Highland Fling race 2013

The Hoka Highland Fling race is a 53 mile ultramarathon race on part of the West Highland Way, commonly known as the Fling. I'd volunteered to help out this year, my first time volunteering in this way at a race of this scale, but I was pretty excited. This blog post is my experiences of the day, not a race review/write-up. You can find details of winners and times etc. through the Fling website (click on the photo to go there). :)

The race was on Saturday, yesterday, and I booked Friday off work so I could get myself ready, then go up on the Friday evening to help out at registration. Friday, I have to say, was a great day: I ran (ran/walked) 4 mile from home to my slimming class, and although it was a tough run and much slower than I'd have liked, I was glad to have done it. I had a GREAT result on the scales this week (4lbs off), then walked back home in the sunshine for another 4 miles of exercise. I headed off to Milngavie late afternoon, getting stuck in rush hour traffic, and getting to the bar where registration was about 6.15pm.

I spotted John, the Race Director, putting out some signs for the car parking he'd arranged, and dashed across the road to introduce myself and help him with the signs, before heading inside to get cracking with registration. Oh. My. God. It was heaving in there with runners!! Surrounded by sooooo many skinny people, lmao! I was shown the ropes, and got going straight away, and we were kept steady right up to 10pm. I got chance to talk to Helen & John who'd come up to see people, but unfortunately had had to withdraw from the race due to illness. I was really pleased to get to meet Noanie, who I only knew from facebook, who was so sweet, and had to disappear to get her drop bags ready for race day. I also met Antonia who I'd be working with the following day, who was absolutely lovely, even when I was a bit fangirly with her telling her how amazing her performance at the Perth 100km race had been the other month. To be fair, I'm quite impressed I'd managed to NOT introduce myself with a squealing "Hi, I'm Sarah, I read your blog!!!" - it's been known to happen before.... *laughs*

John admitted there'd been a bit of a mix-up with accommodation for the night, and offered me a spare bed in the room he and his friend Lorna was sharing - the room had 3 beds squashed in, and obviously they only needed 2 of them! Lorna was due to be running in the Fling, and I felt awful about the fact that he and I would be getting up a good hour, hour and a half, before she needed to be up, but they were both really friendly and fine with me staying with them, so that's how it ended up that the night before I spent 16+ hours volunteering/supporting at the Fling, I was in my pyjamas chatting happily with an ultrarunner Id never met before (who was really lovely) while she made hummus sandwiches and mused about whether or not she had enough chocolate in the pockets of her hydration backpack. :) We tried to go to sleep around 11.30pm, but John hadn't turned up yet, so we were probably awake another half hour or so. The alarm clock went off at 3:15am... So there was a point where a very good ultrarunner was in a bed right next to me, trying to sleep, and the Race Director was in the shower, and I was musing on how I'd never met either of these people before, and more importantly, when the f*ck was I gonna get my first mug of tea...? Haha!!

The day really got started when we got to Milngavie train station, shortly before 4am, and started setting up for the day. My role was registering the relay teams, but I was also randomly helping out wherever needed, and we were doing things like helping runners with drop bags, and cheering on the runners at the start. Seeing Davie was great - he was looking excited and a wee bit nervous in his new specially-made-for-the-race t-shirt, and we got a quick photo before he set off. Admittedly my eyes are closed (it happens a lot in photos) but maybe I was still asleep.... hehe.

Once I'd finished registering the relay teams, I headed off to Balmaha, which was a drop-bag location just before 20 miles into the race. Again, the amount of organisation and complete lack of chaos at the checkpoint impressed me. I met up with Graeme (this time I really DID say "I read your girlfriend's blog!!!" - sigh - but in my admittedly shaky defence, Rhona writes a very good blog) who we immediately recognised each other from many years back, as we have a number of old friends in common from Edinburgh. He, and a couple of the others, had the drop bags well under control when I got there, and I helped lay them out, before walking down the road with Antonia to find out where her marshal spot was, so I'd know where to relieve her later. She was so funny - "I've ran this race before, and trained here maybe half a dozen times, so I know it pretty well. Now, errr, where's the bit where they have to come off the road? Ummm, is it here? No, wait... let's just try down here..." - the girl knows how to inspire confidence. :) But we found the spot, and I left her to it to get back to the carpark before we were ready for the first runners. The anticipation of the runners arriving was fun, and I also got to speak a couple of words with Debs Martin-Consani, who was waiting for Marco. Amazingly, the words were NOT "omg, I read your blog!!!" - and I managed not to come over as a scary fangirl, I think. Maybe. :) To be fair, I asked how come she wasn't running today, and she said fairly matter-of-factly 'oh, I'm doing a 24 hour race next week...' - yeah, beause that's what people do. Lol!!

I moved into a position where I'd be able to direct the runners to the drop bags, and help out by yelling out their race numbers so that the bags could be grabbed by volunteers to help out. The photo shows me in full flow, hahaha, wearing an XL Fling tshirt over numerous layers of clothes, haha. I had a great hour, encouraging the front runners, all of whom looked fresh and strong - thankfully for retaining my dignity you can't cheer on a runner at a race and yell "I reeeadd yoouurrr blloooggggg" as they run off, else I'd have had half a dozen top-class runners really f*cking confused as they flew through the carpark, haha!! Oh, just remembered, I was stood next to a guy waiting on his girlfriend, and he told me his colleague was doing really well, "who?" "Paul Giblin." "Wow, I read his blog!" - f*cks sake, I'm a disgrace...!!!! :) Then I moved off to the point a quarter of a mile down the road, and honestly I could NOT have timed this any better - the runners started to come in thick and fast, so I was in my element cheering, jeering, and, er, revering all the runners. I was stood at a point at the bottom of a flight of steep stairs up, so I was being crazy-cheerful, and trying to judge which runners I could get away with mocking for walking up the steps (they all did) without getting a slap, haha.

