The Highland Fling

Saturday saw me on the start line for my second running of the Highland Fling, a 53 mile ultra marathon from Milngavie to Tyndrum along the southern half of the West Highland Way.
I started at 7:00am along with about 170 other runners in the Male Senior and Male Vets category. The ladies and supervets had set off an hour earlier and the realy teams would be leaving at 8:00am an hour behind us.
The weather looked great with no wind and some light cloud cover but as the day wore on things would warm up and I think contributed to my difficulties later in the race. I set off at a steady pace trying to keep around 9min / mile and to resist the temptation to push on too hard when your body feels fresh and the adrenalin is pumping. There were a lot of runners around me as we left mugdock wood and decided to drop back a bit to give myself some space and run on my own. I got out past the Beech Tree Inn feeling comfortable and kept a steady pace all the way to Drymen, getting there in 1:55 slightly ahead of my 2 hour schedule.
I topped up my water and set off up through the forrest towards Conic Hill. I don't find the climb up Conic Hill too bad but I hate the descent and managed my usual slow progress down into Balmaha where I picked up my first drop bag. A quick pot of rice pudding and I was off along the lochside towards Rowardennan feeling the effects on my quads of the earlier descent. I always seem to struggle on this section and Saturday was no different. I went through a really low period that saw me contemplating imminent failure. It was along here that I started to get my first cramps in my calf muscles which, after a quick stretch seemed to pass but which were to cause me serious difficulties later.
I reached Rowardennan feeling pretty down and already struggling but after a pep talk from Alex who was in charge of the drop bags I got going again and shuffled my way off towards Inversnaid. I managed a bit of momentum along the roadway and kept the cramp at bay with regular stretches and was delighted to see the waterfall that signals your arrival at the Inversnaid Hotel. Because of the weather, the car park was full of tourists who all look somewhat bemused by the sight of these shuffling runners appearing out of the woods, scoffing down rice pudding and sandwhiches before shuffling off again.
The stretch along the top edge of the loch was slow as always and I continued to struggle with my motivation to keep going but by the time I left the waters edge and started the climb up towards Bein Glas I had rallied a bit and manged to up the pace again.
In an attempt to carry as little as possible, I had decided to use my bum bag instead of my back pack but the continued pressure on my stomach was making digesting food harder than normal and left me feeling nauseous on a number of occasions. I'll need to decide whether to go back to the backpack for the WHW race and try to address the chaffing that gives me in some way.
As I left Bein Glas, I was struggling again and started my run for 200, walk for 100 mantra to try and keep the progress going. The trouble was that by the time I got to about 120 on my run, the cramp set in and I had to stop and stretch then walk for a bit before I could start running again. I had arranged to meet my support crew (Pete my father-in-law and Cameron and Stuart my two boys) at Carmyle Cottage and it was this that kept me going. As I passed under the railway just before the cottage Stuart spotted my and came charging up to me shouting and cheering which was great and gave me a real boost to snap out of my depression. I tried some crisps at this point to see if that would help my cramp and after half a bottle of coke I was on my way once more - 8 miles to go!
The path along the top of the A82 was unusually dry and I met up with Mark Hamilton at this point and the two of us plodded our way up into Bogle Glen. By this stage, my hamstrings were cramping as well and I cursed the uphills and the downhills through this section but had a brief resurgance as I dropped down the last descent and ran into Auchtertyre Farm for a quick stop before the final 2.5 miles into Tyndrum.
I was determined to run this last section but I was fighting with cramp every hundred yards or so which was so frustrating as I felt could run if only my legs would let me. As I came out of the woods into the back of Tyndrum, people were passing me but there was nothing I could do about it. I had decided to try and keep something back so that I could at least run the last section along the edge of the river up to the finish and as the finish line came into sight I could feel my muscles going into spasm once more and despite my best efforts I had to stop 10 yards from the finish to stretch them out one last time. I crossed the line in 11hours 42mins; 20 minutes slower than last year.
There were many times through Saturdays race that I convinced myself that i wouldn't be able to finish and that if I found this race hard, what chance did I have of completing the WHW Race? Despite that though, I persevered and kept on going and I look back now and can see that that is what makes this kind of racing so special. It is the ability to endure, to keep going when everything within you is telling you to stop. If I can sort out the cramp problem, I know I can come back stronger and I'll be on the starting line in Milngavie at 1:00am on Saturday 20th June. What possible reason could I have for not!