Highland Fling

Sorry BritNick but I'm back to 0.01% now - my wife has pointed that I'm worn out from the last few days of travelling, had some sort of throat infection earlier in the week, and haven't eaten properly for a few days.  So the sensible decision is to have a big glass of wine tonight and a lie in tomorrow.  I'll see you at Spittal in a few weeks CD.

I've now got a day worth of brownie points back so hopefully I'll get down to the HP40 later in the year...

cheers alibj..sorry you couldnt make it but the right decision by the sounds of it

i was going great til a mile or so before ben glais when i seemed to start to run out of gas. got to ben glais empty and the rest was a mighty struggle until 3m to go when a chap called tim who'd i know from here previously and so we jogged in together. mind you the piper was inspired..i had to hold back the tears as i went past him..amazing finish line as usual

birdypie..great to meet you and all your supporters/merrymakers..well done on your run..bet you're chuffed. and hope you had a great birthday celebration of a different kind afterwards

t rex..hope they were some chips left for you. great to catch up with you as always..and well done mr metronome

Hi everybody.  Had a fairly nightmarish 10 1/2-hour train journey home yesterday, getting back just after midnight, and have spent today sorting out my gear, including camping stuff, and recovering.

I found this year's Fling very hard going, even though my CP arrangements were much better planned, with only one brief 5-minute stop at Inversnaid.  Unless the organisers are going to knock a minute off my time in the provisional results, as they seem to indicate they might, I have missed my course best (2008) by 30 seconds .

Soon after inversnaid I felt I was making good speed over the difficult terrain when I took a terrible tumble.  I fell heavily amongst the boulders and tree roots, rolling off the path a short way.  Good job I didn't go to far or it would have been over the cliff I went and into the murky waters of Loch Lomond.  I managed to twist my left knee badly and sent my calf into muscle spasm for a couple of minutes. The next runner coming along said he'd tell the next CP. After a short while I tentatively tried to continue and found I could make reasonable progress but with some pain.  I don't think I ever really got fully going again, but I finished!

At the finish I felt very strange and it took a while to recover. Having a beer thrust in your hand as you cross the line was brilliant.  In fact, the best goody bag I've ever had.  Wasn't expecting the wine or hat/voucher.

Extremely disappointed that I wasn't able to meet up with you as planned, CD.  I finished an hour later than I wanted, it took a long while to recover, get myself to the campsite (1/4 mile from the finish), pitch my tent, shower, and then go over through the river a third time back to the finish area to exchange my T-shirt for another size, before heading to the chip shop where I saw you just leaving!  The cafe was full of runners, including Running for Beer of this forum, and we were finally booted out about 2220.

it was an enjoyable day but I don't fully understand why I was so slow, even before my tumble.

Sorry to hear about your travel nightmare, AliBJ.  You certainly did the right thing not running.  it's not exactly your local 10K, is it?  Hope you find something else in the mnext few weeks to get your teeth into. 

Don't know if I saw you without knowing, Birdypie.  Hope your race went well.  It's certainly a tough one - and if you don't know the WHW, you probably had some surprises.

T-rex - it was a hot and sticky afternoon which I'm sure didn't help - I went for a nice 7 mile hill run in the Ochils on Saturday and was sweating buckets.  Your fall sounds nasty - well done for keeping on going.  I've got the Cateran Trail 55 mile race in three weeks time so that should be good, although I've never been on the route so am a bit worried what it might be like.  Then I might try and spend a weekend doing the whole WHW over two days later in the summer...

Are you planning on doing the HP40 this year?

alibj..hope you enjoy cateran. im deferring my entry..chelsea are in the fa cup final that day and im hoping to take my boy (son not dog) to it or at least watch it with him..we're both big fans..a case of family before me im afraid..but not a bad short straw

may see you at the 40 though..once you've done 53 in a year, 40 is well..13 less i suppose

any of you fancy flinging the famous Barry around the Scottish coast?

Hi all

Sorry it took me a while to get back here! I was busy enjoying a lovely week with friends up in scotland after the race. I survived the fling I'm happy to say. Took a bit of a tumble around 25 miles and had to be patched up at the next cp but managed to push on. Was still feeling quite comfortable at Ben Glais but wheels came off after that - mostly due to massive misjudgement on the distance of the final stage. So much swearing and grumpiness on the road to Tyndrum...swiftly followed by tears of joy when I heard the pipers and saw my friends at the finish line.absolutely awesome! I wa very slow but I did make it so really pleased. AliBJ hope you are OK. I am learning that these ultra distance events are so unpredictable - one little trip at any point and your race can be over. I thought this was an amazing event and the route was just stunning. I am totally in awe of the speedsters who ran the course - truly amazing athletes.

A week on the legs aren't too bad but I have a muscle tear in my foot which I think probably occurred when I fell - foot was painful for a while after but I just took some ibruprofen during the race which seemed to keep it at bay. So rest now for a bit and hopefully I'll be fit in a few weeks to do the Exmoor trail marathon. Then planning some resting and regrouping over the summer before atlantic coastal challenge. Good to meet you CD and i suspect I crossed paths with others of you on the day.

 Really lovely experience...will I be back? well never say never hey!!

Well done BP!  It is a great achievement to cover 53 miles in a day.  It is a great event and I was disappointed to miss it, but it'll be there next year.  The times that some guys do that event in are amazing - I couldn't even run a couple of miles of the bit before Drymen at the speed they average for the whole thing.  It's good that you enjoyed the event and the scenery - I live only about half an hour from Loch Lomond so try to get a few long runs in over there each year.  Hopefully this summer me and the kids are going to take our canoe over to one of the islands to search for the wild wallabies (I kid you not).  Good luck in your other events this year.

Its just less than two weeks to the Cateran Trail 55 mile ultra now - not sure I have got enough long training runs under my belt so I think it is going to be a challenge.  That said, I did a PB for my uphill time trial training course this week so hopefully I am in alright shape.