highlander mountain marathon: dundonnell

mountain marathons as a weekend mini break are fast becoming a tradition in our house. and like all traditions certain rituals have developed, new playlist made, salty car snacks purchased, driver changes arranged around favourite cafes, even hotels booked and the inevitable guessing of the final location of the actual race....turns out it was dundonnell, an hours bus ride ,around the massive loch broom, from registration in ullapool...which then just left us guessing how on earth would we ever get back. we'd have to wait for two days of hill running to find out.

the wild and remote hills induced a stunned silence, which was soon broken by miserable grunts as both my achilles seized up. cold, damp feet shuffling as best they could, watching others disappear into the distance. on the plus side the first two check points were collected without incident. confidence growing, i began to feel a little stronger, jane looked less concerned about my gait, we started to jog. and proceeded to run straight passed cp3...about 30minutes lost and a massive blow to my now fragile mind. within the first two hours i was already emotionally spent.

photo from rightplacerighttime

everything seemed wrong. my bag felt like it was full of rocks, legs stiff and heavy, my shoes appeared to have lost all grip, brain turned gloopy and i admit it, i may have become a little, well, mardy. despite this, jane pushed us on, intermittently shoveling jelly babies into my mouth. the rest of the day was a slippery blur. circling an teallech, part of me wishing to be scrambling/bottom shuffling along its spiky peaks, the rest of me glad we didn't have to tackle to final steep scree slopes.

reaching mid camp the afternoon sun began to shine, moods lifted and our noodle dinner was enjoyed with a fine mountain view. this helped ease the 28/32 day 1 result, as did a lovely pint of black isle beer and some ceilidh observing. crawling into our tiny down stuffed tent we both hoped that tomorrow would be a better day.

with notices warning that all competitors must be at the finish by 2pm at the latest, the pressure was on. no mistakes, no mardyness, all to be completed within 6.5hrs, not a lot to ask....rounding the other side of the 'big hill', there was less distance to cover but the check points were fiendishly laid out. steep ups followed even steeper downs. fingers constantly grabbing at the hillside, feet feeling for solid ledges. re-entrant after re-entrant found, no massive errors but still wondering if we were moving fast enough.

with 3cp's to go we realised we'd make it. helped along by the mini race we were having with another team. reaching the final down the last piece of the puzzle was solved, they'd be 'speed' boating us back to ullapool! post match analysis whilst paddling in the sea loch, confirmed that it's all in the mind. with the aid of positive thinking we finished in 19th place on day2, dragging ourselves up to 22nd overall.


for what ever reason my head and body weren't really in the right frame of mind for mountain marathoning but the jagged peaks of an teallech were more than enough to rejuvenate my soul. time for some proper recovery and working out how to control my head.