Glorious Glenfinnan - LAMM 2008

4 Westies (that I know of) made the trip North for the LAMM this year; Elsie, John H, Simon and me.

Simon and I headed up after work on the Friday, arriving in lovely late-evening weather. The walk from the car park took us past the monument to the event centre in the shadow of the viaduct, a pretty good start on the scenery front. We pitched a tent, registered, ate our fill at Wilf's and turned in shortly after 10pm, expecting a big day in the A class on Saturday.

We woke to more fantastic weather and a short walk took us to the station, where the Elite and A competitors were getting the train one stop West to Lochailort. A short walk, a last minute re-org of kit and we were off. The day's course took us generally North and East through 8 controls, ending at Strathan at the West end of Loch Arkaig. I think it's fair to say that a majority of the field struggled in the heat, added to by strong sun and a lack of much in the way of a breeze. Whatever the reason, we were certainly toiling a bit by the final climb to control 6 and it was only Simon's encouragement that kept me from slowing even more than I did. In the end we finished day 1 in 8:36 for 18th spot overnight.

Now it was the usual MM routine of pitch tent, try and get organised in the very small space and then eat, drink and rest as much as possible. We had the bonus of a pretty much midge free evening, so were able to sit outside the tent for a long while, soaking up the wonderful views and enjoying the chat with other competitors.

The piper woke us at 5:30am to fairly high cloud and cooler weather; what a relief! After eating breakfast and packing our small camp away, we set off about 7:30am on day 2. Great news as we got the control descriptions: only 21.7km. Then bad news: 1980m of ascent! Things went steadily for the first 4 controls, then came the sting. Control 5 was the summit of Streap, a 480m climb up the horribly steep north side of the hill. However, the climb seemed worth it as we summited to glorious views of the whole area, knowing that we had a lovely ridge run to take us all the way to the finish. We got back in 6:36, improving by 6 places to 12th overall, which was a very pleasant surprise.

Now it was sitting around in the sun, drinking endless juice and tea, another Wilf's meal, chatting with other runners and generally relaxing. After an hour or so we shuffled off to change and pack the tent away, heading down the road to great views of the Ben and all the mountains South. A good weekend's racing, great weather and magnificent scenery. It doesn't get much better really!

Finally, congratulations to Elsie and John. Elsie and partner Pete were first mixed pair in the A, and John and his partner Conrad were 1st vet pair in the C. Well done to both.

Details:

A Class

35 starters

Day 1: 32.8km, 1790m ascent

Day 2: 21.7km, 1980m ascent

Posted by Rob McQuater on Tue 10 Jun 2008 | 4 comments

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