My fourth time involved with this race, and my second time volunteering. I was asked to be a support runner for a friend, back in December, but with my injury still not gone, and a long period of injury doubt for him, I cruelly and guiltily deserted Dave, and returned to Milngavie again in a similar role to last year: working registration on Friday night, and a 12 hour shift at Kinlochleven checkpoint on Saturday through to Sunday.
There's a small tradition now, of a pre-race lunchtime get-together in Edinburgh on the Weds, this year five of us turned up. As we chatted over lunch, Murdo (he of Jelly Baby Hill fame) asked who we thought could win it this year. I didn't hesitate as I replied James Stewart. Of course, though I no longer believe in the concept of "luck", part of me didn't want to jinx his race, haha, so I followed that quickly with "well, you know, there are some fast guys coming from America and so on, and you don't know what might happen on the day, but... yeah... I'd says James." I had no idea of his race plan, but I had a good feeling, you know? I'd also worked out that given the timing of my volunteer shifts, if he finished in anything under 15:15, I would be able to be at the Leisure Centre to see him cross the line. Yes, seriously, that was my calculation, I had it written down the day before; anything under 15:15... Of course, James did go on to win the race, and did in fact finish in 15:15! But I believed his crew who, on leaving him at Lundavra, calculated he would finish in around 15:29, give or take a minute, so I didn't stay and left the leisure centre at around 4:10pm, to drive to KLL. *shakes head* ..... ANYWAY, as fantastic as his race was, and as incredibly well-deserved his win, this blog post isn't about him, haha. So let's return to my volunteer race report.With Adrian Stott inspiringly going after his 15th (16th?) goblet this year, when I turned up at registration I found I'd been volunteered to run his merchandise stall for him. I think it's because I'm upbeat and a mouthy cow, making me into some sort of awesome saleswoman??! Lol. (We made around £1400.) Haha, no chance of a repeat of my fun last year making the fellas strip off their jeans for the weighing scales, but there was no time to get downhearted about that - the hall filled up quickly, and I was kept busy right through to closing time. It was brilliant to see so many friends and familiar faces; lots of hugs, lots of chat, lots of nervous-looking people. Being in that hall, I can't imagine any race having the same sort of buzz about it. As much as I'm the first to roll my eyes about the legendary/cult status some people afford this race, given how many more races there are to choose from, once you're there, once you're part of it, the eye rolling stops, and you are carried away with the emotions, the atmosphere, and the... dammit, okay, the love. It's no coincidence that FB page for the race is called the West Highland Way Race Family.
Once it got to 1am, and the race set off, we tidied up registration, made the hall look like we'd never even been there, loaded the vans, and separated off into the night. Some people were going home, some were going to their next marshal spot (at Drymen or Balmaha, say), and some were off to get some sleep before their next task. I fell into the latter category - I headed up the road to a hotel I'd booked about 45 mins drive north. I was in bed by about 2:30am, but so high on adrenaline and excitement, that even as I fell asleep, I was thinking about the runners reaching Drymen... and I woke up 2 hours later, reaching out immediately for my iPad to see how the first checkpoints had unfolded.
After maybe two or three hours of ineffectual dozing and race adrenaline waking me up, I decided to give up trying to sleep any more, get some breakfast, slather myself in midge repellant, and head up the road. I saw James was in second place, and a quick calculation told me I might be able to see him cross the road at Brodie's, in Tyndrum, if I hurried. I loaded up the car, got in, and immediately remembered I had to get petrol. Tyndrum would be unlikely... but I could definitely see him at Bridge of Orchy.On the drive north, I had time to think about my own recovery, and muse on how incredibly painful my PF was this morning, after standing around as registration for 4+ hours that evening. I was forced to rethink a few other races I'd thought about volunteering at... which was a difficult conversation to have with myself, when you're driving into the incredibly stunning scenery of the highlands. After passing through Crianlarich, I drove towards Tyndrum in the middle of a long row of traffic. As we reached the West Highland Way road crossing at Ewich, I spotted a runner standing waiting. I knew I had about 6 or 7 cars behind me, and I could see it was Morgan Windram-Geddes, who was second placed lady at that point, so I figured this was an unwelcome delay for her. I immediately slowed my car right down, to open up a nice gap in the traffic for her, and gently beeped my horn. She flew across the road, with a wave, on towards Auchtertyre checkpoint. I realised this meant I was definitely too late to see James in Tyndrum, and after a very short comfort break at Green Welly, I headed straight to Bridge of Orchy.
Here, I caught up with a few familiar faces, and chatted to Scott, one of James' support crew (and who I will also be crewing for in an ultra later this year...) - while we were talking, the cameraman from the BBC ran across to tell us he'd been informed that the lad in first place, Kris, had taken a wrong turn, and James was now in the lead. I went to inform Sean and the the volunteers there, just as James flew into the checkpoint, looking very strong and raring to go. I now realise, after the fact, that his original plan had been to "pace to Bridge of Orchy, and race from there" - he knew his pacing has been good, he was spot on target (couple of minutes faster), and for the first time in the race he was in the lead. He now had 34 miles to go, with people chasing him. He ate banana cake and mumbled to the camera man who was trying to interview him, but it was clear he wasn't hanging around. He shot off, and I texted Murdo to let him know James was on his way.Scott and Skoosh headed off to Victoria Bridge, and with some hesitation I realised I had to extract myself from the race just now, and get to Fort William, to check in to my hotel, get a few hours sleep, before heading to Kinlochleven. Of course, that didn't happen - as I drove past Glencoe in the stunning sunshine and blue skies, and got close to the base of the Devils Staircase, I easily spotted Des and Andy, the other half of James' crew, who were parked at Allt na Feadh, so I pulled in. We chatted for a while, everyone in very high spirits, adrenaline and excitement. All three of us should have been using this time to get some rest, but all three of us were far too wired for that, haha!
