes ages – I’ve walked 500m before I manage it and get jogging again (11:01). Just as I reach the “braveheart car park”, a Helensburgh vest sprints past – though stopping long enough to apologise for overtaking. Unlike the usual me, I’ve had no motivation to chase Brian or Helensburgh – but we're at last back on tarmac, and I get back to something resembling a run for the final stretch (8:29).
I’m glad there are lots of people around to take all the decisions about what to do next – though they seem to expect answers to questions like “how do you feel?” Trouble is I really don’t know and don’t want to think. I’m surprisingly neither hungry nor particularly thirsty – though after being driven to the sports centre for a shower and a cooldown walk with Ben, I tackle some lentil soup. Amanda talks Gillian from another support crew into poking around at my leg. This might be my first ever massage - but though Gillian talks very knowledgably about holes in the muscle, damage to the hip flexor etc, has some strange ointment, and claims to be doing nothing beyond the gentle, I can’t see massage being popular if it is this painful. Fortunately the prize giving starts to distract her, and I’m allowed off the floor.
Although we’ve not won anything, It’s been a hugely successful day for Portobello – all three of us have beaten any realistic expectations. Ben’s time would have won the race by a mile last year – indeed, probably by three miles – though I think he is disappointed by coming only seventh, having paced ultra legend Jez Bragg for the first half. Robert comes almost an hour ahead of the time he tells me is his goal at the start. And I’m very surprised to find I’ve finished 20th out of the 74 finishers. There aren’t many races in which you can feel you’ve done really well if the leader has beaten you by more than 2 hours! We’ve also been really lucky with the weather – in spite of the constant rain. The following wind has kept the rain largely on our backs, and together they’ve kept us cool and kept the midges within reason. And I suspect it’s the wind that lies behind the fast times.
Something like this is definitely worth doing once. You can see from the mile splits that I’ve not gone that fast at any particular point – yet have finished well up the field. And my training has been not much beyond what you’d do for a marathon. I did a couple of marathons in May, but my longest run since then was 20 miles. So this is well within reach of most of the club. Nor did it feel anything like as long as it was, and I think that provided you keep putting the fuel in, there is a pace – however slow – you can keep going at without getting out of the “acceptable discomfort” zone. Hardened ultra runners Graham and John P along with newbie Scott F are next up later in the month.
But of course the real stars are the support crews – Amanda, Alison, Mrs Wilkie, Jeannette, Chris. Races where you have to carry all your own supplies must be much harder. And it simply breaks up the boredom knowing that every hour or so someone will be waiting with goodies, who will at least pretend to be pleased to see you and tell you how well you are doing whether or not that’s true. As to why anyone would give up their weekend to do that…
Report Richard Dennis
Photos Amanda Henderson
Devilish website / results here and turn the volume down before visitingHere is Robert's report...
Back in December 2007, I was looking at races for the following year that I thought would be good to run in. The Devil Of The Highlands Footrace looked an interesting one just in the name itself. Looking at the website it quickly became apparent that this was a race beyond anything I had done before.
The DOTH website says “The Devil o' the Highlands is a 43 Mile footrace which begins at Tyndrum (Perthshire) and finishes in Fort William (Highlands). Each competitor has 12 hours to complete the course which follows the latter part of the West Highland Way.”
After being out due to injury in September, I had a goal already to run the 2008 Edinburgh marathon, so in theory it was a case of extending the training post marathon through to August. The thought of completing 43 miles in one go seemed daunting but after mulling it over for several weeks, I took the plunge and sent off my entry and within a week my entry was confirmed on the DOTH website.
Looking at the entry list I could see Ben and Richard had also entered but I decided to keep quite about my entry hoping that they wouldn't notice I was on the list. That way I had the option of pulling out should my training not go to plan and no one would ever need to know I had entered.
Driving up on Friday afternoon, myself, Jeanette (my other half) and Chris (my brother) who would both be my support crew stayed at the Tyndrum Lodge Hotel which is immediately adjacent to the Green Welly and the start of the race itself. When booking the hotel back in February, I wasn’t aware that it was next to the start and had booked it because it had a carvery which I thought would be great the night before. Unbeknown to me at the time, the carvery serves an Indian buffet on a Friday night ... hmmm!
Registration the following morning was between 4.30am – 5.30am in the Green Welly with staff there serving breakfast to competitors and support crews. As it was too close to the race start time I opted for a coffee whilst my brother decided to taunt me with two very tasty looking bacon rolls! Registration done, breakfast (of sorts) had and race briefing over we all made our way out to the start.
