Highland Fling Relay 2013

 

Two years after running the Highland Fling as solo runners John Cairns, Al Murray and Mike Corson were joined by Stephen Gilmour to take the easier option and enter a relay team for the event, a 53 mile run on the southern half of the West Highland Way from Milngavie to Tyndrum.

It was an early departure from Killie for a 7am race start and weather conditions were great for the day.  We led off with our top runner and John didn’t disappoint.  As we left Milngavie he was in the leading group.  By the time we reached the first changeover point in Drymen the leading solo runners (the solo race had started at 6am) were coming through and we didn’t have to wait too long for John who had ran a great 1^st leg (Milngavie – Drymen, 13m) coming in in 2^nd place and already passed a number of solo runners who’d started an hour earlier.

Al took over for the 2^nd leg from Drymen – Rowardennan(15m) including over Conic Hill the highest point of the race.  Early on though I felt tired – probably a hill race on Wednesday was still in my legs – and it was going to be a long stretch.  It’s strange, and a bit embarrassing, being a relay runner amidst a solo race as they are pacing for a 53 mile race whilst we pace for roughly a half marathon each.  You pass loads of runners, many saying “well done” as you pass –I’m not sure they all realise we’re only doing a fraction of what they are.  After about 3 miles I could hear someone on my shoulder and it could only be another relay runner, the first of 3 to pass me during this leg.

The last one to pass me and drop us into 5th place overall was just before the handover to Mike at Rowardennan. I felt worse finishing this leg after a 15m relay leg than I did two years ago when I’d ran 27 miles by this point. Mike continues the report:

“Taking over from Alasdair, after a mile or so the route has a long torturous climb away from Rowardennan heading towards the halfway point at Inversnaid. I worked hard over the first 7miles on good tracks as I knew the terrain would make quick running difficult for the next few miles, with the last 3 miles giving the opportunity to stretch out again to the end of my leg at Bein Glas. Then with a couple of miles left I spotted the 4th place team in the distance and pushed hard to catch and pass him before the finish. Then, crash! A slightly misplaced step on a downhill section saw me hitting the ground at speed. In an instant I was back on my feet and with the adrenalin flowing the pain was kept at bay allowing me to push hard for the last few minutes and keeping ahead as I handed over the timing chip to Stephen.”

Stephen took on the final leg with some trepidation having nursed a calf injury for the last few weeks – and like all of us not having run near 2 hours for a while.  We managed to meet up with Stephen a couple of times during this final leg  as the route crossed the road and he was moving well.

The lack of training in recent weeks however took its toll in the last few miles, however Stephen pushed on to the finish line holding on to 5^th place overall in a total time of 7hrs 36 mins 49 sec, almost an hour behind the 1^st relay team and a remarkable 34 mins slower than the 1^st solo runner.  Three other solo runners also beat our combined time.

 

We had no targets on entering this event, other than to finish, so were delighted to finish in 5^th place of 47 teams.

As we expected it was a great event on a great day – we need to do more of these and get more teams entered.

Here’s a summary of our efforts along with how our split times compared to the fastest relay runner for each leg and, soberingly, the first solo runner.

	Killie Kroks	KK leg place	Fastest relay runner		1st Solo runner
Leg 1 (John)	1.23.21	2nd	1.21.01		1.22.19
Leg 2 (Al)	2.07.57	7th	1.46.58		1.57.38
Leg 3(Mike)	2.09.14	5th	1.49.50		2.03.28
Leg 4(Stephen)	1.56.17	10th	1.29.18		1.40.23
Total	7.36.49	5th			7.02.50