Flinging out my Ultra Ghosts

I remembered it well. It was a cold February morning and Thomas the Crazy German and I had met at 6am to run on the Kilpatrick Hills. The idea was to get a 20 miler in before Silke's Birthday party at 11am that day. It was cold and dark and Thomas was telling me he didn't do morning runs. To cheer us up I started to imagine winning a WHW race and so I said to the Crazy German. " Just imagine us on the podium. I am first and you are second." As we climbed the hills we laughed. I am sure we both were thinking to ourselves "Yeah right. As if that ever could happen"

Highland Fling Race 24th April 2010

Results
Garmin Connect Running Log

I wasn't too serious about running the Fling. The plan has all been about the WHW race in June and so I didn't schedule in a proper taper. The weekend before the race I ran 26 miles on the hills and then 12 steady on the Sunday. Then 2 speed sessions before my body started to complain and I took the Thursday off. On Friday I felt fine so did an easy 5 miler and some strides. My plan was just to get through the Fling and be able to walk the next day. Unlike the year before when I couldn't straighten my legs on the Sunday.

I felt a bit bad when I was telling my support team, John and Rob that I wasn't too serious and this was all about testing things for the WHW. I hope that they didn't mind giving up their Saturday to test things and not properly race.

We arrived in Milngavie with plenty of time to register. I was annoyed because I was getting nervous. It's just a training run. Stop worrying, I told myself. I walked up to registration, got my chip and walked back to the car and sat down. I wasn't even that bothered if I missed the start. "I'll just start at the back anyway" I thought.

John was on the phone to John McLaughlin's support team. I could hear him saying "I bet you a pint of beer that my Garscube runner beats your Springburn runner"
"Oh God John, no" I thought. I will never beat John McL today.

Off to the start and I had to forget the starting at the back. There was pacing signs up so I just went into the middle and stood there. I spoke to Drama Queen for a bit and then we were off.

So off I jogged on. I could see the leaders tearing off into the distance and this year it wasn't me. I didn't even feel the need to. I had a pace set out for the first leg to Drymen. 1:38 was the time I wanted. Last year I did 1:27.

There are people this year that I owe a lot of time and effort to. Mark Johnston has been a major help getting a schedule and training plan together. Teaching me how to relax and pace myself. Graeme from Hampden has helped get training HR zones sorted. I knew that if I screw up this and the WHW again that I wouldn't only be letting myself down but also these guys and the others that have helped and put up with my constant ramblings about the WHW and training. Yes, my poor wife being the one that has to put up with it the most.

And so on I jogged. I walked up the first hill. I talked to Dave Waterman. I ran with Gavin who kept saying that he was slowing me down. Not true Gavin you were going too quick for me at that point. I said hello to Brian who asked why I was so far back. You see if you don't know me then you won't know that I am well known for going away too quickly and blowing up. Only to limp broken to the end.

Beech Trees already. I just kept to my 8 minute mile pace and walked the hills. I felt a bit of a fraud. Here I was in a race yet I was just taking my time and dare I say enjoying it. Never had that feeling before. My stomach was sore though. Maybe I was eating too much.

I met my support. No rush getting changed and fuelling up. I get overtaken by someone. I don't care. I am relaxed.

Onto Drymen now. Walk the hills, enjoy the view, talk to people. The field is more spread out and so I do something I have never done before. I listen to music. Why not. Scott Bradley does it and I remember the WHW briefing in January when Scott said "If you don't enjoy it, you are going too fast" That will be my mantra today.

Drymen. Bang on time. I feel a bit lethargic but also I don't feel like I have ran at all. I see Caroline and Murdo. They cheer me through and I feel a bit embarrassed. My support team tell me I am the 17th senior through the checkpoint and it is then I start to have doubts. Perhaps I took this relaxing a bit too far. What happens if I still get slower later and end up hours over my PB. "No Marco, stick to your plan."

As if by magic I start to pass people as we head towards Conic. I am not running any faster. I continue to walk the hills. But something funny is happening. I am walking at the same pace up the hills as people are running. I think that all the training that I do where I walk hills is paying off. I am still not racing just keeping one foot going in front of the other.

I overtake another couple of guys at the top of Conic. They get competitive and tear past me on the way down. I let them go. No use racing at this point. One of them falls but he is okay and continues on.

I start to pass 7 am starters. One of them has pulled something and I ask if he is okay. He has pulled a muscle but is nearly at Balmaha where he can get help. So off I go.

I end up in Balmaha in 1hour 2 mins from Drymen. This isn't actually a bad time. But still I felt good.

