West Highland Way Race Triumph

Kilmarnock Harriers have a long tradition of participating in the West Highland Way Race with members including Ian Gebbie, Roddy Pugh, Andy Ballantyne and others completing the epic 95 mile route in previous years.  This year however participation went many giant steps further with David McLure – following up his representation for Scotland in the British 100k championships earlier in the year – achieving victory in the 2018 WHW race.  Here’s David’s brief account of 16+hours on the trail.

“This years race was my ‘A’ race and I began a 32 week training plan in November 2017 to prepare physically and mentally for the challenge that lay ahead. 95 miles with 15,000ft of ascent is a long way and I felt fortunate coming into the race that I arrived on the start line without any injury issues. Outwardly I told friends and family that I wanted to run a reasonable time but inwardly I had planned to try and win the race and set myself a goal time of around 15 and a half hours. I felt looking at the competition that this would be good enough to win but if someone ran faster on the day I would still be content.

On the week of the race the ultra running world lost a pioneer of the sport and a true legend in Donald Ritchie (6 hours and  10 mins for 100k, under 6 minute mileing and a world record for over 30 years, was only one of his incredible achievements). After a poignant reflection on the start line at 1am all 235 runners began their adventure.

I had planned to get off to a steady start but anyone who had witnessed the start would have thought I was only planning on a 10k that evening. It’s amazing what adrenaline can do and after a first mile under 6:30 mile pace I had a pretty comfortable lead! Not the advised way to start a long Ultra but thankfully I managed to get back to my pacing plan.

I arrived through Balmaha the first major checkpoint at 20 miles in 2:40 which was right on plan and although I lost a bit of time taking a wrong turn I had around a 3 min lead over Slovakian athlete Thomas Kacmarcik. 3rd place was around 10 mins behind. I managed to increase my lead over the next twenty miles and arrived at Beinglas Farm still on my intended pacing plan 7 mins ahead of Thomas.

As I approached the half way point in the race I started to struggle with a lack of energy.  A combination of not consuming enough calories and sleep deprivation perhaps. I was surprised to increase my lead at the next checkpoint as Thomas was having struggles of his own. At Bridge of Orchy my lead went to around 17 minutes but I was finding it increasingly difficult to run the uphills and started to fall further and further behind my intended splits. I knew Thomas was strong on the hillier sections and expected he would start to close the gap.

At Glencoe ski centre just over 70 miles the gap had remained around 17 mins which was incredibly motivating as I felt like I was haemorrhaging time. I knew if I could just keep grinding on and didn’t have any disasters over the remaining 25 miles it was my race to lose. Although I was still losing time on my intended splits I managed to maintain my lead and wearily arrived at the Lochaber Leisure Center in Fort William in 16 hours and 24 mins. Thomas arrived in 16 hours 42 mins and 3rd place also finished in under 17 hours.

The next day prizegiving was an emotional affair and I was delighted that Karen Robertson a fellow Kilmarnock Harrier was also awarded a crystal goblet for completing the distance in under the allocated 35 time limit. There were 198 finishers (84%) which I found incredible considering the distance and terrain and all should be proud of their achievement.”