Devil O'The Highlands

A perspective from the other side...

Three harriers plus support didn’t head west to Islay or Dunoon last weekend instead Ruth, Jim, Alison and I drove up the A82 (yet again!) on Friday heading for Fort William. Having been two minutes late logging on to Entry Central earlier in the year I had failed to get an entry so instead volunteered to marshall, not having done so at an ultra since the Clyde Stride in 2013.

On Saturday morning, while Alison and I slept, the other two were up and out of bed at the ungodly hour of three o’clock in order to get to the bus station to catch the four o’clock coach down to Tyndrum. I’d love to tell you all about the start but as I wasn’t even conscious at the time it would be a work of fiction. Suffice to say that, at the sound of the air-horn, 266 runners headed off up the hill above Brodies’ Store at six o’clock on Saturday morning heading for Fort William, 42 very hilly miles away.

From the look on Ruth's face Jim has just cracked one of his jokes!

At about the same time my alarm sounded giving me plenty of time to prepare for my all-day stint, marshalling at Kinlochleven from 8 until 1:30 then sweeping (along with three others) the fifteen miles from there to Fort William.

Jim made the Bridge of Orchy CP almost bang on the hour with Ruth thirteen minutes behind, just as I was leaving the hotel room! Sadly both the rain (thanks BBC, yet another woefully inaccurate forecast) and the midges were in full flow when I arrived at KLL at eight o’clock to help set up the CP. The smooth organisation of this race and attention to detail impressed me hugely, I guess having organised a number of Flings and last year’s DotH by now John Duncan is getting the hang of it!   

Dawn (Williamson!) spots a camera, RD John Duncan in the background.

Almost a smile from Jim as he crosses the Bridge of Orchy

Definitely a smile from Ruth at the same spot

Alison eventually roused herself from her comfortable hotel bed and headed down to Glencoe in plenty of time to welcome Jim and Ruth who arrived in 3.03 and 3.42 respectively.  In 2015 Jim was already heading to Kingshouse as she arrived at the Ski Centre car park making the handing over of gels, etc. a tad tricky (think Tour de France with drinks, gels, etc being passed out of the car window).   

Jim resolutely refusing to smile (or run!) for the camera at the top of the staircase

 

Anyone else sense a theme developing here?

Nope, no smile at KLL either

Alison nipped to Altnafeadh at the foot of the staircase to see both of them again and then carried on to KLL where we were both a little concerned about Jim when he arrived in 5.34. Having emptied his dropbag on to the table for him I was unable to tempt him with anything as all he wanted was a seat and some painkillers. Leaving Alison to make sure he didn’t fall asleep I returned to my duties and was relieved a few minutes later when a much happier looking Jim started to make his way towards the Lairig Mor and the finish in Fort William, her TLC (and two paracetamol) clearly having worked wonders.

Ruth appeared in 6.36 looking tired but happy despite feeling ‘lonely’. Not surprising I suppose as we had run many miles together at the WHWR and all 53 miles in each others’ company at the Fling. Refuelled and hydrated she headed off for the final 15 mile section of the race in good spirits. 

No smiles from me either as the hard work continues

Still plenty of runners to come through

Alison stayed helping at the CP until the final runner was near and then made sure I was ready for my second task of the day, sweeping. As the full-race sweepers hadn’t arrived with her I left the CP with Elaine Sandeman, the final runner, assuming they would catch up later, which they did, half-way up the climb out of KLL. We then met the reverse sweeper coming from FW who promptly turned around and we all walked the fourteen miles or so to the finish together. I say walked as Elaine’s knee was very sore and despite trying a few times she simply couldn’t run on it indeed walking was giving her a lot of pain, as we could clearly hear. Nevertheless she doggedly stomped her way up and down the hills and eventually over the finish line in a time of 12.35.34 followed a minute later by a 'sprint' finish from the sweep team.

There were 261 finishers and only 5 DNFs with Jim coming home in 9.21.14 and Ruth arriving in 10.57.50 to complete their sixth ultra in less than two years, both having started at Glen Ogle 33 in November 2014.

I'll add photos at this point of Jim and Ruth finishing when they are eventually posted on fb
 

The photo above is of a lovely couple, Lorna and John, who are both daft as a brush. Their idea of a weekend away together is to run the DotH, turn around at Fort William and run the whole way back again!

The distinctive finisher's medal (I've pinched your fb profile picture Ruth, hope you don't mind)

The female race winner was Nicola Adams-Hendry of Garscube Harriers in 6.36.37 while the male race winner was John Connolly in 5.56.05. A pal of mine, Norrie McKinley, finished a brilliant fourth overall in 6.25.17 which he put down to not stopping to roll a fag! Ultra runners, eh?

Next up for me is marshalling, again, at the John Lucas Memorial Round Strathaven 50 this coming Sunday followed by the Speyside Way ultra, 36.5 miles, the following weekend (running this time!).