Ok, technically it was The Hoka Highland Fling but this is
my race report and I'll call it what I like.
3.00am alarm! I
groaned and smiled at the same time, an
absurd time of day to get up but with the promise of an adventure the rude
awakening would be well worth it. At
4.00am Ken and Sue were outside my door, they had already picked up Pauline and
we were in Milngavie at the back of 5.00am. It was freezing cold but the weather looked
promisingly dry, and speaking to George, Karen and Mike, (they'd just ran down
from Tyndrum), apart from a couple of places, the going under foot wasn't too
bad at all considering all the rain there's been. I was sorry to hear that George had a duff
knee and it scuppered their plans to do a double and run back up. Ken was able to give them a lift back up to
Tyndrum as he was heading up to Bridge of Orchy for a bit of Cally Challenge
practice before picking us up at the finish.
My plan was to run WHW race pace until coming off the
rollercoaster above Crianlarich then give it some welly for the last few
miles. I took my fastest WHW race splits
as a rough guide which was the 2008 WHW race, in that year I got to Tyndrum in
13hrs 37mins, and Fort William 27hrs 11mins it was my fastest to Tyndrum in recent
years but not my WHW PB, that was in 2007 and I reached Tyndrum in slower time of 13hrs 50mins and Fort
William in 26hrs 14mins. (As John K says "Slow and steady wins the
race.") I always run to my body and don't pay any attention to time
although I was wearing a watch and carried a piece of paper with the times I expected to go through the
checkpoints, purely for peace of mind of getting to Beinglas before the cut
off.
Consistent should be my middle
name.
WHW2008 Splits
|
Fling 2012 Splits
|
|
Drymen
|
2.19hrs
|
2.16hrs
|
Balmaha
|
4.06hrs
|
4.04hrs
|
Rowardennan
|
6.00hrs
|
5.59hrs
|
Beinglas
|
10.08hrs
|
9.56hrs
|
Tyndrum
|
13.37hrs
|
13.03hrs
|
Rightio, that's the boring numbers blurb out of the way,
back to the important part of having fun.
After a short race briefing from John, us old gits and
girlies were off at 6.00am, I shouldn't have been surprised to see some patches
of white frost on the path, it took a good few miles until feeling had returned
to my fingers and that was wearing gloves!
The sun was rising and bringing a bit of warmth with it, the sky was
clear blue with a few wee fluffy clouds, it was never going to get as lovely
and warm as last year, I kept my arm warmers on all day but we were quite lucky
weather wise after how horrible it's been lately.
Pauline, Sue, Robin and myself stayed together after the
start although there was no plan or pressure to do this, we were just happy
running the same pace, there were others
around the same pace and nice to blether with friends old and new. (Pauline's back had been a bit stiff and sore
after gardening , she did say she might just run with me, I did cheekily warn
her that I wouldn't wait) Going through
the Garadhban stumps Robin got a bit of ribbing, he was the only bloke in a group
of about fifteen woman. Thomas aka
Crazy German from the 7.00am start whooshed past. That was the start of the faster runners
coming by, the Fling is a unique event where
every runner respects and encourages everyone else whether they are
doing the ultra or the relay, apart from two ignorant gits that went by around
Rowardennan without a word or a nod of existence with their ears plugged into music.
"Oi! Get back on the treadmill you soulless numpties, you don't deserve
the WHW!" is what I would've shouted if they could've heard me. I don't think they realised what they were
missing, the Red Squirrel in what was
left of Garadhban, the cheery bird song
and the distinctive Cuckoo and Woodpecker are just a few of things that make it special
for me.
I carried my camera and made them stop on Conic hill, with a
view like that you can't just watch your feet!
 |
| Thanks Helen for taking this one for me |
Balmaha was busy with marshals working
their socks off finding drop bags, after getting mine, I didn't stop but walked
on shovelling in a rice pudding, I wanted to finish it before passing the
bucket at the side of the road before going up the hill so I didn't have to
carry a sticky plastic spoon and carton to Rowardennan. Pauline and Sue were soon back with me but
we'd lost Robin, he takes a bit longer
at checkpoints. (Robin, learn to walk
and faff!)