The starting conditions were very favourable for running especially as the cool morning air made it ideal. The question was, would I flake out before my Garmin. The longest I had ever run previously with my Garmin was just short of five and a half hours, beyond this I had no idea on battery life. Disaster, my Garmin wouldn't start. This had happened once before at the Edinburgh half marathon. The EHM had mile markers at least, the DotH has no mile markers. Amanda who was supporting Richard came to my rescue as she had her Garmin with her and arranged to give it to me at Bridge of Orchy, the 1st check point.
The start seemed to be a fairly relaxed affair or maybe that was me still waking up. A countdown from ten and we were off, all 78 of us. There were 22 no shows but then the weather forecast the night before had torrential rain and very windy conditions as the order of the day. If the forecast became reality then the race could have turned out very different but as it was the weather favoured the runners. As we all set along the West Highland Way and the 1st 6¾miles towards Bridge of Orchy, processions of cars tooting their horns with support teams passed by along the Tyndrum to Fort William road.
After a relatively quick 6¾miles for a 43 mile run, I arrived at the 1st check point after about an hour or so. Ben was about 10 minutes ahead with the leading group and Richard who passed me at a steady canter at about 5 miles was about 3 minutes or so ahead of me. Amanda had her Garmin at the ready – thank you very much as this was a life saver. There was very little for Chris and Jeanette to do at this stage as I had plenty of gels with me and I was carting enough water to the 2nd checkpoint, 12½miles futher on.
Leaving Bridge of Orchy I headed up a small windy trail, heading towards Inveroran Hotel and then Victoria Bridge. Up until that point I was relatively comfortable but by the time I passed Victoria Bridge and over 9 miles into the race my legs started to stiffen up slightly. For the next few miles I ended doing a mix of running and walking. During one of my walking spells, a female runner caught up with me and I thought I would try and capture some of her momentum to try and get me going again. It worked but only for about half a mile. During this she told me she had ran the WHW twice and had two very contrasting experiences. One race had a handful of runners needing to be treated for heat related conditions and the other with a runner having to be treated for almost hypothermia! Such are the changeable conditions of the Scottish weather.
By now I was at around 16minute mile pace and had for some reason had lost track of how long the 2nd stage actually was. Still thinking I had another 5 miles to go, I phone Chris & Jeanette to let them know I was going to be another hour before I would reach them. At this point it started to rain and this seemed to refresh me totally and I managed to pick up again and took back some 3 or 4 of the places I had lost. At one point I think I was at 7m14sec mileing, ok it was on a downward section of the route. Ten minutes later I was at Black Rock cottage and the next check point. Thinking I was still going to be another 50minutes or so my support had gone back to shelter in the car. A quick call to explain I had got my miles mixed up, I arranged to meet them about half a mile down the road at Kinghouse. A slice of melon and a top up of water and I was off again onto the 3rd stage, heading to Kinlochleven.
I had lost my momentum again that I had picked up before Black Rock cottage and I was back to somewhere between a crawl and a jog. The WHW next crossed the main road at Altnafeadh and Chris said he may try and stop there if there was space to pull up. It would be good to see Chris and Jeanette before heading up the Devils Staircase but if they couldn’t pull up there then I would see them at Kinlochleven. By the time I reached Altnafeadh it was raining fairly heavily but still very comfortable for running in. The roadside was full of support crews so unless you were 1st there or arrived as another support crew was heading on, it was almost impossible to park up. I would therefore see Chris and Jeanette later at Kinlochleven.
Heading up the Devils Staircase I started to wonder about the leaders. Do they actually try an attempt to run the staircase or is it a hands on knees job? Also, how do they manage with some of the more rocky terrain, knowing that if they are too cautious it could cost them their lead and at the same time, if they are too aggressive, it could cost them their lead. As I climbed up the meandering staircase, the wind was strengthening but fortunately it was from behind. The runners I could see ahead of me and behind me were all walking the staircase, a climb of 259m (849ft). By the time I got to the top I was reminded of the Lairig Grhu race I had run a month earlier as there seemed to be boulders scattered along the next part of the route and the descent on the other side. I took the cautious approach and about half a dozen or so less cautious runners took advantage and passed me over the next couple of miles or so. By this time my feet were less and less like Fred Astaire's and more and more like the Jolly Green Giant's but I wasn’t in the mood to give a ho ho ho as I was walking by now more than running. Periodically I would get a boost and pick up the pace but this rarely lasted more than a couple of minutes before I slowed again.
