Lairig Mor Trail Race

17th March 2007

5 Westies braved the awful forecast for this 14 mile jog along the West Highland Way from Mamore Lodge to Fort William. The Westie team consisted of me, Steffen, Ellen, Cat and Christine.

My gameplan this time was not to hammer off in the lead at the start. With a strong westerly headwind it made sense to tuck in behind John Hepburn, Adrian Davis and Colin Donnelly. However, after about 2 or 3 miles of slow plodding I lost patience and ran off the front to join Craig Mitchell, and tried to force the pace on a bit. I ran with Craig for short while, before getting dropped and then passed by Colin, Adrian and Henry Blake.

The forestry section was a blur of jagged stones, cut trees and pools of water. At halfway I was caught by John Kennedy. We worked together to close down Dan Gay, and after the forestry shortcut we almost caught Adrian, and leap-frogged Henry Blake - who'd gone the long way round.

John Kennedy and Dan broke away on the main forest road, with John going past Adrian. I tracked Dan and got past on the road into Fort William where I put in my final 5 minute effort. I missed my 1:30 target time, but clocked a PB of 1:34:30 to finish 5th behind Craig, Colin, John and Adrian.

First lady was Amanda Blackhall in 1:53:42, with Ellen and Cat 2nd and 3rd in 1:58:05 and 1:58:42 respectively.

It was only after finishing that I realised we'd been running in absolutely torrential rain with strong gusting winds.

Posted by Chris Upson on Tue 20 Mar 2007 | 3 comments

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