Welcome to our post marathon blog

Jane, Ian, Brian and Theresa have completed (well all accept Ian who did not start due to injury) the Palma Marathon. All survived and are still running. This is our continuing thoughts. Milly has now started her own blog.

Sunday 11 July 2010

The West Highland Way - Jane

Somehow and against my better judgement we got talked into taking part in the Dunbar V HELP West Highland Way Relay Run. Stupidly Theresa and I said we wanted to do a double section as we are marathon training and need along run. If we suggest this again someone please tell us to SHUT UP!
We were running from 6 miles south of Crianlarich to Tyndrum (12 miles). The weather was not raining as forecast but overcast and pleasant. We set off in good spirits following on from Ian Rowland who had done one of the harder sections. We had Milly with us on a long lead who was excited and looking forward to her run.
The first mile was undulating on reasonable terrain. However alarm bells did not start ringing until we realised it had taken us 45 minutes to run 3 miles. At this rate it was going to take 3 hours (not the 2 we had anticipated). The route was spectacular and a wonderful route but so hard. Very undulating and very rough terrain in parts. At six miles we were starting to get very tired and Theresa suggested bailing out. 'No we can do this' I insisted . Again, next time I suggest this tell me to SHUT UP. Brian Carr sped past us at about this in some very short shorts! but they obviously made him go faster so maybe that's what we need.
At 9 miles we were seriously tired, I could not work out how to open a gate - just lift the latch obviously. At 10 miles, Milly was getting agitated and needed to stop, everything was now hurting. Both of us were not sure if we were going to get to Tyndrum and if we had brought the mobile with us like we were told to would have definately bailed out.
At long last, after 3 long hours of running and some walking on the steeper bits we arrived at Tyndrum. The fun then started. At no point in our race prep had we discussed where in Tyndrum we were finishing. We passed two obvious meeting points with no one in sight and the path then appeared to go out and past Tyndrum. We were both very very tired and agreed that we could go no further so went off the route (1st stupid idea) into Tyndrum thinking that the main road was a possible sighting point for the boys. Again nothing. We were both getting a bit panicky and then we saw Ian who waved and then ran off!! Some very rude swear words came out of our mouths at this point. But undeterred we hobbled after Ian who was sprinting away from us. Then he turned and whistled and RAN AWAY AGAIN.!!! so off we went for another half mile and then eventully after 3 and half hours found the meeting point!!! Expecting hugs and "well done Jane" from Ian was a tad upset when the words " you F******** retard - what did you think you were doing going into Tyndrum" came out out of my loving partner's mouth. A short "domestic" followed....
After some food and rest we had a fabulous day. Brian ran a good leg and Ian ran two hard legs. We all really enjoyed the day and thank you to HELP for organising it. A good boozy night followed with some great laughs about the mishaps of the day.

Jane

What a retard!!!

Ian

No comments:

Post a Comment