What a week! This has been the most fun week of the year by far!
After spending the day recovering from the Great Scottish run the day before, I was pumped and ready to go on the Tuesday. Having the week off from work, I decided to take my running to new extremes. My brother and his girlfriend Nic were doing the West Highland way, so I decided to help them out as well as getting some good running in!
Ken and Nic spent the night in Rowerdenan Youth Hostel next to Loch Lomond which is about the 25 mile mark on the WHW. So I met them at 9am, took their bags and shoved them in the car so all they had to carry was day sacks that day. I then drove up to Inveranan (Beinglass farm) which is about the 40 mile mark of the WHW and parked at Drovers in. Steven and Liz met up with Ken and Nic and started walking towards Inveranan. Once at the Drovers I put on my trail shoes and headed the opposite way down the WHW. Straight up a big hill which I managed to run the most of the way up. The trail was so much fun with lots of puddles from all the rain. As I got down to the loch side, although a lot of it was not runnable it was fun going up and down all the rocky bits. I got to Inversnaid, the half way point at 12.10 which was only 10 minutes behind when the gang got there from the opposite direction. In effect it was the longest 7 miles I have ever done taking just over an hour an half, but if you've seen the trail you'd know why. I then grabbed some lunch with the gang and we walked to Inveranan which took just over 3 hours.
The Wednesday I just took it easy and did a 7 miler on the pavements around the south of Glasgow. Was a bit weird after Tuesday's escapeds, so decided to try out my new earphones which wrap around the ear and they were excellent so may use them in the future for easy runs. On all other runs I would barely pay attention to it as either I'm switched off or far too switched on!
On Thursday I thought about doing a speedwork session but then I thought about my schedule for the next few days and decided against it! I headed up to the Kingshouse Hotel in the afternoon which is in the Glencoe region to meet up with Nic and Ken who were just finishing their longest day yet on the WHW, 20 miles! So I had dinner with them and headed up them and headed up to my hotel in Kinlochleven.
On Friday morning I managed to set off running from Kinlochleven and headed up the hill on the opposite side of the Devil's Staircase. Man was it tough! I ran/walked all the way up and there was some breathtaking views. Then there was the fun bit! The descent! Dancing round the rocks and there was opportunities where I just tore down the hillside until I got down to the A82 where I ran round the hillside until Kingshouse Hotel was in sight, which is also where I met Ken and Nic. I reckon I managed about 7 1/2 miles in 1 hour 38. It may sound a little long but with about 500 metres of asecent over 4 1/2 miles! may have something to do with it! I then walked back up and down the otherside of the devil's staircase and headed back to Kinlochleven. Some of the folk on the trail actually recognised me from Inversnaid and stopped short of calling me a complete nutter! haha
and then there was Saturday........ which deserves a blog of its own!
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