Forward progress & Fun with Friends

This weekend was the annual West Highland Way training weekend and it also marked the end of the second month of my training programme, both events worthy of recording.
As always the WHW weekend was based in The Oak Tree Inn at Balmaha and a motley crew of regulars and newbies turned up to enjoy the exercise, the company and the hospitality.  Some folk arrived Friday night, some came Saturday morning and stayed overnight and some just rocked up Saturday morning, ran and enjoyed the company and post run soup then headed home.  The full run is out to Inversnaid and back which is 30 miles though there were many variations and distances on the day.  For many people this is their first long run of the year and for some, it's  their first sojourn onto the WHW.
I'd a 10mile run on my programme but went to Rowardennan with Julie where we turned for home. Unfortunately at about 11miles we had to slow to a walk as Julie suffered cramping and we were lucky that Lorna was passing and offered us a lift back just as the watch ticked over the 13mile mark!  I was happy though with a wee bit further than planned, some good climbing and no ill effects.
A long hot shower, then as John had also returned from his run, we headed down to the pub for some food and to catch up with everyone's tales of their adventures and their hopes and plans for the coming year.
Afternoon rolled into evening and then it was dinner time, and proseeco and giggles later we were getting gently ushered out the door - oops! I can't remember the last time we were in a pub til closing time!  Great evening catching up with friends, a good sleep, nice breakfast and after a wee walk to say cheerio to Karen & George and Donald we headed home.  Tired but giggling as we remembered some of the conversations from last night!
This weekend is always special as it reminds me of the fun to be had when spending time in the company of friends, you meet on the trails and then again over a bowl of soup or a drink and for me it marks the start of the year for real.
As I said at the beginning I have now completed the second month of my training programme and am feeling quite proud of that achievement, I've managed all the workouts, some better than others and have been enjoying the discipline and the routine.  I'm also sticking to my healthy eating and this is paying dividends too as my weight is slowly starting to come down,  both of these factors are helping me to stay positive and stick at it.  Here's to February and whatever it brings! (Hopefully some snow!)

The Fling...

 

Saturday 27 April 2013 6am

This date has been indelibly stamped on my brain since one evening last September, the eve of the Toronto waterfront marathon to be exact.  I was sitting in our rented apartment in Toronto, idly browsing facebook and keeping up with friends back here at home when up popped the notification that "The Fling" was open...
The Fling or to give it it's Sunday name, the Hoka Highland Fling 53 Mile Ultra Race is a well respected ultra race held on the last Saturday in April, following the first 'half' of the West Highland Way.  John was meant to run this in 2011 but got injured and so we were asked to help out marshalling at one of the checkpoints, we had a great day and I got the ultra bug that day.  Even though I never really believed that I was capable of running those sorts of distances on that kind of terrain, a wee fire had been kindled deep down inside.
2012 John entered again and had a great race finishing in just over 12hrs, I took part in the relay race with my fellow Runtime Error friends and then spent the next few months wondering if, just if, just maybe, I could do it.  I hadn't actually got round to thinking about it seriously until that night in Toronto and then it was all done in seconds.  Went something like this:  Me - "John do you think I could do The Fling?"
John - "Yes"

Me - "are you sure"

John - "Yes don't see why not"

then the curse that is Entry Central - akin to Amazon one-click shopping, the deed was done, the entry is processed before you have time to change your mind!

The rest as they say is history - most of you will know of the runs we did in training some good, some not so good, some awesome, but all completed, good hard, tough training miles into our legs, our lungs, and most importantly for me, our heads.
By the time we left for Boston 2 weeks ago, I was ready for my biggest challenge to date, I was confident I could do the miles, my only concern was that I might not be fast enough to make the cutoff at Beinglas Farm in time to be allowed to continue.  However I was determined I was going to give it my all and I was going to get to that gate on time.

