West Highland Way 95 Mile Race. 19 + 20/06/10
No idea how to write a report to cover 24 hrs of race but takes less than 24 hrs to read - so bear with me! Also still unsure about how I feel about the race other than that I am glad it is over. And that support crews - mine is Peter and Mary - are actually the key to this for us mere mortals.
Beech Tree InnOne in the morning is a strange time to start a race. It means running in the dark - which I was frightened of: my only practice night trail run having ended in a nasty fall and quick retreat to the car a week before race day. You have to focus so hard on staring at the small section of trail lit up by the head torches, so you can take evasive action whenever a rock appears. So the first task is just to make the dawn without ruining my race. I’m a bit of a wuss about this - many of the other runners seem to take this in their stride - but at least it means I start off slow. But not relaxed! I’m very glad to reach Peter and Mary at the Beech Tree without a fall - the second section is largely on disused railway and county road, both free from tripping hazards, and I can feel a little more confident.
DrymenI catch up with Niall D on the country roads of the second section, and this gives me a little bit of competitive edge to the running, and he leads a string of four into Drymen, where I seem to be the only one to stop and talk (briefly) to my crew. I’m running without a garmin, and avoid looking at my watch, so don’t know it has taken us over 2 hours for the first 12 miles - which are the most runnable of the whole lot. Up into the forest on the way to Conic Hill, and as we come onto the moor, the head torch can be put away abut 3:30am. I get ahead of Niall going up - but I’m a wuss about going down. Graham H took a bad fall here when we were running together on the Fling, and a lady runner just ahead of me does the same now. She comes up covered in dust, one sign of how dry the trail is - and thus hard underfoot - but she is ok. Like most of us, she is wearing gloves to protect in case of falls. Niall and a dozen others swoop past and disappear into the distance whilst I pick my way gingerly down - but I console myself that I’m saving my quads for later. Balmaha Car Park is the first planned point I intend to have a brief pause with Peter and Mary, and my first sandwich of the day.
Niall at Balmaha
The Balmaha to Rowardennen section is very enjoyable. Thinking about it now, I’m sure this is because it is daylight and I can relax and run freely for the first time - because it ought to be quite a tough section: it is a real rollercoaster of up and down and through the trees. I make good progress, and overhaul quite a few folk, getting to the car park and the first official checkpoint just after 6am. Five hours for the first marathon. Afterwards I can’t see how I am 40 minutes slower than in the Fling to this point - it surely can’t just be the night start - but I feel like I am running strongly. The first midgy hoods are in use amongst the support folk, but I’ve never had a problem with midges before, and the myth is that they don’t keep up with the runners….
RowardennanThe section from Rowardennan to Beinn Glas is the longest time between seeing your support crew. In my mind it is one nice trail section of about 6 miles followed by a horribly technical one of about the same length. I’m already resigned to walking all of the way from Inversnaid to the end of Loch Lomond because I can’t cope well with the narrow rocky path, which includes the occasional scramble. This section had destroyed my morale in the Fling - but this time, having “run” it twice in training, I’m mentally prepared for it. The sun is shining, the birds are singing and the woods are full of tiny yellow flowers. I get to Beinn Glas in 40 minutes less than I’d told Peter and Mary. To try and limit parking, there is a £5 car park charge here, in return for which you get £5 off food in the café, and they are stuck in the long queue for breakfast. Luckily I have a drop bag here as well, so I can get grumpy without any real cause, and enough supplies to press on.
Auchtertyre - spot 3 cups of tea?It is 10 miles to the next stop, and this is my first bad section. I haven’t done this bit since the Fling, and I’ve got the wrong image of the path through Glen Falloch in my mind. Probably also it is getting hot without my noticing, and I’ve not got enough liquid with me: the general plan is to drink 500ml at each stop, and carry 250ml with me to drink in between. But for 160 mins in the sun, that ain’t enough. So I walk most of the section from crossing the main road over the Ewich climb. Once over the A82, there’s a final flat mile I can run to the Auchtertyre checkpoint. In doing so, I pass for the first time two broken runners who will drop out at the checkpoint - one knee and one hamstring.
