This year's Calderglen Harriers WHW Relay was a cracker, establishing a number of firsts along the "Way" but what remained the same was the fun had by all. First of the firsts was the 2am start time, two hours earlier than last year and 3 hours earlier than our normal from previous years. Although this seemed a bit extreme, as the day progressed it proved to be a good idea, resulting in less time pressure and a more relaxed feeling throughout. Running the early legs in pitch darkness also changed the character of these familiar legs, adding an extra level of concentration to navigation and foot placement.
Eddie coordinated the early morning pick-ups with his usual expertise and we arrived at Milngavie station at just before 2am. After the obligatory team photo in the tunnel, Claire McSorley was set off at 2:10am with me in tow to assist by shining further light on the ground and the navigation.
Once we were clear of Milngavie it really was pitch dark and any scenery there was remained unseen! Claire ran strongly and there was no sign of fading as we powered uphill, coping with the rocky path and tree roots. We even met a runner heading in the opposite direction, not that he even acknowledged our greeting as we passed in the dark. Strange!
Claire finished at Carbeth in 35:56, handing over to WHW first-timer Emma Carroll, accompanied by Colin Holden, whilst the minibus headed off to Dumgoyne for the change-over. One advantage of the darkness was that we caught glimpses of Emma and Colin's head torches a long way out as they approached Dumgoyne and were ready for their arrival. Emma finished in 26:46, handing over to another first-timer Catherine Boyd, accompanied by the very experienced Eddie Reid.
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| Emma finishes at Dumgoyne |
Catherine was running to the Killearn junction handover in the layby to Eddie who carried on solo for his official leg to Drymen. It was noticeably colder than usual this year with the temperatures just hovering above freezing. This was particularly noticeable on Catherine's leg with the many steel gates to be opened very cold to the touch and with a slight frost on some of them. Catherine reached the changeover in 23:05.
It was still pitch dark at this time and Eddie's leg had a few critical junctions not to be missed. This Eddie managed fine and he commented that one difficulty is that there is no long view of the background hills or any other landmarks to confirm the correct direction. Anyway, Eddie soon emerged into the field at Drymen, slipping and sliding on the dew and frost covered grass and handing over to Graeme Lindsay in a time of 25:56. It was fantastic to see Eddie back running pain free and looking more like his (very) old self. Hopefully the cortisone injection to his knee is indeed the solution to an injury that has put him out of action for well over a year and a nice, steady build up will see Eddie back to good form again.
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| Eddie climbs through the final field to Drymen |
This stage over Conic Hill, partially in the dark provided an excellent training session for Graeme who is preparing for the full WHW race in just over a month. By the time Graeme crested the summit it was twilight with wonderful views across Loch Lomond.
Graeme arrived in the car park at Balmaha in 01:11:22 from where he continued his long-run by running back to his car in Drymen via the road. Many thanks to Graeme for meeting us at a very anti-social hour and putting in a fine shift.
Geo Ferguson took over from Graeme on the first of his two legs of the day. With a couple of late withdrawals, some runners would have to do two legs, Geo and Emma being the chosen two! In the case of Geo, I knew that he is very strong on the uphills and so I gave Geo two relatively short but hilly legs. Geo ran from Balmaha to Millarochy with Jordan Stewart for company, completing this short, sharp section in 19:14.
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| Geo handing over to Jim |
Next up was Jim Mearns, also using his leg to Rowardennan as part of a longer training run. Jim also travelled through especially to meet up with us bright and early at Balmaha. Jim completed this very undulating leg solo in a time of 64:26, now with the benefit of full daylight.
Kai Wheeler, our youngest team member at 18 years old was next up for the longest and toughest leg along the side of Loch Lomond to Inverarnan, a distance of 22km across extremely rugged terrain. Kai looked very strong when he finished in 2:23:55, handing over to his dad, Mark. Much to our delight, we had passed Loch Lomond without encountering a single midge; too early in the day and too cold for them!
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| Kai hands over to his dad, Mark |
The next stage ended at the deer gate high above Crianlarich and as Mark would complete this leg quickly, we were under a bit of time pressure to get our next runners a kilometre or so from the minibus and up the hill to the changeover. We managed with a few minutes to spare and Mark handed over in 48:48 to Emma who was up for her second leg of the day with Claire for company. This leg starts with a steep climb and then a long, technical descent over which Emma proved to be a natural, flying down to the handover at the main road crossing at Ewich in 26:02.