Off I head towards Rowardennan. Although I am running slower I seem to be getting to places faster. Not faster time wise but faster in my head. I must be enjoying this. I overtake more people. Its as if people are running in slow motion. I am used to people passing me by now but nobody does and I continue on. Salochy bay already?? My support team are there and it is getting warm now. "Just give me some water" I ask.
They tell me that I am in 5th or 6th position. I start to think that there must be a mistake. I haven't started to race yet.
I catch up with Ian Beattie and I shout something about poo to him. But I see that he is not having a good time at the moment. I go past and hope that he feels better soon.

At Rowardennan I meet loads of people. I have been in my own bubble with my music for miles now and the noise confused me. People shouting "Well done" and "Come on Marco". I didn't know where to look and just wanted away. Everyone was wanting my number for some reason but I couldn't remember it.
It dawned on me that they wanted to find my drop bag. "I have a support team" I murmured.
John and Rob handed me my rucksack. It would be a long time before I met them again. My race head surfaced. I wanted a quick turnaround here as I knew most runners would be refuelling and getting ready for the long way ahead. I tried to be as quick as possible.
I was still bang on my splits.

Rowardennan
27 miles
3 hrs 53 minutes

I left Rowardennan with Keith. I love his accent and he kept saying "Your doing well mate". I was shaking my head. I am just having a training run.

I went on and turned a corner. There was a runner in a red top. It was Kenny Valentine. A very good runner and someone I didn't expect to see today. Within moments I was right behind him and I actually think that I gave him a fright. I went past but expected to see him later again. The first thoughts came to me that maybe I was doing well.

There are big long hills after Rowardennan and again I walked them. I fully expected Kenny to appear and run past me but he didn't. I walked every hill again keeping up with people running the hills. Then overtaking them on the flat or downhills. Richie once said that when it is easy push when it isn't take it easy. I was flying downhills without trying. My legs were strong. I couldn't believe that I had done 30 miles already.

I passed Graeme Reid and he said I was in the top 4. Really? It still wasn't registering.

I wonder where everyone else is? Was Debbie doing well? Where was Sharon and the Crazy German? John K? Andy Birnie? John McL? What about Silke on her first ultra? I was sure we had worked out that I would meet her at Rowardennan. She must be having a brilliant run as I hadn't seen her yet.

I looked up and saw the powerstation across the Loch. It is one of the landmarks I look out for to let me know when I am nearly at Inversnaid. "Wow. Nearly there already"

I just ran straight through Inversnaid. Runners seemed to be sitting about stretching or pouring water over themselves. "Bah, you are wasting time" I thought. Then I remembered the state I was in when I did the WHW last year at this point.

Between Inversnaid and Beinglas a large section of the way is hard to run on. For the first time I started to struggle with the extra effort required to go over all the boulders. It is expected though. Whether you are training or racing this distance you will have low points and high points. A packet of Jelly Babies later and I was away again.
Every 30 minutes I was eating something. An alarm on my watch would keep reminding me but as it got warmer it got harder to eat. I also wasn't drinking enough and this would affect me later on.

I passed Rachel and Karen from Garscube. Both doing their first ultras and looking like they were just going out for a wee jog.

Still I was amazed at the speed I was now going between checkpoints. Before I knew it I was at Beinglas in 6hrs 16min 14 seconds. Last year I had got here in 6 hours 16min 44 seconds. My whole aim for today was to get to Beinglas in the exact same time as last year but still be able to run. How was that for pacing? I had run 40 odd miles and was only 30 seconds out from my plan.

In my head I calculated that the remaining 12 miles would take 2 hours. If I could run it. This year I could run it. A PB was on.

Everyone was getting very excited. My support team especially. I tried to keep focused. "Marco, you are having a blinder" "Your only 2 minutes from Thomas" "Your in 3rd position" and then the bombshell.... "Richie has dropped out". I sank. We are all meant to be competitive but the difference with ultra running is that we are all members of a close community. We text each other, we train together, we go to each others houses for dinner. In short we look after each other and we don't want to see anyone get injured or drop out.
I hoped that he was okay and wasn't injured. Maybe he is just fatigued and it isn't his day.

Where the heck is Silke?

I ran up most of the hill out of Beinglas. Last year I was nearly sick on this hill. I stopped listening to music and started talking to people again. The sun was shining I was RUNNING!!! What a beautiful day.

Then I saw a Bella top in the distance. It was Andy Birnie and he was going through a bad patch. Still he was on a good time for his first ultra. I asked if he needed anything but he had some guys running beside him. He looked sore and uncomfortable but I knew he would finish. I just hoped that he would give it another go in the future.