En route to Victoria BridgeIt is very good to see Peter and Mary again at the wigwams, and they treat me like a king here. I get my first sit down of the day whilst Mary peers at my feet - I feel I have a blister coming on under the ball of my right foot, but Mary tells me it is nothing. Peter has made fresh tea, which is a delightful change from energy drink, (actually Mary made the tea) and they say a stream of positive things. A new man in new socks, I make the next short section into Tyndrum in just 35 minutes - achieving a giddy six miles an hour, which I won‘t make again. This is the end of the Fling, and I am about to head into new territory in terms of distance. My Fling time today is something like 11:45 - given that I ran that in 10hrs before all the ultra training, I’m not quite sure what has happened to me. But it is definitely hot. The second marathon has taken me something like 6 hrs 30.
Mary has made me some Lawrence of Arabia headgear (actually Peter made it) which I wear for the rest of the way. Perhaps not very natty, but the reduction in glare is a great relief, and this may have saved my race: others report symptoms very like heatstroke. Tyndrum to Bridge of Orchy is a nice section with lots of runnable ground - 80 minutes for six miles. And at B of O, Peter joins me for the rest of the way. I am not sure we are yet the required 4 hours behind the leader, but the marshals don’t seem worried. They are equally not insisting we carry full body cover, compasses, whistles etc - which is a relief for Peter, who gets the job of carrying most kit for both of us. The first of the route’s 3 signature climbs follows - a 30 minute stomp up, and then a gentle jog down. Again, there is some nervous picking my way round the rocks here, since I fell on this section during the Devil of the Highlands. But it is a delight to have company and someone to talk to. And although it is hot, clear blue skies mean the views are magnificent. There is also another lovely mile of tarmac here - from which we see a magnificent stag which is probably the image of the race for me (even if the poor stag is probably an ex-stag by now, since it made no move whilst we watched it).
Just resting?
Towards GlencoeThere is a long climb - may be four miles gentle ascent - up onto Rannoch Moor, which we walk up before being able to get a little jogging in, during which we overtake (temporarily) John Kynaston, whose website can tell you everything you ever wanted to know about this race. There’s another stomp up a ridge before a two-mile gentle descent to the Glencoe Ski Centre where Mary is waiting for us. I’ve been having odd feelings in my bowels over this section, and we have a twenty minute break here whilst I visit the café toilets. 70 miles done and to be honest, that’s enough. I’ve enjoyed coming over Rannoch, but the only motivation for going on is now to avoid having to redo those first 70 miles another time. We run down the road to Kingshouse, but I feel then that I’ve done all the running I am going to do today, and it is a three mile walk to Alt na feadh, even though this is good, runable terrain. Again this is partly a mental barrier. This section contains a big detour up the hill for no reason other than to add another climb into the route, and I don’t see the joy in this. Something like 90 minutes for five miles - doesn’t bode well. A long string of folk pass us.
Buachille Etive Mor from the bottom of the Devil's Staircase...
...and the top.The Devil’s Staircase is another matter. I’m mentally prepared for this, I know it’s necessary as the shortest way to the next checkpoint, and I‘ve allowed for this to be a long slog. I can still walk, and more quickly than some of the others - and we catch almost all of those who have just past us. I’ve warned Peter it may take an hour to the top - but we make it in 32 minutes! (you might not be impressed with a 32 minute mile, but you have to take your victories whilst you can).
My quads feel too tight for running, but after striding out for a long while, they loosen up enough for a gentle jog, and I feel we make good progress down into Kinlochleven. Although it is 8 o’clock when we get there, the sun is still very bright, and I can feel the backs of my legs on fire in the run-in - with plenty of other sources of pain to worry about, I haven’t noticed the growing sunburn until too late.
We take a 30 minute break at KLL, including a ham sandwich and chips, and head off for the last big climb of the day into the Lairig Mor. I am invigorated from the chips, and once the stiffness from the break has gone, we make rapid progress up the climb and along the first bit of the track. I now have four hours to do a half marathon in order to finish within 24 hrs, but more importantly, am thinking we can get to Lundavra before dark, and thus get the rockiest sections out of the way in daylight. But the burst of energy doesn’t last long, and I am effectively done. I have my only real hallucination at this point - seeing the light of the setting sun reflecting off a stream in the distance, I see an ambulance, and it is there for a good minute whilst Peter tells me it isn’t real before it becomes just water again.
