My St Valentines day treat on the WHW

For St Valentine’s day DQ took me out onto the West Highland Way. Although I am privileged to be on the WHWR committee and I have being involved with the race since 2002 I have never ventured onto the route. DQ showed me the meeting point at Drymen and we stopped at the pottery for a pot of tea and a scone. We then drove to Rowardennan and walked towards Balmaha from there. We walked about 3km which is not a long distance but it took quite a while as I kept being distracted by the pretty scenery and wondering off to explore. I even found a ball to play with. Mark has said that if I was an animal it would be a big daft friendly dog that would get its head stuck in fences trying to make friends with the birds. I am starting to accept that he might be right.

I suspect that DQ was starting to despair of my diversions off the route as he told me that there was rope hanging from a tree to stop the bears getting the food. Bears. Of course I doubted the validity of this claim so immediately contacted Dario, WHW guru, to confirm that DQ was winding me up. Dario advised that I hit him but DQ likes it when I get feisty so that was no use. Anyway, we eventually made it back to the car with no bear sightings.

At night I got taken for a lovely romantic meal so overall a great day.

Last week was a good week as I got to catch up with WHWR family members on Tuesday night. Thanks to everyone for words of support in my attempt to become a runner. The night was very informative for WHWR runners and non-runners. The talk from Dr Ellis was quite chilling as in my role as race control it is my responsibility to account for all runners from when the race starts at Milngavie so to hear what can go wrong was quite frightening. At the end of the day the race is a challenge and each runner is aware of the risks but it is hard not to worry and have a dread that something bad could happen.

The talk has also generated a lot of debate about pre race training and advice given. There are numerous approaches to training, running and recovering from the race and everyone just has to find what is best for them. The race attracts a variety of people who undertake the challenge for a range of reasons and I for one think that is one of the joys of being involved. As long as all runners report on time to checkpoints and give the girl at Kinlochleven Health Centre on the phone a smile and wave when they pass I am happy.

This week I have planned a few trips to the gym as it is not long until the 5km. I hope I can chop a few minutes time off on the treadmill to compensate for the delay when my poor uninitiated body hits the wild outdoors to go running.