It also meant I was there when Davie arrived, looking for all the world like he'd been running for about 5 minutes - totally bouncy, cheerful, and in his element. He was swapping banter with Jo, a runner just in front of him who had been joking about his pink tshirt, so I joined in, and had a good laugh. Other runners I knew and saw at this point included Lorna, Noanie, and Nigel who's a personal trainer at my gym. There were also a small handful of runners who said "Are you Sarah?" as they got to me. "Yes, who are you?!" - lmao. Loads of facebook folk, hehe. One guy who shouted that to me said he was Wim, a Dutch runner who had briefly got to know Davie through facebook. I'll get back to him later...

I was actually disappointed when another volunteer came to relieve me from my post, after about an hour, as I was having such a whale of a time, but I headed back to the carpark, helped briefly with some drop-bag collections for the runners towards the end of the pack, but mostly busied myself with helping pack up and get things cleared away. By 11am, my duties were basically over, but there was no way in hell I was missing the finish, so I went back to my car, had something to eat, and then headed up the road to Tyndrum. The scenery on the drive was breathtaking, you basicaly skirt along Loch Lomond most of the way. It's just beautiful up there, and we had such a stunning day in terms of weather. It was cold, yet, but bright and sunshiney.

At Tyndrum, the guys were busy setting up the finish line area, so I helped out for a wee while, despite not being allocated any duties here. I just made myself useful as much as possible, helping out Elizabeth in the control tent, and doing things like organising the winners plaques and suchlike. I also had chance to catch up with the lovely Julie, who volunteers at loads of the Scottish ultras and is one of those people *cough cough* who said she was no runner, but has been cajoled into doing quite a fair bit of running over the past year or so!! Haha, wonder who else fits that category, huh?

I was feeling pretty tired by now, so I pulled my camp chair out of my car, and rested besides the finish line for a wee while, and before we knew it, the runners started arriving, piped into the last wee bit by a bagpiper in the trees.

The winner, Lee, broke the course record, and just looked so utterly relaxed as he finished his first ever Scottish ultra. He chatted to us for a while afterwards, very down-to-earth and personable, and one of the girls asked: "So, what's the secret?" - I was gutted to hear the answer as he shrugged and said "Practice." - DAMN. :)

The rest of the runners started to trickle in, and the supporters, friends/family of runners started to turn up, and I was introduced to a lovely Dutch lady who had flown from home that morning to surprise her husband at the finish line. It was Wim's wife!!! So sweet - he had no idea she was coming. We found out it would be about 2 or 3 more hours til he finished, so she went off for a rest, and I hung around the finish area. Helen and John arrived, and Julie shortly afterwards (Davie's Julie, not Julie-volunteer, lol), and we cheered on loads of people as they finished - I am of the opinion that Helen knows pretty much 90% of all runners, anywhere, ever. *nods* But I could be wrong, it might be 89%. *shrugs* :) They'd been popping up at a few different spots during the day, to support people, which I thought was even more impressive and heartwarming considering they'd both been so very disappointed not to be in a fit condition to run today. Julie had been getting texts from Davie, and he was struggling in the last 10-ish miles. We all decided to send him a, errrr, 'supportive' text message (man up, get off your phone, get your arse back here, that kind of thing, lol...) and we all anxiouly waited to see our wee Daftie arrive in the finish strait, as we cheered other runners over the line, including an impressive Noanie who burst into tears shortly afterwards, and so on. Lo and behold, we spotted that pink tshirt hitting the finish area, and the HUGE grin on Davie's face made us cheer even louder, as he joked and pointed at his tshirt, on his way to finishing the longest run he's ever done. So proud! I'd planned to have a finish line photo here, but no matter how many times I tried, it won't upload, grrr. Some other time. :)

Over the next hour or so we cheered on other runners, and were THRILLED for Wim as he crossed the lines straight into the arms of his wife. I was also welling up when Rhona finished, collapsing in tears into the waiting arms of Graeme, who had been handing out medals to every single runner all afternoon, despite clearly waiting for just ONE runner most of all. So emotional. These runners put themselves through the wringers, both physically and mentally, and for some of them, you can REALLY tell how much it means.

A wee while later, I was called back into duties as John started the awards presentation, and I handed up the plaques to one of the other volunteers, in order. By 8pm-ish, we were done, and I was emotionally and physically exhausted. Davie and Julie had gone home, and I'd missed seeing Helen and John leave, but I was headed back to the car quickly, with the aim of getting a far as I could before dark. Spotted Helen, John, and David (different one! This one is a runner who had also spent the day volunteering.) in the Real Food Cafe, so went in to say Bye, but they convinced me to get a wee bit of food in me. That was an inspired suggestion, I really think it helped me to get a small plate of hot salty chips eaten, and a big mug of tea. A wee bit of chat, and then hugs all round before heading for home. In fact, thinking it over, I can't even count how many hugs I had yesterday, lmao!!! Runners are AWESOME at hugging, I've decided. It's a whole body enveloping hug, warm and sometimes slightly sweaty haha, and although I've never been much of a hugger in the past, I totally love it.

The drive home was tough - I stopped halfway at a services, because I was feeling so exhausted, and it gave me a chance to get some cold, fresh air and move around a wee bit - but I made it home at 11:30pm. I was in bed within 4 minutes of unlocking my front door, and asleep maybe 30 seconds later. - SUCH an amazing day. I can't express it in one word. It was motivating, awe-inspiring, hectic, enjoyable, exhausting, hilarious, touching, and generally made me so thankful to have met this crazy bunch of people, and have been welcomed into the family. I'll definitely be back again next year - but no, John Munro, I won't be running!! *laughs*