It was unfortunately not to be :-(

John has blogged about his race in Boston and how he didn't get the time he was after and indeed didn't feel 100%, it now seems that he was brewing the lurgy, some kind soul passed on their bugs to us and by the Wednesday after Boston he had a horrid cough which then developed into a full blown sinus/chest thing :-(  I started feeling grotty on the Friday we got home but put it down to jetlag and travelling and getting over the trauma of the bombings, however by Tuesday afternoon I knew it was the same thing and subsequently have been off work since Wednesday.
Ever hopeful John kept trying to hold on to the tenuous hope that he might be better by Saturday, by Thursday evening I knew that my race was scuppered and yes I was devastated, I went to bed feeling very sorry for myself and just wanting to cry and moan that it was SO UNFAIR!!  The biggest race of my life to date, all the hard work I'd put in to get fit for it and now it wasn't going to happen!  All because somebody gave us a bug :-(   As I said in a recent post - I know that in the light of the atrocities we witnessed in Boston, this is not really a big deal, but yes at that moment in time and to me it was the biggest deal and it hurt like hell!
Friday morning John conceded that nope he wasn't well enough either and so the decision was made we would both be a DNS.
I really wanted to go through to registration on Friday evening to say hi to friends and to pick up my car pass which you pay for over and above your entry and which allows entry to the Beinglas checkpoint.  I wanted to go out on Saturday and support our friends and it's a good place to see people, so we went through to Milngavie on Friday evening, caught up with some friends, got some much appreciated hugs and words of sympathy then came home to get ready for an early start.

Saturday dawned bright and fair, yet again it was perfect Fling weather, bright and sunny, not too warm, and not too windy.  A quick coffee and pack some stuff and we were ready to head out, first stop Balmaha.  We got to Balmaha just as the first runners were passing through, as always, the checkpoints run like clockwork, runners arrive, get their drop bags, get their water topped up if required, some stop for a chat with their support crews, others just fly on through.  Our friend Sarah was in full flow calling out the runner's numbers to the bag crew, so much so that she didn't even see us there :-)  We waited for our friends to all get through then headed to the Oak Tree inn for breakfast.  After our own refuelling stop it was on up the road to Rowardennan, this is the end of the road and also the busiest checkpoint in terms of traffic as it's a relay changeover point as well.  Another friend Alan was working the bag crew here under the experienced and watchful eye of Mrs Mac :-)
Caught up with 'our team' again, saw them all through, and then we drove up to Beinglas.  This is a really interesting place to see the runners as it's after the most technical and demanding stage of the course, it's 40miles in and it's the toughest clamberiest (I know I made it up) part of the route, but what a sense of achievement when you do it!  Listening to the comments of runners coming in was at times highly amusing as there are many who run this race who have no idea of the route, and there were a lot of folk who seemed to be at the end of their reserves and were mentally fatigued by what they'd just been through.  Again there's an opportunity for runners to rest, feed, or pick up and go whatever suits them, the team who mans this checkpoint is great, they are all very experienced and they know to watch for wobbly runners or those who are a bit green around the edges, making sure they sit down, get a drink, food etc.  Here too the guys from the Wilderness Response Team offer their assistance.

Next stop for John and I was Tyndrum - the end of the line, we knew when we were at Beinglas that the leaders had finished and that new course records had been set - perhaps in some part due to the new paths that have been laid this Spring, perhaps just due to faster runners...
We got the last parking spot in the carpark at the Real Food Cafe, wandered down to the finish line - it wasn't there??? Spotted a sign and followed it round and there was a fantastic finish chute and marquees for runners to get massages, hot soup, shelter, warm showers - Wow!  The old finish was ace but this was Awesome!  It was busy and we caught up with Sarah and David Ross who had been bag man at Inversnaid and was now at finish helping out.  More welcome hugs :-)  All of 'our team' finished with spectacular times, all smiling and it was great to be there to cheer them in.  

There is no denying that it was the absolute pits not being able to run yesterday but being there and seeing our friends achieve the dream we had all shared and trained hard for over the winter helped to ease the pain a little.  I'm not going to list them all here, they  know who they are, and if you follow us on facebook there's a fair chance you know who they are too - suffice to say they are all Awesome!! Absolutely amazing and each with their own stories to tell.  There will be other Flings and we will run them, but 2013 wasn't to be for us but I am so happy for those it happened for.

Lastly, events like this don't happen by magic, Johnny Fling puts in a power of work organising this event every year, ably assisted by a great team of 80 volunteers.  To all of them thank you xxx

I Told You So!

and so he did.... at least 7 times before bedtime last night!

