Daily archives: May 1, 2015

I hadn’t ever thought about doing an ultra, until I saw the message from Grant: “the Fling is open, and will sell out by lunchtime”. Nine fellow Bellas quickly replied “I’m in”, and I got caught up in the moment. Suddenly I was “in” too. It took a couple of snowy trail runs for me to realise just what being “in” meant, including (but not limited to): a) running on trails is brilliant but utterly knackering b) everyone signed up is massively fitter, younger and stronger than me c) long trail runs take absolutely ages, something I haven’t yet broached with my family I wasn’t really sure I’d stick with it. One early training run from Milngavie to Balmaha over Connick hill was a real wakeup call – if I felt that bad after 19m, there’s no way I’d even make it half way. I overheard Matt Williamson at the club saying “you should still be pretty fresh when you get to Balmaha.” Fresh?! Cut to 4 months later, and it’s the morning of the Fling. I’m a ball of nerves sheltering from the rain at 5:30am in Milngavie train station with 750 other ultra runners who look calm and experienced. It’s an amazing thing, the Fling; John Duncan’s self-supported jaunt up the West Highland Way has grown from less than 20 people in 2006 to 1000 entries in this its 10th year, with full Scottish Ultra Championship status. None of which is making me feel any more relaxed. After the initial shock, training had gone ok with plenty of back-to-back long runs, but as the clock got nearer to 6am I couldn’t dislodge the fact that I’d never run further than 30 miles in training. As for a race plan, despite having set my sights on “just finishing it”, I’d secretly worked out that if all went well I might finish in around 10hrs 20’ – which Grant then posted on Facebook. So that was it then! A quick “Good luck” to fellow Bellas Tommy and Stuart and it was time to go. The hooter sounded and hundreds of us set off through Mugdock and out to the Beech Tree Inn. I’ve done this bit loads of times, so I got chatting to a guy who had come all the way from Devon. It’s a weird feeling chatting while ‘racing’, but it definitely helped to settle the nerves and keep the pace sensible, and we arrived at Drymen (CP0,12.6m), 10 mins ahead of ‘schedule’, to huge cheers from the Bella support crew. As the trail heads out towards Loch Lomond, the dreaded Connick Hill reared into view. With Matt’s words ringing in my ears I kept asking myself how ‘fresh’ I felt a I ran-walked up to the shoulder, passing a few runners whom had started too quickly. As we reached the summit, the clouds cleared and Loch Lomond sparkled into view – stunning! A quick smile for the camera and I was bounding down the other side and […]