This weekend was the 4th Highlander Mountain Marathon; an event with signficant prize money up for grabs… £500 to the winning team! We signed up for the event well before the location was announced and hence when Gairloch was posted as being the starting point we were slightly shell-shocked by the 10-hour drive required to reach that part of Scotland. The surprise was exacerbated by the fact that we hadn’t looked at the calendar and thought that the event was a few weekends away. After briefly considering whether or not Richard’s knee would cope with the two-day event, we set-off with a fruit cake, a jamaican ginger bread cake and six hot cross buns for company.
After a late Friday night, we awoke at 6am on Saturday morning and made our way to the events centre. Within about 20 minutes we were on the early 8 am bus to an undisclosed location which turned out to be above Victoria Falls. The weather was bright and clear; we were in for a warm day. After Richard had stretched, we set off on the A course, which was the harder alternative to the D and the B courses that we had competed in previously (2007 and 2009 respectively).
The format of day 1 was to visit 18 controls in any order in the fastest time. The projected distance was 33.5 km with 1500 m of climb; we ended up running 35 km. The scenery was stunning, unfortunately I didn’t take in too much of it because I was too busy looking at the floor trying not to slip over. This was a particular hazard because the weather had obviously been very wet and then subsequently very dry, which meant that the ground had a hard crust, underlain by a very wet slimy layer. I slipped countless times.
The first half of day 1 was really great, the hours flew by and we were making good progress keeping up and passing the leading female team. The second half of the day was more challenging, first because of a tricky-to-find re-entrant and then later because the final 8 controls were a bit of a mental challenge. Let me explain… I was getting a bit tired and I knew there were 18 controls… we had only got 10 so far and even though I knew that the final 8 were closer together than the first 10, it was mentally challenging to consider that we still had so many to go. Nevertheless our minds were distracted by the presence of the wreckage of a 1945 B-24-H liberator bomber (the propeller from which was poking out of a loch!) and later the sighting of the female team previously mentioned who were still behind us. The second to last control was evil; we had to lose height to 80 m and and then climb another 100 m up to the summit of a hill. Richard was feeling rather grim at this point, probably due to the fact that he hadn’t run for about 6 weeks and that he was a little dehydrated. Thankfully his knee held out with only a scream now and again. We were out for 7 hours 6 minutes.
Our dinner of Ainsley Harriott’s spicy couscous, almonds, raisins, chorizo and wild mushrooms, followed by custard tasted particularly good. We had a few dances at the ceilidh and retired to the dog kennel (our affectionate name for our one-man tent).
The morning arrived quickly, which was good as we both didn’t sleep particularly well. The day 2 start was a 25 minute walk from the campsite, which was a nice gentle warm-up. The day was similar to day 1, however the whole area had been sporadically planted with Scots Pine. Each pine sapling was planted on a small mound of earth, adjacent to a foot wide, foot deep, crater. They didn’t impede progress too much, but did provide another obstacle at times. Richard navigated us easily though the hilly terrain and even took a shortcut through a loch at one stage! Thankfully the day was shorter than the previously day at a projected 22 km and 1330 m, but we were still out for 5hrs 50mins. I was very glad to see the finish!
We were the second mixed team and 10th overall (out of 23 teams). Unfortunately we didn’t collect prizes because 2nd and 3rd prizes were only awarded where there were 5 teams in the class 🙁 . Nevertheless, we beat the female team and hence if Richard had been a woman, we would have won £500.
Congratulations to you both 😉
Well done you two. What a fantastic weekend. I love the stone man 🙂
Some distance – impressive performance as usual guys! 😀
Loads of cakes too. 😉
The stone-man-cairn is brilliant…
That just leaves a scary thought; “if Richard had been a woman” … 😯
So, of the 7 hours on day one, just how much time is spent actually running? And of the 35k covered, what amount of that distance is covered while running?
I’m asking to try and assess if mortals like me stand any chance completing an event like this…
On this terrain, not that much, to be honest. We ran the flats and gentle downhills, but we couldn’t go that fast on the steep downhills because of my knee, and everyone walks the uphills. If you think about it, 35k in 7 hours is only 5km/h which is slower than a brisk walking pace on the flat. On Lake District terrain we typically average better than 6km/h.
If you fancy trying one of these, I think the Saunders, which is the gentlest introduction is full for this year, but there’s the Rab September 25th, somewhere in Northern England. That’s 6 hours the first day, 5 the second, and visit as many controls as possible in the time, so you can choose a route that suits your pace. Alternatively, the French one is in Bellevaux, near Thonon-Les-Bains, also in September. That’s 7 hours and 6, again choose your own route. It’s very low-key and friendly, and an easy drive from Chamonix, it’s just bigger hills than the UK ones (and not always such clear maps).
We should post the speed vs. distance graphs!
Hi guys
I got a link to your blog through Rhona and her excellent pictures. Nice to read a report of your efforts, and well done on doing so well! Sorry there were no prizes for you…
I missed the prize giving (taking in controls) and only got to the end at 3.15. Everyone had gone, and it all felt flat, so it’s nice to catch up on the positive times people had been having.
See you again. All the best meantime.
Alec
I hope you found AR 🙂 Richard still thinks that you should have put a control on the bifurcation
Hi Alec,
thanks again for putting on a brilliant event. The course was great, with a good mix of route choice and technical challenge, the scenery was superb, and the weather was once again fantastic. Our only regret was that we couldn’t spend longer around Gairloch.
Great write up guys! Thanks for coming.
Richard I see you got the photo’s from Rhona! Do you mind if I put a link to your report on the Highlander website?
cheers
Henry
Henry, No problem with putting the link on the website. Have you seen our blogs of the 2007 event (http://www.sterling-adventures.co.uk/blog/2007/03/29/a-weekend-of-r-and-r/) and the 2009 event (http://www.sterling-adventures.co.uk/blog/2009/04/20/4991/)? Thanks again, Rachel
Well done Richard and Rachel- another superb run! I thought that the this Highlander was one of the best mountain marathons I have ever done, the scenery on the frist day was totally stunning and a little bit distracting at times!
Rachel- I look forward to doing the LAMM with you, it sounds like you are on top form at the moment! 😀
I missed most of the scenery because I was looking at the floor! Can’t wait for the LAMM too 😆
This is a great shame! :zip:
There were nice rocks…
Ps how did you do the map- I really like it!
As per below – it weighs about 20 g…
In case anyone reading this thinks we cheated by carrying a GPS watch, be reassured that we were carry an ‘igotu’. This device logs position, but lacks a display so that the data can only be accessed via a computer (which we also did not carry! 😉 )
Much as I enjoy a ceilidh, I can’t believe you went dancing in between two such days!! well done.