Eventually, I left them and continued to FW. I couldn't really sleep at all, once I checked into the hotel - I lay on my bed in the semi-darkness of having the curtains shut, but I was buzzing, and kept checking the race tracker online. I did get some rest, but no sleep - eventually I got up, prepared, and ate some food, then headed across to the leisure centre. Nice to see Craig Reid and his family there - he was due to be running this year, but had withdrawn due to injury, just a few days before the race. Gutted for him, But it was lovely to see him up at the finish to support James. As I said earlier, the support crew guys said James was expected after I had to leave, so I said my farewells and headed up the road, getting my mindset into marshal mode, haha.
The checkpoint was buzzing when I arrived - relay teams, runners, support crews - all outside, in the sunshine. NO. MIDGES. ....what??!! That just doesn't happen! *laughs* Inside it was quiet, and after getting my bearings again, and heading to the shop for plenty of milk, tea and coffee, I settled in for a 12 hour shift.
Obviously I'd missed the very front runners, but at 5pm there are still plenty of fast runners coming through. One of these (I won't name, it's not my place) was exhausted, and came over to drop out. I refused, and Julie and I told him to get a little rest, even just half an hour, then finish the race. When you're 81 miles into a 95 mile race, recording a DNF is a tough decision to make, and as marshals there, we try to do our very best to not get that many! After a rest, I told him that if he waited a short while longer, he could take a support runner for the last section. He looked at me, and defiantly replied he'd got here on his own, he was getting to the finish on his own. Yaaaaas! When he left the checkpoint, I swear I wanted to punch the air. It's no lie to say that seeing him collect his goblet the next day gave me a lump in my throat for sure....
As the race went on, I was thrilled to see so many friends come through. The faster ones, bless 'em, would get off the weighing scales and have a cameraman thrust a microphone in their face and ask them questions. Shell-shocked, not terribly conversational, and wishing the race was over, my guess is there won't be much coverage from this part that makes the final edit when The Adventure Show is eventually aired!
As it started to get dark, the midges came out, and came inside for a nibble. Grrrrrr.... As annoying as it was, being inundated with the little buggers, we definitely had it a lot better than usual at KLL this year. I got bitten twice on my hand, but being dosed up with antihistamine, the bites subsided and disappeared after maybe an hour. Cant complain! ;-) Meanwhile, the runners, and their support crews, kept on coming. My energy levels would occasionally dip, as I sat down to take weight off my plantar fasciitis, but the moments the door opened I'd be straight up with a bit of energy, supportive comments, cheeky banter if necessary (telling George Furmage to "MTFU" was long overdue payback, and I loved it....) and plenty of hugs. On the more serious side, we need to be able to make a judgement on how the runners are doing, so we talk to every one of them. "How you getting on, have you got a support runner for the next section, you still getting fluids inside okay?" kinda thing. The scales are not there to bump anyone out of the race, the scales are only there to give us an indication that there might be something to run past the medics. One guy had lost 7kgs since the start of the race, omg, but he was totally coherant, very used to sweating loads when he ran, and it wasn't unusual for him to lose a lot. The doctor asked him a load more questions, and agreed he was okay to go on. Weight alone is never going to be a reason to pull a runner from the race - but we have to be on the ball, and make sure the runners are safe to continue. After 10pm, we were ensuring runners left with company, which is a race rule (though, it now transpires, is no longer an actual race rule, just left in the online rules by error!) - but we had no difficulties with that at all. We didn't have any medical emergencies this year either - all went very smoothly. Late on, a guy was really struggling with what looked like his knee or ITB, I couldn't quite tell. The doctors were looking after him, and he was resting loads, but I turned a few times to see him having "the chat" with his support team. I don't envy that discussion. He was clearly struggling to put his weight down on the leg, and having made it 81 miles out of 95, dropping out would be a huge call to make - but likewise, going another 14 miles in such pain would be tough. The doctors fashioned a full leg ice pack for a while, and soon after, he was okay enough to hobble out to go finish, I was absolutely THRILLED to see him collect his goblet at the ceremony, knowing what he must have been going through that whole way out of KLL to FW. I caught him after the ceremony, and said "I knew you could do it." - he replied: "well why didn't you come and tell me that?!" - haha!
Next year, I'll be back. I think I'd quite like to be part of a crew next year, but if I'm not asked, I'll be back at KLL for sure. A very warm congratulations to everyone who was involved in this year's race. Thank you to Ian, Sean and the race of the race team, for letting me be part of it, and well done to the winners, James and Lizzie, all the other 157 winners, and all those who didn't quite make it to the finish. Toeing the line is something to be proud of, and if this wasn't your year, be assured your time will come. x x
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