Standing ready to go on the other side of the main road, Gordon McInally headed off on the leg to Tyndrum with the ever competitive Eddie for company (aiming to run more legs than Emma). There is one potential navigational pitfall on this leg but I was confident that Gordon would not go wrong, the main issue being the shoulder injury he has been carrying for several months now. Whilst Gordon & Eddie were running, we drove on to the changeover at Brodie's Convenience Store in Tyndrum, topping up with coffee and making use of the facilities at the Green Wellie. Gordon & Eddie arrived at the main road crossing in a time of 36:18.
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| Frances takes over from Gordon |
By now the temperature was nice and warm and perfect for running, so time to bring on the club's resident warm weather and sunshine specialist Frances Ferguson for the spectacular leg to Bridge of Orchy. Frances always runs well on this leg and today was no exception, despite the best efforts of a group of American hikers trying to skewer Frances with a walking pole when she took them by surprise approaching at speed from behind! Despite (or maybe because of) being poked in the side with a sharp stick, Frances finished in 57:23.
Frances handed over to husband, Geo, for his second short, sharp leg of the day. This leg may be short but is tough with a steep ascent and then a steep, tricky, rocky underfoot descent to the changeover at Inveroran, where again, the Calderglen team basked in perfect, sunny conditions. Catherine, Julia, Emma and Claire had set off ahead of Geo and arrived just before Geo came in to view on the final descent, Geo finishing in 27:53, his work done for the day. At this point we were 12 minutes ahead of last year and looking good to arrive in time for a swim and dinner!
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| Colin sets off...... |
The next leg across Rannoch Moor is one of the longer ones and can suit faster runners but as with many of the legs, underfoot conditions are treacherous when running fast, particularly on the downhills, where the feet have to dance from rock to rock, picking a path several steps ahead. Colin Holden is in fine form right now and was given this leg. After seeing him safely off on the initial mile on road, the minibus headed around to meet him at the other end in Glen Coe.
After 35 years of doing this relay, we always have a good idea of how long each leg should roughly take. So after that time had passed by 20 minutes or so, we were beginning to get worried, not least because Colin's phone (which he should have had with him!) was heard ringing in the bus several times but rung off before we could get to it. Then a cryptic message was received via a voice message via Iain McLean (who was not on this trip) about Colin having some problem.
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| Secondary rescue team |
Cometh the hour, cometh Jordan Stewart (who knows this leg), who volunteered to head off over the leg backwards to see if he could find Colin and give us a report back by phone. Meanwhile, due to our early start, we still had more than enough time to complete if we carried on now before Colin arrived. So Colin Banks was duly set off on his leg from Black Rock Cottage to Kingshouse Hotel whilst Julia Whittle set off with Colin to warm-up for her leg and take over from him. Eddie and I took Scott Hair along to the bottom of the Devil's Staircase where he would take over from Julia. No panic, we had been here before on this very leg, as Eddie well knows! At least the weather was fine this time.
We then drove back to Black Rock Cottage via Kingshouse to pick up Colin Banks (and also to direct Julia onto her route as she was somewhat lost trying to find the start of the leg from Kingshouse to the Devil's Staircase). On arriving back at the rest of the team, we were informed that Jordan and Colin, having been "rescued" and treated by a group of women from Switzerland, were walking to the changeover from about 4km away. Colin was limping badly and had a head knock. Therefore, our secondary rescue team of Emma and Geo had worked out and practiced their rapid patient carrying technique just in case they were needed.
After an elapsed time of about two and a half hours, Colin and Jordan arrived at Black Rock Cottage. Claire carried out a quick appraisal of his injuries and it was decided that we were good to go and indeed Colin was in good spirits (but a lot of pain, mainly from his right hand and wrist). With almost perfect timing, we arrived back at the bottom of the Devil's Staircase to pick up Julia, arriving just a minute or so after Scott had set off. Then it was on to Kinlochleven. With two fast runners still to go we were looking in good shape for a finish just after 6pm, definitely justifying our 2am start! Meanwhile Strava was consulted to work out Julia's leg time (28:23).
