The Highland Fling 30/04/11
This was to be my ‘target’ ultra for 2011. For various reasons I never really had a rest period over the winter. I trained hard for the Water of Leith at the end of November but both Anne and I had rotten colds and we woke on race day to a covering of snow in Perth. We knew the journey to Edinburgh probably wouldn’t be possible so WoL was cancelled for us. As I was so fit it seemed silly to just waste it all and so I carried on so that I could start my Fling training in late December with a good level of fitness and endurance. This winter that meant lots of running in the snow, so all I did was run in my Asic Trabuco trail shoes instead of road shoes. The training went pretty well but I hate the periods I get during my training when it all seems to be hard work and I always feel tired, then out of the blue it all seems to come together and my performance suddenly matches my expectations. I did the D33 as part of my training and was really happy with the run. I’ve never done a long flat race and just didn’t know what to expect or how to pace myself so I cheated and ran with Sue Walker as she’s so good at pace – and a great mate who I enjoy being with. I had no idea what to expect and would’ve been happy with 12 minute miles, so to come home in 5:53 at sub 11 minute pace was fine by me. I even managed a local 6k Fun Run the next day.
With 4 weeks to go I had one of those awful weekends. I had a 28 and a 10 planned. I did the 10 on Saturday not the Sunday as I felt a bit jaded. On the Sunday I attempted the 28 and went from Kirkmichael to Blairgowrie and back along the Cateran Trail. It was just dreadful, I had no energy and was thoroughly miserable and eventually cut the run short to 25.5. I got home and had all these worries that I’d overtrained because I didn’t have a rest period during the winter. So, I took the week off. My next run was the following weekend, a favourite that I do every year, Glencoe to Fort William. Lochaber is one of Anne’s favourite marathons and she runs it just about every year and every time on the way up on the Saturday she kicks me out of the car at Glencoe Ski Centre and I meet her in the Premier at Fort William. I had an extra reason to run it this year. I had a ghost to put to bed. I wanted to run without falling over near Lundrava as I did in last year’s Devil. I just love the route and the weather was fine and I had a great time – until I got to Lundrava and fell again, twice ! I don’t know what upset me the most, the fact that I had fallen again, despite being very careful, the cuts and bruises or the £52 pair of skins that I wrote off. I was fed up – but I ran well and enjoyed it and all thoughts of overtraining were banished. It was also funny as I had a big tin of sweets and a ‘thank you’ letter in the car for the A&E staff at the Belford for stitching me up last August. I limped in with them on the Sunday and they were really grateful and then asked me why I was limping. I just said ‘don’t ask’ and rapidly left. It did make me decide to wear neoprene knee supports in ultras, not because I have knee problems but as protection. It also demolished a nasty raised scar on my left knee ( a legacy of 2010 ) and now I have a much neater ‘hole’.
I resumed my training with new heart and got a big boost 9 days before the Fling when I entered the club’s annual 10 mile handicap race. I made my time estimate and set off at my allotted time – and ran like a man possessed to come home first ! I have a huge trophy to prove it.
And now, my first Fling. I couldn’t cheat this time and use Sue’s pacing and planning skills as she wasn’t running. So I tried my best with other people ! Firstly my support crew of Anne my wife and good friends Iain and Fiona Morrison were wonderful as always and I wonder how they put up with me when I’m tired and irrational. Iain got up at 2 am to drive me to Milngavie, and instead of going straight home waited at Drymen to see me through. Then he went home, picked up Anne and Fiona and drove to Bein Glas and dropped Anne off so she could run south and meet up with me.
