Sunday, January 27, 2008

30 miles on the WHW

T'was the last Saturday
Of the month of January
That meant it was time to play
Once again on the West Highland Way.
(Anon - but a tribute to Robert Burns, given the date of the run)

Yes, another WHW training run. Another cold, miserable day. At least the rain, which had fallen constantly for the previous 48 hours, finally stopped a few hours before we were due to start running, and stayed away for most of the day. 13 brave WHWers (plus 2 even braver people who were prepared to provide support) set out from Drymen for the 30 mile jaunt over one of the most difficult sections of the route, aiming to reach Beinglas Farm and the Drovers Inn before darkness fell.

To cut a long story short, we made it. I would even suggest that we all enjoyed it. It took us around 6 and a half hours. Highlights included seeing some baby goats, the coffee at Rowardennan (which Mags provided - fantastic - many thanks), seeing an incredibly impressive waterfall at Inversnaid, the soup at the Drovers, but most of all the chance to enjoy some great chat and companionship with a truly superb bunch of people. There were also some lows - I tripped and fell at a section between Rowardennan and Inversnaid (but didn't damage my new top, thank goodness), Neal injured his knee and had to turn back, and we had to wade through some puddles where the water was about a foot deep (although that was quite good fun to be honest). The wonders of modern technology mean that the day is recorded in glorious technicolour on John K's blog http://www.west-highland-way-race07-training.blogspot.com/

I have to admit to one big mistake, however. I thought that I was taking part in a training run, and that the actual race was taking place on 21st June. From the various comments that have appeared subsequently I now appreciate that this was an error. It was actually a race and everyone wanted to beat me. If only I had known :)

2 comments:

Tim said...

'course it was a race! You can't put 13 runners together and not expect a bit of competition! ;-)

Still, I reckon you're doing the right thing concealing your real strengths from John. Won't do your chances of beating him any harm having him thinking that you're not as fast as you actually are. ;-)

John Kynaston said...

if Tim reckons it was a race can we count that in our series?????!!!!

At least I didn't mention how you were trying get me to agree that the 16 March is not in our challenge series!!

Roll on the national cross country.