Up the hill to the Lairig Mor (note sun burnt calves)
sundown with ambulanceThis section seems to me to take a very long time indeed (actually 130 mins for 8 miles). But Lundavra comes into view eventually, and we get there 20 minutes before the deadline I’d set myself. Still, it is disappointing. The bonfire looks warm and inviting - but the midges have massed in their millions, and I’m not attracted by any of the goodies Mary has brought. We push on too soon, driven by my desire to get as far as possible before night has finally fallen, and Peter’s desire to leave the midges behind.
Midges at Lundavra
I am now spent, and can’t even walk quickly. The stream of those passing seems to become a flood. Darkness descends as we reach the edge of the forest - it is now probably after 11 pm - and with its coming, our morale disappears. We both get bitterly cold, probably a result of too much sun. We stop talking. With the head torches back on, I’m reduced to gingerly picking my way round the rocks, and have a decided limp on any ups or downs. Peter trudging slowly ahead lighting the way, waiting every minute or so to let me catch up. Some masochist has even put in a flight of steps, which have to be taken one at a time. It takes 50 minutes to do the mile and a half through the trees. As I say to Peter around this point, I now know I can get to the finish, so why go through the effort of actually doing it?
But once out of the trees, it is all downhill to the finish. I’ve been looking forward to these last four runnable miles, and am disappointed to find I can’t get out of my slow trudge. 72 minutes to break 24, and I abandon hope, since four miles an hour seems out of reach. We plod on. The Braveheart Car Park finally arrives - 17 minutes left for 24 hrs, and about a mile and a half to go. Peter asks me if there is anything special about breaking 24, and would I like to try and run? I say no and not yet. Another runner comes past, obviously pushing for that mark - and although I would have sworn I physically couldn’t run, somehow this motivates me and I shamble into a jog. The street lights appear, then the formal end of the Way. We are still jogging, and fortunately none of the traffic wants to go down the roads we head blindly across. Finally the Sports Centre appears. Up the steps, bang on the door, and a marshal notes down my finishing time - something like 23:55. Only later do Peter and Mary point out that the finish is so much more a whimper than a bang - for now, they whisk me off to Mary’s lovely van and to the hotel.
I don’t get much sleep. My muscles are too sore. The sides of my feet are covered in blisters. The backs of my legs and my hands are sun burnt. The front of my legs are covered in midge bites. I forget to take any food out of the car into the hotel. But I am at least finished.
The prize giving is at noon on Sunday. Robert is all smiles. John looks fresh. I think everyone is pleased that Richie Cunningham has come through to win. But I just feel drained. Even now I don’t feel much euphoria or sense of achievement, just a sense of relief that it is out of the way.
Peter and Mary were great throughout. Had I been fit enough to run through without breaks, we could have been much quicker and better organised on what I would want when, and I suspect I spent an hour longer at the checkpoints than some. But I needed the recovery time. And actually it isn’t the mundane side of support that matters as much as the emotional support. Mary always managed to appear chipper and pleased to see us without mentioning how long she had to wait about - or how tricky driving and navigating gets once you‘ve been up for 36 hours. Peter kept a rather one sided conversation going for 11 hours without ever either pushing, prodding or pulling me to go any faster than I wanted, or mentioning how long it was taking, or even talking about how many folk were passing, or how much water he was carrying for me. And the few comments they did make about the race were all about how evenly I was running or how strong I had been looking. I was amazed that Peter could plod along at our average of three miles an hour for the 35 miles he was with me given he can’t usually slow down to allow me to run comfortably home from club with him. For support crews, they give up four days simply to help someone else achieve a goal - and don’t even get so much as a medal. Hopefully the roles might get reversed one day.
Would I do it again? I’m not sure. I did enjoy the first 70 miles, and I might be tempted to do the Fling again, since I am confident I could do the first half much quicker. But I think the whole thing will have to wait until I was fairly sure of finishing before dark, and given the preparation and recovery takes so much of the running season, that might have to wait a few years. Still, the WHW is within the compass of all of those club runners who want it to be. My turn to be someone else’s support next I think!