Yesterday was the first day of our 4 day Easter weekend, and I decided to do my long run of the weekend rather than put it off until today.  Couldn't do it tomorrow (Sunday) as we are going to go up to Perth to watch the Anglo Celtic Plate 50km and 100km races and to support friends.  If I put it off until Monday then it's into next week's running so doesn't count apparently ;-)
So, up nice and early - who needs an alarm when the daylight is creeping round the edges of the curtains at 5:30am?  Up at about 20 past 6 and downstairs to put the porridge on.  I had sort of planned to run from Milngavie to about the foot of Conic Hill and back as I was looking for 24 miles but John who is now officially tapering for Boston in 2 weeks, decided he'd like to run with me but he wasn't enamoured with Milngavie out and back as he's done it a few times recently... I let him coerce me into running from Balmaha to potentially past Rowardennan and back!  I have done this once before way back at the start of my WHW running adventures in February 2011 and it nearly killed me that day!  I have since run twice from Drymen to Rowardennan on my own, once as a practice and once as the second leg of the Hoka Highland Fling relay last April.  I did much better on those two occasions than the first time I'm glad to report.  So I wasn't too phased about it, other than when we were driving towards Buchlyvie and it started to snow - we left the house in sunshine!  I realised that I hadn't brought any spikes for my shoes so had a wee panic that there might be snow or ice to contend with - I have real issues with icy roads :-(
Fortunately it was but a passing flurry and we arrived at Balmaha in dry if cold conditions.  A quick visit to the facilities at the Oak Tree Inn and we headed off down the path along the lochside.  First set of steps - god how I hate those stone steps that litter this route - and an unscheduled stop as I thought I was suffering from a leaky bladder... quick recycling of a zip bag as a precautionary measure and we were on our way.  The first 3miles were AWFUL!!!! This is where the I told you sos started.... you see I had done my usual 3 fitcamp sessions this week, Mon, Wed, Thurs and they were all tough!  However on Thursday I had a rare chance to get to the treadmill at lunchtime and decided to do a wee interval session which I thorougly enjoyed but which was the fastest running I've ever done... so.... as you can guess my legs were screaming!!!  Hey ho... At mile 3 John suggested that I decide whether I wanted to turn back - how dare he??  I said no I might not do 12 miles out and back but I would definitely go to Rowardennan and probably turn back there.
Now it usually takes 40min to an hour for me to warm up on this sort of terrain at my plodding pace, so things started to get better and even the 'dreaded steps' that I have had nightmares in the past about weren't nearly as bad as I remembered them... I even got a row for running down the path at 9:30 pace!  Though I don't think I was going that fast!
We got to Rowardennan and stopped to use the facilities and I changed my shirt there as I was too warm in 2 long sleeve tops as the sun had come out, so I swapped one for a short sleeve T and then proceeded to be quite cold on the way back when the sun disappeared and the wind blew in off the Loch!  Typical!
I'm still not getting the feeding 100% right, but I am getting better as I did say at the hour and 2 hour mark that I needed to eat something so that's progress :-)
John was running up all the big hills like some sort of Ibex or other fleet footed mountain climber - it was truly a sight to behold and at one point I stopped to watch him and wanted to woop and holler but didn't as I was worried he'd think there was something wrong and think he'd to come back to get me :-)
I much much prefer to run this route in one direction only as I think it's much tougher coming back the way - there are some big climbs on this section - cumulative climbing was 451metres - that's adding up all the Ups - so it's no wonder my poor legs were dead by the last hill... he only told me so another twice on the route, then another time in the pub when our friend Bob had the audacity to agree! Then I think it was another 4 or 5 times before bedtime LOL!
As I came back into Balmaha I met Karl Zeiner and Debbie Brupacher, they are running the full WHW on 3 days and various friends from our facebook community have joined them for part of it - we met some of them at Balmaha as they'd stopped for a break and were heading on to Rowardennan where there was a previously-planted car to drive back to Balmaha for some food at the Oak Tree, then back to Milngavie to pick up various other cars and head home.  Others are meeting them today to run some of the next part and yet more tomorrow I think.  Yes I was pretty gubbed at the end, and I'd only got 15 (tough) miles instead of 24 (gentler) miles, but as my wee mouse at the top of this post reminds me it didn't kill me, or to quote John in a recent post I'm not dead yet!!
So tomorrow will be a day of cheering and flag waving and watch the real big guns fight to keep the AC Plate in Scottish hands, Monday will be our fitcamp anniversary so I'll be heading to the morning camp, and that gives us the rest of our day off to do something - or not as the fancy takes us.  Then it will be one more week at work then we're off :-)

Happy Easter everyone  xxx