25th Anniversary West Highland Way Relay

Unbelievably, Saturday the 21st May 2016 saw the Harriers roll up to Milngavie railway station in a minibus at some extremely anti-social hour of the morning to begin their 25th running of the West Highland Way relay. 25 years ago a few members of the Harriers had taken on the organisation of the West Highland Way Race (held in June at the weekend closest to midsummer) after the previous organisers cancelled the race at short notice. We made all the arrangements we could in the time available and called upon the club to provide marshalls for the race. We thought it might be a good idea if the marshalls were completely familiar with the course to help understand what the individual runners were going through and, most importantly, to have some clue as to where to find any that went missing or any diversions that may have been in place. And so we decided that a club recce in the form of a relay would be a good idea a month or so before the race proper. We repeated this every May for the 9 or 10 years that we organised the race although by the end the relay was becoming a social event in its own right rather than a recce for the race. After we handed over the reigns of the WHW race in about 2000 or 2001, the relay was already a permanent fixture on our social calendar and so it continues to this day.

The popularity of the event continues as demonstrated by the event filling up as soon as we announced it. Although it would be great if we could open the relay up to everyone in the club who wanted to do it, the reality is that the route can only be split up into a limited number of sensible legs and the minibus has only 17 seats. This year we had accessed a cheaper but more spacious minibus from the Community Trust after sending our regular drivers on a mandatory course and test to demonstrate their competency.

Pick-ups started at around 4am on Saturday morning and an hour or so later we were at Milngavie Railway station at the start of the WHW. First crisis of the day occurred shortly before we arrived at the start when I announced the first leg runner to be Andy Henderson, only to discover that Andy was not on the bus (it was a very spacious bus; easy to lose someone in it) and was instead joining us with Chas part way up the route. Cometh the hour, cometh Gerry Mullen who "joyously" accepted the challenge dropped on him and made a quick change into his running gear for leg 1. But not before we had handed out the surprise, 25th anniversary T-shirts to everyone with our own confused map of the WHW landmarks. We were also pleased to find Stephen Phimister waiting for us at the station and ready to run, having missed out on a WHW place. He nonetheless decided to drive through to the start and to run as far as Drymen with whoever was doing the first 3 legs. The plan then was to get a service bus back to Milngavie for his car.

Dumgoyne changeover

Then we were off. Gerry (and Stephen) flew through the first leg but could not outrun the rain which arrived with a vengeance just as he arrived in Carbeth for the changeover. Karen Allen was off next on the road to Dumgoyne with an impressive team of navigators accompanying her. It is fair to say that Karen was drukit by the time she handed over to Gordon McInally on his first WHW relay. Most of Karen's escort team carried on with Gordon, including John Boyd (another first time WHW runner) who was officially given the second half of the leg to Drymen. At Drymen, a very wet and mucky Stephen Phimister was denied access to our nice, clean minibus (only kidding Stephen, we weren't going your way) whilst Joanne McEvoy relished the challenge of her favourite leg from Drymen up and over Conic Hill to the changeover in Balmaha. There is always a long wait in the car park at Balmaha and fortunately the rain relented sufficiently to allow us to indulge in games involving throwing and (not) catching various projectiles, courtesy of Jim Holmes. It wouldn't be Balmaha without someone getting stuck up a tree retrieving a frisbee. As Billy was absent this year, it fell to Kenny Leinster to do the ritual sacrifice of an expensive Goretex running jacket whilst jumping down from a tree.

Joanne flys into Balmaha

Meanwhile Joanne came flying in, surprised at the minibus location near to the exit from the forest. After a few anxious moments, she was persuaded to relinquish running duties to Colin Banks and Jim Holmes (discussions prior to Joanne's arrival suggested that neither Colin nor Jim were too sure of the initial part of the route but we did at least expect them both to get out of the car park! Perhaps we were expecting too much). By now the rain was hammering down again and nobody was out skimming stones across the loch at Milarochy this year. Consequently we missed the arrival of Colin and Jim as we all sheltered in the bus. Davy Watt was hastily deployed and set off on the undulating route through the woods to Rowardennan.

