Ding ding! It’s time to wing the Highland Fling!

“The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.”

– Rabindranath Tagore

It’s 5.45am in Milngavie just north of Glasgow and that could only mean one thing time for the Highland Fling. Two and a bit months before I’d suffered that ankle sprain that meant I hadn’t run any further than 10 miles in 8 weeks, and I found out less than 24 hours before the start that the hotel I booked at the finish in Tyndrum I had actually booked for October, last October. Add to that lovely set of details the fact that the previous week we spent £300 getting the car serviced only for it break down in a forest 3 hrs later meaning we had to hire a car to even get to the start line and you might be thinking; the cosmos was really suggesting that I oughtn’t bother. But hey, I am not superstitious fortunately, which is doubly lucky since 48 hrs earlier I’d decided that I definitely wasn’t throwing out that expensive bread that had an unexpectedly short date and had gone moldy….. you can still toast it right? Nausea the next morning suggested otherwise. (Side note: I toasted the first two slices so well that smoke poured out of the grill. Sometimes, I am superlative.)

So what’s a girl to do? Lace up a pair of shoes you’ve never run that distance in, grab your Oakley’s, because hey, at least you’ll look good whilst limping and people won’t be able to see you wincing!

Ding ding!

I put myself into the back pen – over 12 hours, not what I had hoped for when I signed up last October but hell, sometimes things are beyond your control. So my plan was, go out, have fun, see if your legs and mind can go the distance and don’t knacker the ankle. Easy. We started around 5 mins after the first pen, which meant it wasn’t one mass bunch up on the narrow trails at the beginning, definitely the way to go. I’d had my reservations about the race field size as I generally like to run on my own and with no-one in sight. In fact, although it was relatively busy, it never felt like the field of nearly 1000 runners and frequently in the second half of the race there were sizable gaps between runners. Of course, judging by the popularity of mass start races I am almost certainly an oddity!

The thing that I struggled most with over the first half of the course was the sheer runnable nature of the trails – it was mainly hardpack or forest track and as someone who has run the majority of my miles over the past couple of years on Cornish coastal path or fell it was a serious challenge for me! I can see that this race would definitely suit those who like multi terrain races as although there was very little of the black stuff in the main, much of the trail wasn’t of a technical nature.
I was absolutely desperate for a good climb after the first 15 miles and the high point up Conic hill was fantastic, I hit a good pace and on fresh legs with hands on knees it was a straightforward power up to the top. The view was fab from the top but it was short lived as it was straight down the other side. I took it easy on the down – absolutely determined that no ankle injury is going to jeopardise Lakeland 100!!

 

   

 

 

 

At the top of Conic hill note: sunglasses
firmly in place in the most definitely not forecast sunshine! 

 

 

I didn’t have any food parcels to pick up until the mile 27 checkpoint so the first couple of checkpoints served as a quick refill of water and then onward! There’s nothing quite so satisfying as a breakfast of Colin caterpillars, makes you feel a bit like a naughty kid, so a few gels and some tailwind sat pretty nicely.
I’d also told myself that I was going to attend to any issues and not be a dimmock and just keep going. I had put this into practice earlier when I gave myself the time out after the rocktape I had taped my ankle with (my own fault – I applied it at 100% stretch) gradually worked my skin off. I sat down about 15 miles in – getting overtaken by everyone I had overtaken over the past 15 mins and patched it up. Within the next 20 mins I had pretty much passed everyone who had gone past, lesson: take the time to look after yourself because it doesn’t actually cost you anything but not doing it can screw you big time!

20 mile vibes – not so smiley after 20 miles of running, those muscles need more power hiking 😉

In spite of the blister repair and the slightly achy running muscles I was generally really enjoying myself, I’d chattered with Mike Churchyard for a bit in the early miles and I was busily spotting spring flowers – wood anemone, butterflies – large white, and, in the spirit of starting my new job in a few days time I carried out a few cursory assessments of the peat bogs on the sides of the trail – mainly state 3 in my not (yet!) expert opinion and too many grips for my liking! It’s amazing what makes time fly 🙂 . Sadly, no mountain hares on this Scottish trip though, boo!

The Fling is definitely a race of two halves and it’s fair to say that the second half was definitely my cup of tea. Well, it would have been if my knee hadn’t been a grumbly pain in the backside. The undulating sections along the latter parts of Loch Lomand – which is enormous by the way – with little scrambles over rocks and boulders, reminded me of the lovely (if you’ve read my Arc blog you might get a different impression!) Pendeen watch to St Ives section of the south-west coast path. It was muddy and woody and picture perfect, the knee unfortunately disagreed (I tweaked it when moving furniture and whilst hills seem to be fine steps steps seem to be the antichrist!) and made it increasingly painful. By mile 40 I was crying for tape only for that to make it worse (sunglasses time!) – I got 400m from the checkpoint and ripped it off in a rage. Fortunately a lovely guy called Mark gave me a couple of paracetamol (and also some good chat about metal!) to be honest, I never know if it’s in the head because by the finish a few hours later I seemed to have switched it off and was running pain free.  Who knows?!

I drifted off on my own in the gorgeous pine woodlands on a beautiful bouncy downhill that reminded me of those alpine woods in Italy or France, you just don’t get them in England and I find them absolutely magical. I was lost in my own thoughts, and just a little bit of ABBA…..

A couple of miles from the finish I spotted a guy – why in races do we always just get talking and then introduce ourselves, it’s the total opposite of normal life –  in a UTMB t-shirt and quipped as I caught up to him, “this must be a walk in the park compared to that!”. He had found the technical shoreline tough going underfoot whereas I bemoaned the nice rolling trails, we both agreed it had been a tough day at the office! We spent the next couple of miles chatting about bucket list races and before long we were heading along the final km, and a guy coming in the opposite direction said ‘just around the corner’, hurrah, even closer than anticipated! We picked up a good pace – although kudos to the Spanish guy who tried to get us all to do “A sprint finish” on the red carpet – and hit the last few metres with smiles and a spring in our step. And what a finish….. bagpipes, red carpet, it felt like this……

All finishes should make you feel like Kilian.
(Ignore the clock it lies – I finished here, with Christian, in 12hrs 31m 48s 🙂 )

I kind of stood there for a moment a bit dazed, when you suddenly stop something after 12+ solid hours it’s a bit like I imagine quitting smoking feels with your hands – your legs don’t know what to do with themselves. A cold beer and a goody bag pressed in hand I staggered to the finish tent for the finisher photo….. looking suitably bedraggled.

Knackered.

So, scores on the doors. 12hrs 31m, not what I felt I could do it in with a few months of solid training behind me, but a 50 mile (53…) PB in the end. Maybe I should take this training regime of beer, wine and Ben and Jerry’s vegan icecream more seriously, I could do real damage to my times….. Then again I am supporting a BGR in July for a speedy person so maybe I had better get back to the fells.

Overall, a great race, I prefer being up on the hills than looking up at them, but there’s still plenty to enjoy here, the organisation is second to none and the finish line is fantastic and it was one off my bucket list!

Ciao for now!