The night before the race a friend described it as 'the last day of school' and, as the final ultra of the Scottish season, it did indeed have that end-of-term, don't take anything too seriously feel to it. It may have been down to business as usual for the front-runners but Ruth, Jim and I were just damned glad to be there. I had only managed around five weeks of training since June and both Ruth and Jim had experienced their own injury problems in recent weeks, achilles and suspected shin splints respectively. Our longest runs since the summer were somewhere in the high teens for the two of them whereas I had only managed around 14, hardly ideal preparation for a hilly 33 mile race.
Nonetheless we pitched up to the start line having seemingly recovered enough to give us hope we wouldn't embarrass ourselves too much, after all we do have reputations to keep up - Jim now being a WHWR finisher and Ruth having conquered the Great Glen. Not content with coping with injury Jim, due to childcare difficulties, also had to get out of bed at some ungodly hour in order to be at race registration in Killin for seven o'clock unlike Ruth and I who had a leisurely stroll across the road from our hotel.
The start was typically BaM (standing for Bill and Mike, the joint organisers of four such ultras each year in Scotland, also known at their web address of www.runyabam), low-key and relaxed and we had plenty of time to have our photo taken together as we waited for the gun. I say gun but I think Bill simply shouted go and that was it, we were well back so didn't hear a thing!
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| A picture of optimism |
If you've read or heard the story of Gobi, the dog brought back to this country by his ultra running adopted owner Dion Leonard of Edinburgh, you'll understand dog-lover Ruth's excitement at finally meeting him at the start of the race, Gobi that is, not Dion. She dashed off into a crowd of people leaving Jim and I to stand there wondering what was going on.
Canine celebrity meetings over the race was finally underway and the 423 starters ran, plodded and shuffled their way along the meandering road through Killin, over the bridge at the lively Falls of Dochart and eventually turning off the tarmac and onto the first of many forest tracks. This led almost immediately to the biggest climb of the race up and out of the village and had most of the field walking.
We walked up the ascent and stayed together heading down the other side to the crossing over the A85, leading to the famous Glen Ogle viaduct, below.
Other than a heavy shower of rain (I even had to take my sunglasses off) the first half of the race passed uneventfully except for meeting Gobi again on the road to Balquidder...
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| You'll have to take my word for it that that is Ruth with Gobi. Apologies for perhaps the worst photo I've ever posted, my phone camera was playing up! |
Just after the road crossing around the half way point we had a slight mishap, climbing through the forest we intersected a forest road with no signage and the path we were on continued on the other side giving us a choice of three routes. Going with the 'if there's no sign telling you to turn off then stick to the way you're going' philosophy Ruth and I started to climb up the other side while Jim hung about at the junction waiting for a friend of mine I'd been talking to earlier who had done the race before. If you look closely at my Garmin trace you'll see an extra squiggle at the bottom which is where Ruth and I had to retrace our steps with our tails between our legs, it turned out we should have gone left, doh!
Drama over we carried on for about two miles along a very pleasant gradual downhill, endured another downpour and reached the third checkpoint in good order. Ruth was through here so quickly that neither Jim nor I realised she'd gone, we had to assume she was ahead of us. It turns out she did call out but neither of us heard, I was probably too busy hugging and socialising with pals manning the CP.
It was just after here my quads and hip flexors began reminding me how little training I had done for this event. Sadly this section was the very opposite of the previous few miles, steadily and inexorably uphill. I can recall running this entire section a few years ago but not this time, my run/walk strategy was dusted off and I tried to limit my losses to Ruth. Jim had legged it up the road once we had her in our sights and made sure she didn't hang about at the last checkpoint waiting for me. I was convinced I would be fine beyond that point, the final crossing of the A85, as I knew it was entirely downhill followed by flat and that proved to be the case as we caught Ruth and the three of us proceeded to steadily haul in some other runners and head for the finish, see below.
Sadly the seven hour mark came and went (too many photos and/or wrong turnings?) as we were running back through Killin. We very nearly stopped altogether when a friend who had finished earlier offered us her poke of chips, eat your heart out Alf Tupper! However we finished happily together in 7:03:11, 7:03:12 and 7:03:15 - I was the 15, having had trouble getting the timing dobber untangled from my glove.
We were 374th, 375th and 376th of 416 finishers with only seven DNFs. The last runner home was almost an hour behind us in 7:58:35, phew! The male winner was Iain Carroll of Giffnock North AAC with his clubmate David Sawyer only four seconds behind him, one of the closest finishes I can recall in any ultra. The female winner was Alison Rowatt, unattached, in 4:01:58.
All in all, speaking for the three of us, we had a cracking day out with great company and didn't make any injuries worse - what's not to like?
I've added a few random photos to give you a flavour of the event
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| The viaduct in it's heyday |
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| We resisted the temptation! |
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| John, manning the road crossing at Strathyre and giving friendly advice |