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Scott hands over to Jordan at Kinlochleven
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We had a bit of time to relax at Kinlochleven whilst waiting for Scott. Jordan was given some guidance on the route out of Kinlochleven at the start of his leg as we have had navigational mishaps on this leg too! After 76:11 Scott appeared over the top of the final descent for a smooth hand over to Jordan. Meanwhile it had been decided that we should deliver Colin to A&E in Fort William because of the head knock and also to check for broken bones in the hand and wrist.
This final individual changeover at Lundavra can be a bit tight to get to, particularly with a fast runner such as Jordan running across from Kinlochleven. However, it is a tough 13km which which takes over an hour typically and this would give us enough time to drive to the hospital in Fort William, drop Colin and Julia off and then head up the long and winding single track road to Lundavra. The stress was building as we found ourselves stuck behind a minivan/taxi that was crawling along the single track road, only turning off about a mile before Lundavra. I was on the last leg and had dozed off a bit on the road to Fort William and was not feeling at my liveliest. When we arrived I got the heart rate monitor and club vest on and headed off into the undergrowth for another "pit stop". No sooner had I found a place, I heard the shout "here's Jordan" so rushed back out of the undergrowth, to intercept Jordan at the junction, handing my gilet to Eddie on the way past. Jordan had an excellent, problem-free run, handing over in 69:49, keeping us well on schedule for a swim and dinner.
Meanwhile the panic handover had got my heart rate up better than any warm-up and I was feeling quite good running smoothly up the hill with Eddie's shout of "you'd better not lose us any time!" fresh in my mind. Unfortunately, I had not yet tightened my shoe laces and my feet were rolling about inside the shoes. With the risk of a twisted ankle or injury on the rocky path, I stopped after a few minutes to tighten both shoe laces which cost me about 40 seconds according to Strava. This first part of the ascent is very open terrain and I still needed my "pit-stop". After another 5 or 7 minutes the surroundings became more scrubby so I dived into the undergrowth, losing another minute. Then I was feeling much more relaxed but feeling my age on the steep climbs towards the summit and the forest road descending to Glen Nevis. I've been focussing a bit on leg speed and downhills in recent training and was prepared to give it everything on the forest road descent. I felt great on the descent and was hammering along at 3 to 3:30 minutes per km. The descent does seem never-ending though. Finally I turned the final bend and could see all the Harriers waiting to start the final group run to the finish. I completed the stage in 45:17 and stopped for a few minutes to have a chat with Jimmy Stewart before carrying on to catch up with the pack.
First runner to reach the finish in Fort William was Frances who's time gave us a total time for the 96 miles of 16 hours and 2 minutes, a few minutes faster than last year (although I should probably add some extra time for the Glen Coe episode...). After the obligatory team photo (minus Julia and Colin who were waiting in A&E), we arrived at the hotel for about 18:30 with time for a swim and sauna before dinner at 19:45. Very relaxed in comparison to recent years! Colin had been given the all-clear with regard to concussion by A&E but did have two hairline fractures in his fingers and the aches and pains were increasing. Dinner was excellent and the bar was not particularly busy afterwards, a very nice (but not too late) evening being had by all.
The forecast for Sunday was atrocious meaning that we skipped our usual walk or other activity and headed straight to the Glen Coe Ski Centre for coffees and cakes and an earlier than usual return to EK.
A huge thanks to Eddie for sharing the minibus driving, to Kenny for booking the minibus and particularly to Frances for organising the weekend, the hotel, encouraging the Harriers to volunteer and coordinating the friends of the Harriers, Mark Wheeler and Colin Holden, to ably fill some gaps in our numbers. The WHW Relay is definitely one of the best Harriers' events and this was clear from the banter and hilarity over the weekend. Thanks to all who ran and made this such an enjoyable weekend.
Keep your ears to the ground for an announcement about next year's date. We will more than likely stick with the 2am start next year and will also introduce a few more compulsory safety rules (i.e. everyone must carry their mobile phone and, for those with a Garmin, enable the free Garmin Livetrack function in the Garmin Connect app such that we can track each runner's progress on our phones. This was how everyone was gathered, ready to take over from me in Braveheart Car Park as Frances was tracking me on her phone).
Finally, all the photos are in this album.
Alan
