CrashKaushal said...

Another long day in the hills with friends, well before and after was with friends, in the middle was mostly on my own, but still a lovely day. It was good to see so many Westies out and it was a jolly start, with banter aplenty. Then the hill came and I still felt good. The direct sun of the previous weeks had gone, or was that just because I was behind Brian? I thought I went well and was happy until BEEN EUCH! I was suddenly struggling with cold, stumbling and blurred vision. I realised I had crashed and started to eat, but it seemed like a hard task on the undulating ridge. The young turks Cat and Ellen were away now and pretty soon Christine and Elspeth came trotting past looking on form. Eating didnt seem to be making a difference as I was expending energy at the same time, but I plodded on. Up Stuc I was very slow, but had good views of the descenders, Nige and Chris having a battle up front, Ellen storming down and then the Boat Crew came whooping and a hollering by, sounding like they were having to much fun. I was stumbling a lot, never quite falling over but several bent thumbs and fingers as my feet seemed to find every rock and heather tuft. Then the descent and in an indicator of how bad things were I was passed by around 10 runners, feeling very unsure of my feet. The new slimline Brian went past and steadily out of sight despite having stopped for an op half way round. Oddly I really enjoyed this bit, in a bit of a daze and not pressuring myself but just enjoying the soft going and the greens, browns, greys...Val and Megan broke my hallucinations and there was the Beast! Now the food kicked in and I suddenly felt human. Climing has never been my strength but I pushed on steadily, passed by 2 but catching them up towards the top. I finished my sports drink going over the lip and suddenly was RUNNING! Oh yeah I remember. My feet moved, my arms pumped, my vision returned and I was catching folk. The Portabello runner came backwards and along the deer fence I got a couple more. Now the final descent and still reeling them in. The forest track again and I actually had some welly now. Could I get under 3:30 and a time I would be happy with (NO). Cramp begining in the backs of my legs. Just lift the legs dont push too far back. Still passing, still catching. Is that Brian infront carrying the kitchen sink? The final bend "I'm going to get you!" (how come the top runners never shout this on the final bend in the Olympic 1500m?) but I didnt and Brian beat me by 2 sec. Collapse in the field with soup and friends. Well done everyone for a great day and then friendly beer and banter afterwards. My race, well something went wrong physically, but at the same time I was nearly 20 min faster than last year so I can't complain to much.

Tuesday 8th May 2007 11.37am

Chris said...

Well done to all the many Westies running.

I enjoyed jogging up the track at the start with Nige and David in a WWW formation before things went single file in the forest.I more or less stayed with Nige until the summit, but after stopping for a brief drink and jelly baby Nige was already away and looking tough to catch.

I caught the odd glimpse of yellow along the return ridge, and on the diagonal descent thought I was making up ground. But when faced with the climb out of Glen Ample I couldn't find the necessary resolve to reel him in any further. I caught Graeme Campbell at the top of this final climb and we ran together in pursuit of Bruce Smith as far as the main forest track. Neither of us quite caught Bruce, but running together helped to push the pace on a fraction.

Fine weather and well marshalled with enormous quantities of water carried up the hill.

Results

Tuesday 8th May 2007 2.10pm

Hamilton said...

Yes, good to see a happy throng of Westies out for what quite clearly was going to be a breeze with the amount of training that some had undertaken?? As must have been said before ..."It was looking so good before we started". Mmnn. "I'd just like to say we're all counting on you" (Who spoke those words,in which film?...Ans.tomorrownight.) Cat, thanks for those words and for Saturday. Seemed to be going fine,great,marvellous...Val I'm practicing.Then,as you very accurately say Jason, came BEEN EUCH. Did look at the watch for first time,it was 1.32and clearly had crashed. EHHH. Again, trying to eat anything and everything. Then soon after the dreadedcramp. Pete assures me it's potassium, not salt that's needed. Scores of runners now passing-can do not athing.Including,must mention one frightfully cheery Westie "Come now MR.Semple what sort of pace do you call this," as she tore up the course and spate it out before breakfast on a daily basis.Well done Claire. So,generally racked in pain,apologies for muterring and swearing in a heap,and thanks for the drinks at the finish, also to the Marshalls who for some reason thought that they were being spoken to in High Sawili. Ehhh. Oh, a clue to the qu. above if you're still there. Silver-haired actor who re-ignited his career by taking on the role of F.D. Answers not on a postcard,you will not win anything, and if you are still reading this it may severely damage your health.

Tuesday 8th May 2007 6.13pm

Pauline said...

Bananas are the answer, Hamilton, at least one a day. I made the mistake of not eating any bananas for a week when I was away around Easter and suffered terrible cramp in my calf muscles. Since I've made sure I've eaten at least one banana a day I haven't had any bother although there were times during the race, sorry run, when I thought that my muscles were threatening to do something drastic if I didn't stop.

So what was it like at the back away from all this pressure to run fast and beat someone. It was actually quite good fun. I made two friends and we'll be friends for life, I'm sure but we agreed that this was a once in a lifetime experience. We didn't realise that we were last until we were on our way back and met nobody. By the way, I hope you all appreciated how considerat we were as you headed away from Stuc. We got out of your way and even stopped to let people past. At the top, we stopped for a chat with the marshalls while we ate their chocolate. Then Eleanor (one of my new friends) went jogging off in the 'wrong' direction while Pamela (other friend) started heading back the way we had come. Eleanor had "gone to get the Munro"! If you stick with the race route you don't bag a Munro so seeing as how I'd no plan to be back I nipped across to the cairn as well. (I was still able to nip at this point) Eleanor now has 100 Munros and I think I maybe have about 5.As we headed back to the turn off point we kept hoping that we'd meet someone just to prove that we weren't last but it wasn't to be. We also got the message as all the marshalls were glad to see us. We kept stopping for chats and did our best to help them out by drinking as much of their watter and eating as many of their sweets as we could. You guys that ran all the way back just don't realise what you missed. As for that track, we kept ourselves running with a mantra: glass of wine, bath, massage. The order kept changing and I think that at one point became glass of wine in the bath. As we were "running" down that last wee bit to turn into the field all the water that I'd drunk suddenly seemed to catch up with me and I felt really sick but we made it. Note we even stuck together right to the finish. None of this racing stuff here at the back of the field.

Saturday 12th May 2007 9.35pm

cc said...

Nice one Pauline !

I bet your Mantra even slipped to say " ... a bath of wine..." at some point - hope you enjoyed !

:-)

Monday 14th May 2007 12.35am

Stefan said...

Well done to Christine from two old pals (marshalls) Stefan; an exile Scot now living in France and wee Charlie; now on the road in his Camper and coming over soon to visit Stefan in France! All the best to Christine and thanks for getting me back into the Scottish mountains in 2000!!(frae Stefan)

Sunday 24th June 2007 2.15pm