Report Richard Dennis
Photos pb - I stopped taking pics after Lundavra.
Results / website here
Mary's blog here (and I think we all know that hotel magazine was open solely for the duration of the photo...)John Pickard has finally recovered sufficiently to add this...
A Run Jog Walk up the Highlandswhat can you say
about the west highland way
its a bloomin long way
is what i'll say
it was back in november that i found out my entry had been accepted for the WHW and it was a double reaction, a yes was then met with a oh my god !!!! it was back in january at the training and inspiration evening that Richard D asking me you are going to do some training for this and not just turn up and hope for the best ? i just laughed.
so i told him the training schedule i had planned,
the Pentlands Bimble
the Alloa half in march
april going into may, the Heaven and Hell Half,the Lochaber Marathon,then the Highland Fling,E2NB finishing off with the Edinburgh Marathon and the expression was a we'll see
so having done 4 out of the 5 planned runs all that effort went nearly out the window about 6 weeks to go the support i had who i thought were certs coudnt help out one was helping and running at a track meeting, and a few days later the other said he couldnt get time off his work.
d'oh d'oh and double d'oh
then within a week it was sorted two from Fetcheveryone came forward Soph mailed me to say if you dont mind a crazy lass i'd be more than happy to help, great and Lucy who was asking for information about the route and if any running was involved and i did say that i knew the route from Milngavie to Tyndrum from doing the HF it was from Tyndrum onwards i was not sure of but everyone knows it turned out fine in the end.
having managed to get the week off before the WHW was a bonus and with my last run being on the sunday it was a case of trying to chill out the best i could in fact the only bit of excercise involved was taking the boys up to nursery and back.
on the friday Rhona decided to take Ryan Cameron and Aby out for the afternoon to give me some peace and quiet and a sleep. i got up about 6 and started to make pasta and at that point Rhona came in, pasta alright for everyone, yes was the reply.
Lucy arrived and by the time we got Sophs and the time we left the amount of running about she was doing, i was shaking my head thinking please save some of that energy.arriving at Milngavie the car park is almost full but we get parked and i go and register get weighed, goody bag and back to the car and i have my last bit of food.
12.30 brief time from Sean then after that i go to the toilet and as i am heading back to the car i bump into a Strathaven runner who has the i just want to get going look as most people do.with a few words from Adrian and a minutes applause which had me filling up we were finally away.
what is this ultra going to hold in store,what will it be like running through the night and will my ankle survive 95 miles i only say that because during the HF coming down Conic or Chronic hill as some folks have called it i went over on it, again d'oh.
well after two miles i tripped and made my hand a right mess,then at 4/5ish i nealy missed the sign, i only went the the right way because i needed a wee and stood right next to the sign if i hadnt i would have carrried on with the other half dozen who went straight on. i didnt arrange to meet Soph and Lu at Drymen as i hd enogh to keep me going to Balmaha and by the time i got my hand sorted,change of clothes, i was halfway through my roll when "right time to go" god not even got time to fart, alright i'm out of here with a half eaten roll to a shout of "go john" lol
from Balmaha to Rowardennan is a bit blank although what i can remember was having running company for a while which was great as i woudnt see them for a while plus my least favourite section (Inversnaid to Beinglas farm) was coming up so i had a 10/15 minute break. i was feeling good through this section probably because i had a good rest plus i was able to run a few parts but that was not many.
at Beinglas farmit was an absolute midgefest, and a few miles after leaving BG farm it was the first time i had started to feel tired and some of the hills i had to stop,rest,drink and get going again, and with it getting warmerit was a boost to get to Auchentyre farm and there was a lot of people milling about and after a change of top i will just see you at Tyndrum as its only a few miles.
a few weeks before the WHW my brother phoned and he said he was thinking about coming up and meeting me and what time did i think i would get to Tyndrum, god i dont know about 2ish and i wasnt that far out i got there at 2.35 and had a chat for 10 minutes then head in to new territory the DOTH section.
