Saturday 17th May
Kinlochleven to Fort William
1.05pm, 14.51 miles, 2.46.07, Ave 11.27m/m
Splits: 15.30, 15.23, 11.22, 11.46, 10.18, 10.17, 9.37, 12.31, 11.08, 12.33, 14.21, 8.36, 8.50, 9.10, 9.06 pace for the last 0.51 miles
I left the house at 7.20am to drive to Bridge of Orchy and meet Pacepusher, John, WHW runner, Allybea, Tim and a couple of other people I had only heard about from the WHW race forum. This WHW race has increased my confidence on the A82 – I took an hour and 5 mins to get from Linwood to Bridge of Orchy, driving in a rather kamikaze fashion. It has also made me far more reckless running downhill but that is for later.
I knew Pacepusher would not be running today and was expecting him to be very grump when I arrived but in actual fact I think he was coping very well. We saw the 6 runners off and then headed to Kingshouse to meet them there. Pacepusher was not impressed with this part of not running – we had about 2 hours to wait for them! We were kept occupied by Allybea and her very impressive snack van! Everyone came in together looking strong and we then went to Kinlochleven where I would be running from.
Pacepusher suggested that I take a bit of a head start as I was quite worried that I was going to be a lot slower than the rest of them. I was not worried about being left by myself but felt it would be a bit demoralising to be left behind. So I jumped at the chance of starting early and I think I was between 5 and 10 mins ahead of the others. I had to walk most of the first two miles as it is pretty steep but I loved the views and was just really enjoying being outside and exercising after a very difficult few days at work this week. I did run uphill at one point though as I cannot walk past walkers so I had some heavy breathing going on at that point!
I cannot describe just how much I loved this run. Once I got over the hills I ran about 98% of the way to Lundavra I reckon and just was having so much fun. It was great knowing that the others were behind me as I wanted it to take as long as possible for them to catch me and especially once I knew I was getting close to Lundavra I really tried hard to get there before them. It was lovely weather with some sun but not too hot and I was running past so many walkers.
I did not stop at Lundavra except to collect water (I had not carried it for the first part as I was so worried about getting my throat problem) and Pacepusher was so rubbish at being support crew I had to collect it out of the car myself. He was not expecting me that early and was amazed that the others had not caught me.
There are a couple of hills I remember walking up going out of Lundavra but again I think I ran most of the way and remember more the huge amount of downhill there was. I absolutely loved the whole run until I came out onto the road into Fort William and until then had just wanted to go and do the whole thing again. I felt like I had only been running for about an hour! I had so much fun and that is not an adjective I would use that often for my running. I actually really liked being by myself as I could not get bored, or caught up with thinking about school etc as I had to concentrate on what I was doing so much. I have not run that length by myself for a long time and was surprised how contented I was.
This has made me want to run much more on the way and other trail paths and I have decided I want to run the Devil of the Highlands next August. I am picking that one over the Highland Fling because it is shorter, I like that part of the route, especially what I did today (I know it was on fresh legs so totally different!), it is later in the year so wont be training for it in the winter and I like the name!
None of the others did catch up with me (again I know I had fresh legs!) although John was not far behind me and, my favourite post run thing – I got a cup of tea from Allybea when I finished!
Decided my legs would be totally gubbed for the Womens 10km the next day but that I did not care because I had so much fun!
