My First Marathon

Route: 46.7km from Clachan of Campsie to Clachan of Campsie, via 9 of the Campsies’ most-loved peaks and Dumgoyne.

Weather: long sleeves at the start, no sleeves at the finish

Conditions underfoot: wet for a marathon, dry for the Campsies

Support: Good numbers of spectators around ‘The’ Meikle Bin and Dumgoyne. Passed Jenn and Kerry near Tomtain, and Rod a few minutes from the finish line. Otherwise quiet.

Refreshments: A couple of welcoming water stations en route. I felt a bit nauseous after drinking from the upper Finglen Burn – almost certainly a combination of fatigue and dehydration (and a 5-falafel wrap), but I got paranoid about there being a dead sheep further upstream which made me reluctant to drink any more, and just made me feel worse.

Navigation: near-perfect if I may say so, thanks to good visibility, lots of reconnaissance, and Niall’s great map. Good decision to tackle Lecket first (L-CML-T-MB), rather than Cort-ma Law (CML-T-MB-L) – added distance but saved climb. Took a new line between Dumfoyn and Slackdhu which also saved some climbing – worth it, I reckon. I don’t think I’d do anything different next time (there definitely won’t be a next time).

Westies Round map (produced by master cartographer N McAlinden)

Time: 06:45:33, which is an FKT for this well-trodden course. Setting a world record was definitely not part of the plan, and I’m sure it won’t hold for long (unless everyone gets distracted by the newly-accessible Highlands). Jenn and Kerry posted great times too (07:32:29).

Here’s a graph showing how I fared against my schedule

Highlight: heard a Black Grouse (location not disclosed) and my first Cuckoo of the year

Lowlight: the never-ending out-and-back to Tomtain

Closing thoughts: Fabulous route – great to link up all the lockdown-favourites. Also, I can’t fathom running this distance at twice the speed on a hard surface. Chapeau!, road runners