To Hells (Angels) and back

Today I probably decided whether directly or indirectly that the London marathon would not be more important than the West Highland Way Race.  Okay that is a bit of a lie.  The West Highland Way Race has always been the more important but I was thinking that I could run a good marathon as well.  But today I decided for sure that London will not be THE marathon of the year.  And how did I know this?  Well it is 3 weeks until the marathon and this should be a marathon specific last long run.  Instead I decided to run part of the WHW.

I have done today's run before.  5 weeks ago.  The run is one of my favourites.  A 27 mile run from my house in Alexandria onto the Balloch Horseshoe then onto the cycle track that joins to the WHW at Drymen.  Then you take the WHW to Milngavie before running through to Bearsden to Anniesland and then taking Great Western Road to Glasgow.

Today I decided to take the bumbag to see how that would perform.  Two 600 mls water bottles, one with energy drink and one with water.  A sachet of energy drink to make another bottle up at the tap at the Carbeth Huts. A couple of raisin bars and since it was Easter a few mini cream eggs.

The run started fine but I had to keep adjusting the bumbag.  The rucksack is definitely the more comfier of the two.  I just can't get used to running with 1200 mls on my hips.  So this is what it is like to have love handles.  Accessing the bumbag is annoying too.  The more I think about it the more I am starting to want to run the WHW with as little as possible.  Have the support team meet me as often as they can and on longer sections use the rucksac.

Back to the run I was starting to feel tired by the Carbeth Huts.  I stopped for a break and to refill my bottle and have a bite to eat and then set off again.  Within half a mile I met Mike Thomson and was glad to stop again for a chat.  By Milngavie I was struggling, big time.  I think that it must have been the ultra from last week.  Well I hope that was what was to blame.  In Bearsden the worst thing happened as my calf started to cramp.  It had been annoying me since Wuthering Hike and now was starting to pack in.  After some stretching it was good enough to go on albeit a little more carefully

When I reached Anniesland it felt like I was running in the London Marathon.  There was crowds of people all over the place all the way along GWR.  It was the Glasgow Easter Run and there was 7000 bikers delivering Easter eggs to Yorkhill Hospital.  This made it difficult to run and a lot of weaving in and out of crowds.  Not great for the calf.

GLASGOW YORKHILL EASTER EGG RUN

Debbie met me at the end of the run.  One look at her face told me straight away that I had overdone it today.  I survived unscathed and unhurt but I have to be careful.  Last time I pulled my calf it took a good few months for it to be 100% again.  If I had pulled it today it could have affected not only the WHW but the London Marathon and the Islands Peaks race.  As everyone says on the training runs for the WHW race, half of the battle is getting to the start line.  A wise warning from the experts and something us race virgins have to heed.