after about 15/20 minutes leaving Tyndrum i hear a JOHN and its Soph and as she puts in her loud hailer voice SORRY WE MISSED YOU to which i give the Waynes World gesture we or I'M NOT WORTHY and this was a strange part meaning that i had not passed or been passed by anyone.
i get to Bridge of Orchy and apart from my knee still giving me a bit of bother and a bit tired i was ok and able to run a few bits but not long after we passed the man with the Scotland flag tiredness was beginning to show more and more, twice i leaned over hands on knees really struggling and about 5 minutes later Soph said are you alright and i was about to say i dont think i can go on but then she said something that stayed with me for the rest of the run she said "if you are thinking about pulling out dont even if i have to drag you by the shirt yo are going to finish" gulp plus "just wait till your family sees the goblet they will be so proud" even i was thinking as well how can i pull out now after getting this far so with a hug Soph said do you want to have a rest when you get to Glencoe and straight away i said yes.
with me in the car having a rest i could hear people talking away and i heard Sean asking if i was alright and was told i was ok and just having a rest and he said thats not a bad idea. another change of clothes,some chips that Lucy had got washed down with some coke it was time to head off again. it was amazing what the rest had done it was like somebody had turned a switch on inside, right come on lets go. if the Rannoch Moor section was a bad spell, the next bit was the best up the Devils Staircase, every few minutes we would look up or look back down and you just had to admire the view,on reaching the top we had one last look and then start to head to Kinlochleven which at one point i thought we were heading away or was that the mind begining to play tricks. we arrive at the medical centre and after i get weighed i have another rest.
after a cup of tea and a ham roll its time to go and heading out was a real hard graft specially in the dark but once it levelled out i was fine in fact Soph was telling me that every km was getting quicker . we get to Lundavra and from then on again i am a bit vague although running a few times and actually asking Soph if she was alright and me having done nearly 90 miles then we came to a clearing and downhill and she asked if i wanted to jog for a bit but with a sympathetic and apologetic smile i said no the mind was willing but the body wasnt then when we came of the trail on to the road i started to jog again but it didnt last long and it was back to the walk then Lucy joined us and it was a run to the finish.
i wanted to shout, jump about and go YES but all i could manage was a huge sigh. when i finally had the whisky (i was too busy talking) i saw someone with a look of is he going to drink that or not so with a cheers it was down in one, bliss.
when i finally sat down Sean went away and got me a cup of tea and asked how i was
just tired physically or mentally a bit of both and he said let me see your hand "see how its all puffed up" yes you are slightly dehydrated.
sligthtly i thought it could have been worse the way the weather was so he told me to go an have a drink but dont go overboard so with that advice i got a bottle of water,then a shower,watch a few more come in then off to morrisons for breakfast.
apart from tripping in the first few miles,the bad spell at RM and heading out of Kinlochleven its been some experience the whole 29 hours 12 minutes and 33 seconds of it
memories that will stay with me for a long time
Adrian giving a heartwarming speech before the start seeing Karen just after the start running/walking through the night is a strange but pleasant experience first light up and over Conic hill and into Balmaha from then on the views were stunning getting through RM and having a kip at Glencoe the Devils Staircase getting to Kinlochleven seeing Karen and giving her a hug i dont know why, maybe because we didnt see each other before the start or it was the last section we were about to do whisky at 6.15 in the morning, heaven and most of all my support crew Soph and Lucy who never flagged once, thanks again which finally brings me to ask would i do it again my firsts thoughts on sunday night were no i have done it what an event to finish on but after a few days thinking about the weekend and what a great time was had by all. it is a long time for everyone to be out, not just the runners, its also the marshals and support crews who deserve loads of credit like fiona said people say they only do it once and thats it but they come back again and again like Adrian who has done it 12 times, god once is enough for me. at the moment i have not decided although next years event is on the 18th of june, entries open the 1st october and there is only 328 days to the next WHW, not that i'm counting it says so on the website.
one last thing i dont know what came over me at the presentation running up to collect the goblet what a maddy must have been the whisky that had an effectReportJohn Pickard
29.12.33
and well done to Richard D and Robert K
