The night before the journey, saw me having dinner at my parents house. A nice lasagne, yup get the carbs in me. Yvonne and the kids were staying at my parents that night as I would not wake them up when I got up. That also meant that I did not have a alarm clock. Yes the "wake up or you are going to be late" and the gentle nudge out of bed was going to be missed.
I got home started to leave out what I was going to wear, what I might wear, I may need this and that. Going by the weather forecast it was to be a cold morning and not reach above 7 degrees. Oooh boy did the weather forecasters get that one wrong. I had all my drop bags ready (one too many ooops). Was going to wait till morning until I made up all my water bottles. I decided thanks to Billy, to make up small bags of crushed salted peanuts and ready salted crisps. I owe you man :D. Now finally it is time to go to bed. Set alarm, make sure MP3 player, Phone and Garmin was all charged. When I did get to sleep it felt like I was only asleep for 10 minutes and I was back up again. In reality it was 3 hrs sleep I got.
Got myself dressed and headed downstairs for breakfast. For the first time ever in a race I could actually enjoy the comforts of my own house for having breakfast. While having breakfast I got all the water bottles mixed with tailwind (This stuff is amazing). I wanted to head out the door at the latest 3:15am, even though I was only getting myself organised I found that I was heading out closer to 3:30am. The plan was to park the car at my work and then walk round to Kelvingrove Museum to get the bus with the rest of the Flinger's (pardon the pun). The roads to Glasgow were basically taxi's picking up the left overs of the night before, I did get some strange looks sitting at traffic lights with my running gear on.
Got the car parked, signed in at security and handed them my car keys. To the reply of "This is way to early to get up and do a run, wait did you say 53 mile run ha ha ha?". Anyway off I trudged with all my dropbags, hydration vest, anti chaffing cream (this is important stuff) and coffee money, was told at Milngavie train station there would be coffee stall (there was). Waited out front of the museum to be greeted by other Flinger's but no bus. It was not due till 4:30am and we were 15 minutes early. By the time 4:30am had come there must of been at least 50 of us waiting for the bus. Still no bus, a bit of panic set in. Fortunately someone went round the side of the museum to find 2 buses waiting for us (thought the driver might of came round to say). We all went scurried round got on the bus and off we headed to the start line.
Once we had all arrived in Milngavie Train Station, the place was buzzing. There was people still registering, others like myself putting our drop bags at the relevant cars and then going for a coffee. Before I knew what time it was there was an announcement to head to the start line. Ooooh the day I had been training for was nearly about start.
Got myself ready checked I had everything that I needed (actually was not sure what I needed first time doing this distance). I just had to make sure that I got to every checkpoint before cut off times. While I was thinking this and setting my MP3 player up we were off.
Started with running through Milngavie town centre then out towards Drymen (Checkpoint 1). Getting to there was pretty much no problem, I went a tad faster than I should of (yes again) I talked to a lot of others en route, everyone was in a positive mood. The it was dry and relatively warm for 6am. Got to Drymen and filled up one of the water bottles and then headed out towards Balmaha.
Drymen - Balmaha
I knew this was going to get tougher as I had to go up and down Conic Hill (which I have never done). It started to get warmer and warmer as the day progressed. I slowed my pace right down. The course started to get a bit more "hilly". At last I had made it to the foot of Conic Hill *GULP* now to get myself to the top and back down. I will be honest here. I probably ran a total of 1/2 mile up and down the hill as I still had a fair amount of mileage still do after Conic. Once I made it to the top the scenery was breathtaking.
This is a small video of what the picturesque from the top. I could of stayed up there all day. But alas I was in a race so needed to get my sorry state down to Balmaha. Going down was actually harder than getting up I nearly lost my footing a couple of times and there was people steaming past me making it look all so easy. I just wanted to get to the bottom in once piece. Met a few walkers on the way down they kindly let us pass them. Got to the bottom and then ran the rest of the way to Balmaha. Which was only about a mile. As I came into the checkpoint I was greeted by the family. Which I have to say after 20 miles it was a great moral booster. I sat down and proceeded to have my first rice pudding. I cannot believe how good that tasted. I refilled both water bottles went across gave everyone a hug and they gave me words of encouragement. Next leg Was Balmaha to Rowerdennan.
Balmaha - Rowerdennan
At least I knew what to expect as I had done a recce on this part of the course a few weeks before. It as going to be undulating to say the least and a short section running over a pebbly beach. You had to pay attention on where you were running and placing your feet as you could easily fall at any time, which to a few of the competitors it happened to and that is where there race pretty much ended. There was not much to see as it was a lot of wooded area. I was surprised to see a lot of supporters on the course cheering us on. By this point also there was a lot of relay runners going past.........yeah on you go there is no way I am going to even try and catch you fresh legged people. Once I got to just passed 26.5 miles I let out a HUGE cheer as this was me passed the half point and it was all "downhill" from there lmao. If only that was true. It is only 8 miles to Rowerdennan from Balmaha but I can tell you it feels a lot more than that. Waaaaay longer. I was slowing down a lot and my calf and ankle was starting to hurt before I even made it to Rowerdennan. I could see the caravan site so I knew I was not to far away from the next checkpoint. My dad was waiting at the entrance to Rowerdennan, he nearly never saw me...........too busy looking at his phone :P. He just got a picture before I went into the checkpoint. Yvonne and my mum was there with their cameras to take a picture of me at this point I thought I was dying. The marshals were amazing and let my family into the checkpoint area and cheer me on. To the person that gave my kids the rest of his drop bag thank you they loved it..............they never even shared it with me. At this point I really liked the table share program. i.e what you have left in your drop bag you put it onto a table for any of the other runners can take. I took a dairy milk. I did leave cliff bars. Another water refill with tailwind and some Coke Cola, which I took with me (500ml). Then to head to the next checkpoint.