I passed more people. Everyone of them telling me that I was in for a podium finish. Still I didn't believe them. To be honest I didn't much care. I had my plan and I was sticking to it.

Past the Beinglas farm and hundreds of cows and my support met me at the Crianlarich junction. I felt great. They were calling my name and I was still RUNNING. I needed water though and food was getting hard to swallow. I was a getting dehydrated and too warm.

Through the woods, up and down the hills. I hate this bit and although it felt faster today I could feel it sapping my strength. The lack of food in the last 12 miles was taking it's affect and I could feel my body slowing. But still I was catching people. I saw John Kennedy in the distance and caught up with him.
If John Kennedy was about I didn't think that John McLaughlin from Springburn would be far in front. Maybe I will win that pint for John after all.

Passing John Kennedy must have spurred him on as he stayed with me until the end. In fact he pushed me on as I now felt like walking more and more due to running low on energy and not being able to eat anymore.

My support were at the A82 cross over. "Debbie finished in 9:40" they shouted. I was so pleased. That was a fantastic time and must be high up in the female finishers.

At the wigwams I dumped my bumbag. It's no use to me if I can't eat anymore. I pushed on. John was shouting me, giving me encouragement and I tried to run faster.
Still I wasn't racing. I didn't care that Thomas was in front. If anyone beat me then I would always be chuffed that it was the Crazy German.
I ran, walked along this last section. Annoyed that this was my worst section just at the finish. Wishing that I had eaten just a bit more and been able to run that last 3 miles stronger.

Into the woods at Tyndrum I decided to walk a small section. Regain my energy for a running finish. But Rob was out and shouting "Come on Marco!"

I started to run and it was easy. I ran through the river and past the piper.
Running staring at the ground through the finish. The fabulous finish with flags. I looked up. There was loads of people looking at me. Debbie was there too. We hugged each other and Murdo shouted she was top 3 female. Fantastic I thought. That was great news. What about me? Murdo was away before I could ask.

Thomas was there. He was 2nd. What was your time? Was I close? No way, the Crazy German got 8:09, a fabulous time. My time was 8:22. A 30 minute PB and I felt brilliant.
Later on I found out I was 3rd fastest too.

So Thomas in 2nd, me in 3rd, Lucy 1st female, Sharon 2nd and Debbie 3rd there was a lot of people I knew on the podium. Jez Bragg was there to present the prizes too which was great.

Garscube even won the Female team prize.

Where the heck is Silke though? Well transpires I did pass Silke at Rowardennan but she was having a comfort break. During the race I had gone from Where is Silke? to Silke is doing very well to Silke is having a fantastic run to Silke must be winning to Silke went off to fast to Silke must have dropped out. In the end she finished just before the awards to see Thomas pick up his trophy.

Lessons Learnt

While in the pub my support team told me a story that while waiting for me at Beinglas someone asked who they were supporting. They said Marco and the person replied "Bah he will blow up"
Anyone that knows me will know that was how I raced. But it was different this time and the D33 earlier this month and both times I ran better than ever before. It is good to hear people say that I paced it well etc and I hope I have banished those ghosts for good. But the West Highland Way is a race not a training run. Will I be able to hold back or will the person at Beinglas be correct in the long run. A good debate to have while John sipped his free pint.

There was also a lot of debate before this race about pacing. On one side we had people saying go fast at the start and on the other people saying go slow.
Both ways work for certain people but I think that the slow start works for a lot more people than the fast start.
To me personally the fast start is too risky. I have now ran in seven ultras 4 of them fast starts and 3 of them slow starts. 2 out of the 3 slow starts I have placed high up but more importantly recovered quickly from it. Out of the 4 fast starts I placed high in one of them but in the long run I failed to recover well and so took far too long to train for the next one.
I am sure this debate will continue on for a long time

Something though that isn't so clear cut is should we taper for an ultra. I the Thursday before the Fling off running. It was my first day off since the day after the D33. On Friday I was out running and doing Strides. I have tried the long taper and I find that I feel like I am de-training. Certainly for the WHW I will have a bit more rest and won't be doing 38 miles the week before but for races of 50 miles and less I am not sure. Would I have been faster if I tapered for this or would I have been slower. I will never know.

I need to have emergency food that I can eat when I can't eat anymore. Maybe bananas might be better. Something to try in training.

Anyway this blog is too long. Sorry about that. I just want to say thank you to Rob and John. Fantastic support. To Murdo, Ellen and all the Fling marshals for making this one of the best races ever and of course all the guys that have congratulated me.
Now time to come down from cloud 9 and back to WHW training. :-)