highlander mountain marathon

the mattress felt hard and unfamiliar. the room seemed strangely purple. we were still along way from home. inverness' finest premier inn. i rolled over and was reminded of the asymmetrical sun burn down my left side. jane was already awake. eyes wide open, sun burned nose plastered in moisturiser. apart from her heather scratched shins, burnt limbs, swollen ankles, sore thighs and bruised shoulders, she said she was feeling ok. my list of aliments slightly shorter but legs no less scabby. despite the previous nights three course meal, at inverness' best/only turkish restaurant, we both woke with empty bellies. the morning after the race before.....

the location for this years highlander was gairloch. from nottingham drive north for 8 hours, turn left at inverness, then just pop down the road for another hour or so. with a p.d.james audio book and stunning views there can be worse ways to spend a friday. reaching the sea we had to get our feet wet and watching the sun setting we couldn't help but feel this was the start of a good weekend.

no clouds. no wind. no midges. map marked up and double checked. there were going to be no mistakes this time...after some searching we found the first check point. ok, from now on there were going to be no mistakes. contouring round a small knoll we were greeted with proper hills. snow capped and waving hello. a steep up and an even steeper down. no paths and no one else in sight.

picking our way through vertical bog and losing legs down hidden streams, progress felt slow. jelly babies and mountain vistas kept our spirits high. but finally it seemed we were making good decisions and not wasting too much time. avoiding unnecessary ups and using terms like re entrant and lochen outflow. we felt like real orienteers, just without the harlequin lycra and headbands.

the big fiery ball was high in the sky. the only thing we weren't carrying was sun block. streams provided drinks but there was no escape from the heat. i'm not complaining. we just weren't prepared!

mid camp was a surreal affair. a bar and celidh band, down jackets and plastic bags as socks. the event seems to attract the friendliest of folk and people with a real spirit of adventure. listening to tales of previous races and big days out it felt like we were being welcomed into a secret club.

finding out that we hadn't done as badly as we'd thought meant day two started with a bit of pressure. could we really make those seven minuets up on elizabeth and her partner? probably not and certainly not if we keep taking the 'interesting' lines. they soon over took us. and we concentrated on not getting heat stoke, falling down holes and getting too lost in amongst the numerous knolls and lochens.

we covered nearly 45km of rough ground over the two days. our feet only touched probably about 3km of actual path. apart from a few other competitors out on the course we didn't come across another soul. a remote and wild place. we were so lucky with the weather. if the clag had been down, i think we'd still be out there somewhere.

definitely the toughest mountain marathon we've done as a pair. the planners made really clever use of the location. the event was faultlessly run. i'd return in an instant...or make that 9 and a half hours.


scores on the doors... 12/20 in c class. dead pleased with ourselves and already planning where to make those lost minutes up...whilst doing lots of stretching as well!!