Rowerdennan - Inversnaid
I felt that I would never descend, It was just up up and yup more up. I pretty much walked this section with perhaps a couple of miles at jogging. My ankle was getting worse. I did stop a couple of times to see if stretching would help but nope. I walk/jog some of the time with Gordon, then Michelle and you guessed it pretty much anybody that could put up with me. Everyone on the course was friendly and always in good spirits no matter how they felt, we each encouraged the other. We had all passed the half way mark and were now just looking at how far to each checkpoint as that was the goal. Half way between Rowerdennan to Inversnaid started to get more technical by that I mean you were jumping up down between rocks scrambling up hills (on your hands and knees), at some points it felt as though you were going vertically up even on the steps. Hard going (never took any pictures) If you thought you could go fast over this part ha ha ha ha. As the saying goes I bled time I think I was averaging in this section about 16 minute miles. If not even slower. Eventually I arrived in Inversnaid but there was no one to greet me there. It is too hard to get to, so I said just to leave it. As you can clearly see the picture tells how I felt once I got to Inversnaid.
Once again had another rice pudding, took on some more water. Enjoyed the view. I took about a 10 minute break here, I was ahead of my own predicted time. So wanted to gather myself and get ready for the next stage which I had already been prewarned was going to be the hardest of them all. Yeah to me. So made sure all water bottles were topped up (again 1 with tailwind, the other just water) and It was time to leave Inversnaid behind.
Inversnaid - Bein Glas
I could not get into any kind of walking or even jogging rhythm at all. This part was a very technical a lot of stopping and starting. Up over rocks, sliding down rocks, places where you could only either go up or down 1 at a time. It was hard on the ankles and legs. Once you got out to the top end of Loch Lomond and started to head up (to go back down eventually) and looked back WOW is all I can say.
I know I had to stop to take another photo, as you can see the weather was amazing (BBC forecasters got it wrong again). Yes I did walk up the hill.............slowly. About 90% of who I saw did. Who can blame us we had done about 38 miles by this point. At this point I noticed I was drinking more than I thought I was and with about 2 miles still to go. One water bottle was empty and the other had just over a couple of mouthfuls in it (Same with the Coke Cola). I was sore what felt like every muscle in my legs was screaming at me. I needed a pick me up. I text Yvonne to let her know how I was feeling and that I was just under 2 miles from them. Words of encouragement came back. So, now do not laugh. I downed all that was left of the Coke Cola............that is some caffeine hit, put Chandelier on the MP3 player and proceeded to sing (badly) at the top of my voice running down a hill doing aeroplanes. The looks I got was hilarious. Some people even asked if I was okay lol. I then came running YES running into Bein Glas to hear the cheers of my kids Erin and Rebecca, it was great to see them. Once again I took my time here. After this checkpoint there was ONLY 12 miles to the end. Could I manage to keep myself together and run to the finish. Well here we go. Waved by to the family as they were now going to head to Tyndrum and wait for me there.
Bein Glas - Tyndrum
Come on Andrew this is it no more checkpoints the next stop TYNDRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUM. 12 miles of mind games. I can do this I can do this. I have not come 41 miles to pack it in now, but guess what 8 miles from the finish line and.....................my Garmin packed in. Noooooooooo. I wish I took some other photos en route as on the "grassy verge" I could of made snowballs there was that much snow but I do not think making and throwing them at the others would of made me a lot of friends lol. This was not a technical run but as it has been called by others this is a rollercoaster to the end. Up and Down followed by Up and Down and then again Up and Down. This was what it was to the end. Now again I was not watching how much I was drinking and I ran out of water/tailwind/Coke Cola before the end (I found out later it was 3 miles) By this point I just wanted to see the finish line I had lost the will to live. Then up comes Jonathon, what an amazing guy the 2 of us walked the whole way to the end He even gave me a heads up that you can run down the finishing chute with your kids. So at this point I tried to get a hold of Yvonne, my mum and dad and no one was answering the phone I later found out why (lets just say Rebecca = Nappy problems). Eventually I get through let my dad know what is happening and to get them to the finish. I am only about 1 mile away. The last 3 miles as I had someone to talk to went past very fast. As we came up to the last turning before the finishing straight I said to Jonathon to go ahead and I will hold back to let him run down with his boy. Then it was my turn, I turned to corner and I promised myself I would not get emotional but alas I did. I saw everyone I got Erin and Rebecca and ran down the finishing chute.
Finishing time 13:40:05
Absolutely amazed at the whole experience. Even after all that I would def do it all again. Thanks to the family for being there and supporting me through it all I am not sure I would of finished it without there encouragement. The marshals were simply amazing, they could of not of been more helpful.
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