Wednesday 9 September 2009

West Highland Way 2008 race part 1

Pre RaceThe week before the race was very up and down, my biggest fear was that I would catch the illness that everyone at work seemed to have, I sent lads home as soon as they looked sick but was sure I would get caught out.

I kept worrying about my lack of training 5 weeks since my last long run and my injury seemed to still be niggling away.The Wednesday before the race I got what is best described as washing machine tummy and I went a bit loopy luckily for me a calming influence was on hand and after around 20 text messages back and forth I got things back under control, Thank you.From then till the start line I was green for go no more panic attacks I had resigned my self to running the best I could and knew it was going to be hard under the circumstances and that I would not get the race I had trained for but at this point I knew that a finish was all I wanted.

Day before the raceI woke at 4am then at 6am finally got up at 9am tried to do as little as possible.Drove to Glasgow airport and picked up Lizzy and Simon and headed for the camp site got sorted and headed out for dinner met up with Karen and then Steve and tried to stay relaxed but I just wanted to start running.

Checked in at around 9:30 and headed back to camp site with the idea of having a nap but it was not to be, started to get ready at 11am and was back down to race start for midnight. It took a long time for 1 am to arrive but it was great met loads of friends and chatted about what was to come, Les arrived and I was chuffed he had come to see me off.

Race start Milngavie to Beach tree inn.

We gathered at the start like rabbits in the headlights the tension was high and we all hung back from start line.150 applied to race with 50 on the reserve list out of these 200 folks 127 made it to the start line I found this a sobering thought over 36% out before the start.25% of the starters were to drop out during the race.

Suddenly we were running and we streamed through Milngavie I saw my A team and high five as I ran past with my heart in my mouth.I ran a while with the crowd Scream passed me hear and we had a quick chat and he was off, Shirley and I ran together for a while caught up on stuff as I had not talked to her since the Fling, not sure how she manages to look so Glam in the middle of a race but she does.

The run into beach tree went smoothly enough it got a bit misty and my glasses fogged up but it soon cleared and I met Steve on schedule and changed out my food supply I had made up bottles of Hammer Perpetuem with a gel in each bottle which was good for 2 hours but I took a new one at every check point.My plan was to keep my Hydration and nutrition separate and this worked well for the most part, I also had a slice of cake at Beach tree.Quick hug from pink lady and I was through the checkpoint.

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