Davy Watt - drenched

Fortunately the visitor centre at Rowardennan provided toilets and shelter from the torrential rain whilst still offering a view of the inbound Davy Watt. A more drenched runner would be hard to imagine as Davy Watt sprinted to the changeover and as numerous walkers passed us by in full body cover, Eddie Reid set off in a vest and shorts for the toughest leg of all along the lochside to Inverarnan. The rest of us were lucky as the rain had gone off by the time we arrived at Inverarnan meaning a relatively dry walk around to Beinn Glas Farm for the changeover.  We also managed a hot coffee and/or teas in the cafe whilst awaiting Eddie. Chas and Andy also met us there ready to join the relay. In surprisingly quick time, given the conditions, Eddie appeared, running very well and handed over to Frances for the uphill run to Crianlarich. Eddie declared the stretch from Inversnaid hotel to Beinn Glas to be an absolute river underfoot all the way, confirming that this was a leg only for the strong and experienced (to avoid doubt, Eddie is both of these things!).

It is quite a climb up to the changeover at Crianlarich and always a rush to get there in time. This year was no different and we were only there a matter of 5 minutes when Frances appeared in view. Geo and Andy were going to do this stage to the main road at Ewich at which point the plan was for Geo to carry on to Tyndrum. However, Andy was struggling for some reason and Geo used his hill strength to power up and over, arriving at Ewich a few minutes ahead of Andy. Jim Holmes then took up the challenge to stay with Geo to Tyndrum. Sandra Reid is now back to good form after a successful London Marathon and hence was given the good running leg from Tyndrum to Bridge of Orchy. I decided to ease the navigational pressure on Sandra and to run this leg with her which somehow increased the pressure (I don't know why; I never push anyone beyond the limit, only right to the limit ;-)). This leg had everything; blazing sunshine and torrential rain (and spectacular scenery). However, we both ran well and finished very fast down into Bridge of Orchy where we had the virtual tag across the main road with Chas and a large pack of minders who would do the up and over into Inveroran.

Chas and team descend to Inveroran

Alison Lessells is getting back to fine form and was given the infamous Rannoch Moor leg to Black Rock Cottage. Gerry Mullen kindly volunteered to accompany Alison over this remote stage with Gordon McInally also joining for the first mile or so along the road. By now the sun was shining and we had seen the last of the rain for the day. This is not necessarily a benefit on Rannoch Moor as there is absolutely no shelter from the sun and it is a hard run. However, Alison finished characteristically smiling her way to the line to hand over to Samantha Jamieson who was worrying unnecessarily about her first WHW leg to Kingshouse (and onwards on Russel's leg to the bottom of the Devil's Staircase).

Russell in fine form.

A large pack joined Samantha for encouragement and she managed absolutely no bother at all. Russell Couper has really resumed his game this past year and had already run many miles supporting other runners earlier in the day. This was no hindrance to him as he finished his leg in style. Jim Holmes gladly accepted the Devil's Staircase leg to Kinlochleven and attacked it with his usual enthusiasm. This is another tight one for the minibus to get round in time and once again we only had a short wait by the hydro pipes on the edge of Kinlochleven before Jim powered into view. Although it seems that David Herbertson must have been on the WHW many times, this was in fact only his second year. David needed a full briefing on the first mile of his leg to make sure he actually got out of Kinlochleven and onto the mega climb up to the old military road at the Mamore Lodge. We need not have worried and after another time critical drive around to Lundavra, we soon saw David powering into view. Not having done the leg from Lundavra into Glen Nevis for a few years, I was keen to give it a go to see what effect age had had in the past few years. Although I felt a bit weak on the first few miles of climbing, as soon as the long descent started I was able to maintain a very fast pace for mile after mile and really enjoyed the sensation of speed. I was glad to see virtually the entire team waiting in club vests at the final changeover in Braveheart Car Park and carried on at a reduced pace for the final three quarter mile to the finish en masse. We finished in about 14:27, a good time given the conditions and certainly with a championship level of laughs per minute.

After the usual team photo at the finish, we made our way to the Ben Nevis Hotel where some of us had time for a swim and jacuzzi before heading for an excellent dinner and a night of rehydration.

Sunday saw a split decision on the bus. Geo and Joanne went for walk up the Lost Valley whilst the rest of the bus headed to Glencoe Ski Centre for some "tubing", chairlifting or coffee and cake devouring.

A huge thanks to Frances for organising our excellent accommodation, to Kenny for the brilliant suggestion to use the Community Trust minibus, to our drivers on the days (Eddie, Kenny and me) and to all the Harriers for their unrivalled enthusiasm for running.

Many photos (there are captions if you open each individual photo) are in this album. Sorry for the hundreds of tubing photos; its a painful process deleting individual photos from the latest Google Photo album app! I will also add a link to the leg times once I have sorted out a few missing times.
Alan