Dawn joined us along to Rowardennan, and was happy to stop
for a photo on one of the wee steep
hills, I am very persuasive though. "Do you lot want a butt shot or
do you want to turn round and smile!" I did take a few butt shots but no close ups! more photos here
As we approached Rowardennen we were warned there was a
fallen runner just ahead, I envisaged
someone sitting tending to a bloody knee
or the like but it was a shock to see Ellen lying on the path covered in
survival blankets, we stopped to see if there was anything we could do, she had
a paramedic and friends with her so there was nothing else we could do but it
felt wrong to leave her. (Ellen, wishing
you a speedy recovery, hope the broken arm/shoulder heals quickly xx)
At Rowardennen I was again the first of us out of the
checkpoint, I stuffed my drop bag goodies into my backpack and walked up the
wide track glugging down my Yazzo banana milkshake, Pauline and Sue took a
little longer topping up on some water.
It wasn't long until Dawn was back with us too, maybe I shouldn't have
been so quick, I think I left my bag of Mini Cheddars lying on the ground, but
Sue being the generous soul she is shared hers when I was disappointed I didn't
have mine.
Once the path narrows I love the way it flows with all the
ups and downs, running with the flow I
always feel good here, I think the constant change of stride and pace keep the
legs fresh, I dropped behind the others a bit after stopping for a pee, kinda
tricky to find a secluded spot without climbing the hill or dropping into the
loch also timing it without the youngsters in the 8.00am start and the relay at
the 9.00am start hurtling past! Luckily I managed without being caught with my
bahooky hanging out, also wearing a wee kilt does offer a little modesty if I
was.
After the Inversnaid checkpoint we were back together, I
don't eat or drink much after Inversnaid with having to hang on to the trees
and boulders, my short stekky legs and creaky knees were going cautiously along , I think there
has been a lot of erosion since the last time I was along it. I was pleased to see the flat grassy bit and
celebrated with my dinky 150ml can of coke.
We stopped at Dario's post, my racing hip flask was shared
among us and as we left the sun blinked through the clouds and shone brighter
than before.
At the Beinglas checkpoint I was pleased to see we were well
within the cut off and after picking up my goodies from my drop bag I walked up
the path drinking my Slimfast milkshake, another runner was looking at his
sandwich and said he couldn't face it and it was going to be bird food, I
offered him the rest of my Slimfast but he didn't fancy that either, he was
still travelling well though and disappeared over the hill
.
It was just after Beinglas, Pauline, Sue and I had decided
that since we've come this far together we might as well finish together. Next thing I knew I'd caught my toe and down
I went with quite a clump, my first thought was "Mick Jagger!" I
instantly felt a fat lip! I started to get up, Pauline encouraged me to stay
down until I gathered myself but I felt ok, apart from spitting mud, "yuk!",
I was crunching grit between my teeth,
then thought actually that's a good sign, my front teeth are still there. I looked at Pauline and asked "Am I
bleeding?" The smidgen of laugher in
Pauline's voice spoke louder than her words " Yeah, try not to drip on
your white t-shirt." I can't be
that bad then. Sue handed me a wee pack
of anti-septic wet wipes, (sorry Sue, I used them all), I found quite a few
stingy bits on my nose, lip and chin.
But apart from that nothing else was damaged, legs fine and no holes in
my Skins, camera pouch was a bit dusty and my hip flask which was clipped to
the chest strap has a few scratches but luckily nothing to stop me running. It didn't take too long until I was back in my
stride. I was still moving well, my legs
felt supple and strong.
We picking a careful path through coo poo alley, and
moved well on the rollercoaster. After
crossing the road Pauline put her race head on, looked at her watch, and said
it's close but we might finish under 13 hours.
She was pulling away, Sue and I followed putting in a good effort, it
was the plan but I had a wee conspiratorial whisper to Sue "I don't think
we're going to get under 13 hours, are you worried?" She wasn't, that's a relief, but we weren't
slacking, Pauline was feeding us
chocolate coated coffee beans, and I was breathing hard. I heard the piper, we were nearly there.
.jpg) |
| photo from Muriel Downie |
We finished together in a row of grinning
Cheshire cats in 13hrs 3mins. Pauline
was happy to lay the blame of failing to finish under 13 hours on me stopping
for a lie down, that's ok, I can live with that, it was a brilliant day and
mashing my moosh wasn't going to take the shine off.
