Continuing a Calderglen tradition

Ahem, my name is David and I, eh...got lost in the Lomond Hills at the weekend. There, I've said it and I feel better for having made my public confession. I've finally joined the list of harriers (Eddie, Kenny, Billy and Allan spring to mind) who have taken the road 'less-travelled' during events by adding miles on to what was already a forty miler. I should point out though that no helicopters were involved.
To backtrack a little I had very nearly convinced myself not to run the Adventures into Wonderland Ultra due to a combination of under training and niggling injuries. Having checked the forecast for the umpteenth time that week (heavy rain but fairly warm and, importantly, dry early on) I decided at around four pm on the Friday to give it a go and actually made a decent job of getting ready at the last minute - sadly the one exception to this was checking the route and given that I'd never set foot in the Lomonds before this was to turn out to be critical error, as you will discover.
Groggily out of bed at 03:30 (argh!) for a 4.45 departure to Lochgelly and the forecast had been correct, it was indeed a beautiful night/morning - calm, warm and dry. The race HQ was at the Meedies, the Fifer's name for Lochore Meadows Country Park, a lovely family-friendly area reclaimed from the degraded landscape left behind when the NCB closed no less than seven pits between 1959 and 1966. Since 2015 it also hosts an emponymous running club and a parkrun was established there in May of this year.

A visual reminder of the area's heritage

A quick chat with a few friends after collecting my number and it was time for the race brief.

Who's the old guy at the back? Oh it's me

I should explain that the organisers seem to have a thing for Alice in Wonderland and call themselves The Mad Hatters which was the theme for all the races, there also being a haffer of 14 miles and a marathon of 28 miles - delightfully inaccurate trail distances. The cutoffs respectively were 5 and 8 hours which gives you a flavour of the courses' severity.

I won't bore you with too much detail (for a change) but, for those who know the Lomonds, the race covered the following hills - Harran (twice), Benarty (twice), Bishop Hill (twice, the first of those straight up the steep front facing Scotlandwell) and both West and East Lomond - a grand total of 5,682 feet of climbing. Conditions degenerated during the first ascent of Bishop Hill and my jacket and gloves stayed on thereafter. Having started under-trained for both the distance and the elevation I began to struggle early on but fortunately met and ran for many miles with a friend of mine. When I asked him,  knowing his propensity for daft challenges, what he was planning the following day I wasn't in the least surprised to hear he was running the Loch Rannoch marathon! And he did, in a respectable time of 4 hours and 34 minutes - he's nuts, but in a nice way
Looking at the results I reckon I was sixth from the back coming down Benarty for the second time. Most of the forestry on the south side has recently been harvested and the slope resembled a battlefield, one in which I was soon lost. Facebook was full of posts later that day telling of many who also were lost at various points on the race including instances of route marking having been removed, sadly I have no such excuse and can only blame a lack of oxygen to the brain for my silly error which led me unexpectedly on to a minor road. Remembering that the race started and finished at Loch Ore I reasoned that the best course of action was to head downhill to my right (I certainly was in no fit state to head back up!) rather than uphill to the left. Had I spent more time studying the route (see above regarding last minute prep.) I might have remembered there was another minor hill to cover with a road between it and Benarty. It was a doh! moment when I looked at the map at home later and realised if I had only headed left for a few hundred meters I would have come to the correct road crossing, been back on track and subsequently saved myself an extra 3.69 miles.

Compare the course map above

with my extra loop to the west almost to the M90!

Finally arriving at the finish with the directional assistance of three separate local folk in a time of 11.05.23 and being presented with my medal, see below, I couldn't help but notice there was only one other left on the table - second from last then I assumed. It turned out the 'last' runner out on the course didn't finish and I was firmly in the final place for the first time in my life, ah well - c'est la vie.

There are many, many worse things in life than finishing last and I did run a fair distance more than most although I was told of someone complaining about running 45 miles. Despite coming home last I was pleased I'd made the effort to complete my 38th ultra and my 7th this year. Just one to go, Glen Ogle with Ruth and Jim, in three weeks time. Also it would appear from the results I was the first MV60. (you can work out the rest yourself as in, first and.....).
The race winners were James Crozier in 6.36.34 and Alice Mezinescu in 7.24.00 who was also in 6th place overall.
Here is a link to a few (not many due to the crappy weather) more photos of the day  Adventures into Wonderland