Anyway, I digress, my first Fling. I never managed to run any of the route before the race so I looked at other peoples times for last year and using maps showing ascent figures made some guesstimates. I geusstimated 4 hours to Balmaha, 6 to Rowardennan, 8 to Inversnaid and 10 to Bein Glas farm, leaving me 4 hours to get to Tyndrum to achieve my hoped for 14 hours. My nerves were better than last year’s Devil and I got quite a bit of sleep during the day on Friday and during the short night. When I wasn’t sleeping on Friday I think I was eating and probably started the race getting on 11stone ! I knew it would be hot and I’m not good in the heat so filled my hydration bladder with Nuun and tried to mentally prepare for a tough race. We were soon off and I ran with Fiona Rennie at first. I knew it would only be to Balmaha, at most, as I pussy foot around at checkpoints and she doesn’t. By that I mean that I stop to eat - remember I’m a man and I can’t run and eat at the same time ! Of course at two miles I went flat on my face, with loads of witnesses. I can tell you that the knee supports worked but I did land bang on the injured left knee and it did make my eyes water. Pete Humphreys said ‘hello’ as he went past at about 17 miles which is amazing to me as he’d started an hour after me. I don’t remember seeing any other runners I know going past me apart from Gail later on. Going up Conic Hill wasn’t too bad but coming down was scary. I got to Balamaha in just under 4 hours loaded up with some banana flavoured Slimfast, a pot of Ambrosia rice and a jelly with fruit in it. I topped up my hydration pack and set off again. At some point I met up with two Stonehaven girls Fiona Smith and Nicola Rhind who I ran many miles with at the D33 and we ran some more miles together. I left them before Rowardennan and I know this as there were no witnesses when I had my second fall ! I think it was a moment’s lapse of concentration and I was down. Again the knee supports worked but I cut my left hand. I was right by the water so stopped at a small inlet to clean up the hand. The water was clear but full of black bits so I went to some rocks where it looked cleaner and deeper. I squatted on the rocks and discovered they were slippery and I slowly slid into the loch ! I was sitting in about 9 inches of water washing my hand when some southern walkers came round the corner. I got a chorus of ‘you ‘avin a barf mate?’ That got me running again. I was soon in Rowardennan for checkpoint 2 in a shade over 6 hours. More food and a hydration pack top up and off again. Not long after this I linked up with Becky Munro and Carla Cesaroni and managed to stay with them until I met up with Anne at about mile 38, at which point the girls were pulling away from me. They were brilliant, Becky was from Inverness and I asked her if she’d done the Loch Ness Marathon ‘ Oh no, I’ve only ever done a half marathon before this ‘. Carla had come from Toronto for the race expecting Scotland to be cool not in the midst of a heatwave. Becky generally lead and Carla and I followed. I found the ‘technical’ bits alongside the loch fun but hard because they seemed to go on forever. When they finally finished and I got back on to something I could run on I no longer had any energy left. Anne met me about mile 38 as Becky and Carla were pulling away and we got through to Bein Glas in 10:34. Plenty of time to walk to the finish, which was good as my plans fell apart as I started to throw up. I couldn’t refuel and couldn’t really stop heaving so decided to carry on as best I could with Anne. I walked up the hills and managed some Nuun, flat coke and a jelly with fruit in it but couldn’t face gels or anything that tasted remotely synthetic so I didn’t get many calories on board. Finally at Derrydaroch Farm it all fell apart completely. I just couldn’t go on. I could hardly put one foot in front of the other and could only mumble. I cannot describe how I felt and couldn’t understand how I suddenly deteriorated into such a state. My mind was still working and I could still picture Sophie with the orange smoke stick going over the finishing line ( from the web site) and I still replaced Sophie with me. I slumped on a rock and thought that my body just wasn’t going to let me finish. Iain and Fiona had appeared and Fiona was encouraging me. I sent them away ( I hope politely ). Two blokes went past, one was attempting a shuffling run and the other one looked quite like me. This may have helped, I think I thought ‘ if he can I can ‘. I got Anne to pull me off the rock and I tried to get going again. I managed a pathetic walk/stagger and when we finally bypassed Crianlarich and stopped climbing all the time things got a bit better and I even managed some runs (about 100 yards at a time). We met Iain and Fiona where the WHW crosses the A82 and Fiona joined us to run me to the finish. When we got to the Auchtertyre Lodges I recognised where I waited for Fiona Rennie at last year’s WHW race. I didn’t know where the route went or what it was like but I knew it wasn’t far and that I was going to finish in under 15 hours. The running became more than 100 yards at a time and when Anne noticed a road sign beside the A82 announcing that you were entering Tyndrum spirits really began to rise. Suddenly there was a wall and a gate ( I think – well there was in my head ) and cheering people and we were there. I thought everybody would’ve gone home by the time I arrived and it took me a bit to realise all this noise was for me and I felt guilty because I’d done so much walking. A nice touch was that Neil MacRitchie was waiting to log my chip at the finish line after I logged him lapping the North Inch at the recent 100k race.
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