Club Christmas Handicap/WHW/and the rest

What a week! Full of ups and downs.

On Monday the pavements were getting really icy, so I decided to stick to main roads all the way round. This meant extending my route round to include Shawlands. It worked well and the pavements were fine on the main roads.

On Tuesday I had a really fun run. It was one of those I thought to do a 10-11 miler but at the same time I didn’t plan my route till I got to junctions. I ended up going up past Hampden which I liked because there are some good hills round there before heading off to Kilmarnock road and following the roads round. Somehow it came to exactly 10 miles door to door!

During that run though I was beginning to get a niggle on the inside of my right leg at sock line. I have had this before but usually ice does the trick. So I iced it that night and decided on Wednesday to do 3 miles to let it recover. By Thursday it was fine again so went up to the club and did the Handicap route. We started off fairly easy until just before the first mile, when I could feel Kevin who I was running with increase the pace. We pushed each other all the way round and ended up finishing the 4.6/4.7 mile run in 35.38 which was just a minute slower than last year’s time.

On Friday it was my Christmas work night out. So I had a choice, run early in the morning or run late at night. I set the alarm early but couldn’t get out my bed so it would have to be later. I was planning on doing the park run on Saturday and doing runs elsewhere to get some mileage in until I got a phone call on the way home from Edinburgh from Ann from my club asking if I was up for doing a bit of the West highland way, so I didn’t need much persuasion! I thought this was off due to the weather but turns out it wasn’t. So I got home at 9pm and had to go to the shops to get food for tomorrow. So I turned that into my run, doing 1 ½ miles out and back, 3 miles in all, stopping in the shop on the way back.

So Ann and Sue picked me up at 8am and we met Alison and Mandy at Balmaha. I know Ann, Sue and Alison well from my club but I didn’t know Mandy so made the point of running with her early on to get to know her. The first section towards Rowerdenan was icy in places but they could easily be avoided. I decided to wear my inov8’s today as we were going along beside the loch, I thought it wouldn’t be too bad and we saw Conic hill it hardly had any snow left on it.  When we got to the road section, and the last trail bits before Rowerdenan. The trail got a lot icier in places. You had to go on the grass beside the path just to get some grip. We already made the choice just to go on the road for this section on the way back. When we got to Rowerdenan, Sue went into the hotel to make a booking and the rest of us used their facilities.

Mandy and Alison headed back to Balmaha. While Sue, Ann and myself headed for Invernaid. This was the first time I have been on this section and I’m not likely to forget it.  The first mile, the road was just sheet ice and we were running on the edge of road on the snow covered grass which was a lot better for grip. Then there was the long climb up, followed by some short steep single track which had bits of ice but was easily avoided. We then got to a house which we couldn’t see any way to get there apart from the path. Sue reckoned it must be a bothy or something. We continued on and I really enjoyed being on good trails. We got to 14 miles from Balmaha and looked at our watches. We were about 2/3 miles from Inversnaid but it was 12.30pm so we decided just to head back as it had taken 3 hours to get out and we wanted to be back before it got dark. Then the snow started which we really weren’t expecting but we were all wrapped up enough. 

Then things got dangerous.  On the long descent down the forest track, the snow covered all the ice which was so easy to avoid on the way there as you could see it but now you couldn’t at all now. About 3 miles out from Inversnaid I had a fall, coming down on my left arm which took the full impact. It was agony! Sue and Ann were great and calmed me down. I had a seat as I was feeling a bit light headed. This is when we saw another runner (who was the only person we’d seen on the WHW), turns out it was Jamie who came 3^rd women at the WHW race this year. She was running from Bridge of Orchy to Milngavie. She stopped and said hi as she knew Sue then on she went.  I sat for 5 minutes just eating and drinking. 

When I got up it took me a while to get going and my confidence had gone so was just taking it really easy. Irony is I had brought my micro spikes but left them in the car as I thought I didn’t need them. Lesson learned!  My arm was sore when running or walking. At the time I thought I’d still make it back to Balmaha but with a mile left to Rowerdenan, my sensible head took over and  I said to Sue I was stopping at Rowerdenan. They seemed happy to do that too. Luckily for us we knew Alison and Mandy were hanging at the Oak Tree in and came and collected us. I couldn’t thank them all enough! I did really enjoy the run despite this. The company and the scenery were brilliant and it was good to get back in one piece! So 20 miles in 4 hours 38 minutes (including all stops and falls!) and it was my longest run since August. Other positives for the day was that I tried fruslie cereal bars and ride shots which worked well. Also I put NUUN in my water bottle, something I haven't done since Loch Ness training/race 2009 and that was fine too.

I put savlon on my arm and after assessing the damage it was just cut. It’s still sore to touch but I can run fine feeling no pain.

Today was the Club’s Christmas handicap where I completed the 4.6 miles in 33.42. My handicap was 34.00 so pretty close. To be honest I thought I had a chance of winning when I caught Gordon with a mile to go. But when I looked up Kilmarnock road and the 3 in front were out of site and filled the podium poisitons. With a about  ¼ mile to go Luke past me and ended up getting the fastest time of the day, then a few others followed. The handicaps did work out really well this year (for me anyway!) with many of us within 3 minutes of each other. Will be interesting to see the final results. Most of the attention was on my Hokas which worked well today and was a good laugh seeing people’s reactions to them.

So overall a great week and my 3^rd consecutive 50 mile plus week. Still on course for Marcothon and the arm is just sore to touch now.