Approaching Kinlochleven there is a downward hill section with hairpin bends. The track is wide and serves as an access road for traffic to the Alumina plant. I pick up my pace to a blistering 10 minute mile pace going downhill! No wonder I have problems running uphill! By now I’ve covered almost 29 miles of cross country running and I’m looking forward to meeting up with Chris and Jeanette so I can have some more melon and top up with water again. I get to Kinlochleven in 5h26m and I still a have over a half marathon ahead of me. My legs are tired but I’m still in fairly high spirits. I can see the car parked and wave for Chris and Jeanette to come out to meet me but there is no response as the car doors do not open. As I get closer I can see they are not in the car. Where are they? A quick call on the mobile reveals they are in the local pub restaurant across the road from the checkpoint, topping up; a cooked breakfast, cup of tea and in the case of my brother, a pint of beer! Such is the cushy life of being a support team. After a conversation they had with the marshal they were convinced they wouldn’t see me for another hour. Apparently I had arrived too quickly - if only! Stocked up again and good to go through straight to the finish I set off on the final stage to Fort William. I would meet Chris and Jeanette again at Lundarva, no pubs there!
Leaving Kinlochleven was an upward slog, through some woods before getting out onto open trail. I was still struggling to pick up any decent pace and at one point I think I had slowed to 22minute mile pace. Ouch! Lundavra couldn’t come quickly enough and it wasn’t! I was getting passed by more runners. If I could get to Lundavra then I would only have about 6½ miles remaining. Lundavra arrived and there was my brother Chris and 3 women on deckchairs shouting my name and cheering me on. That lifted me and I managed to get back up to jogging pace to cover the next 50 meters or so to meet my brother who supplied me with some lucozade for the final push onto Fort William.
The latter part of the route heads into a spruce forest. For me this was the best part of the run as underfoot the ground was softer than the hard packed paths of before, some of which were laden with scatterings of small boulders and rocks in places. The path through the forest turned into sweeping bends and as I seemed to recover, I started to pull back some places. If I could use the bends to my advantage by getting far ahead enough of those I had passed I could easily be out of view in 50 meters in some cases. Hopefully, if they couldn’t see me then they wouldn’t try and catch me. This seemed to work as all in all, I think I recovered six places, a group of three and the three individual runners between the forest and Fort William. Along most of the route between Tyndrum and Fort William there were people out walking part or all of the WHW. By the time I was in the forest, these walkers were particularly encouraging as enough runners had passed by that time for them to know there was a race going on. There were a fair few comments, the likes of “you’re doing well and not far to go now”.
Eventually the forest trail takes you out to the aptly named Braveheart car park and by that point you know you are on the home straight as there is under a mile to go. The remainder of the route takes you along the main road and to the finish. Only, I didn’t realise the finish was so near so when I saw Chris and Jeanette with a crowd of others on the opposite side of the road further ahead, I started to cross over thinking that the finish was maybe 200meters or so beyond them. Maybe they were just there to provide encouragement for the last push. Before I knew it, Chris and Jeanette were pointing me back to the side of the road from were I came. Now I could see the finish. 43 miles later, a pb of 9.06.51. Ok, it was the 1st time I had run 43 miles but it was still a pb.
Meanwhile Ben had an exceptional race as I later found out, up and level with the leading pack all the way through to Black Cottage (Glencoe) to eventually finish 7th and breaking the course record from last year, finishing in 6.06.11. Richard also ran brilliantly, finishing 20th with a time of 7.30.59. I don’t know if Ben or Richard could be tempted to run this again but I know I could.
To sum up, this is an excellent race if you want to dip your toes into ultra running. The outstanding scenery helps take your mind of any discomforts that may arise later on in the race. There’s loads of friendly faces around if though you may have never seen them before. And then sense of pride at the end for completing the race, well you’re smiling all through next week and beyond.
Thanks to the Garry and Gemma Milne, all the marshals and other behind the scenes people for making this such an enjoyable race. Also thanks to Amanda who saved my life by having her Garmin at the ready. Finally a very special thanks to my support crew Chris and Jeanette without whom I could not have run this race.
I think I may now have caught a bug. I have just received confirmation of my entry to next years Highland Fling (53 miles) and I am completing in my entry for the full WHW 95 mile. Looking at the website today, 70 places have been taken already and that’s after one day!
Report Robert Kinnaird
Notably Robert was the only one of the three devils made it to club on Wednesday!
