i thought i had better come on and try and summarize the whole day in a race report - some of the others may come on and hopefully add to it
approx 4am and matthew, suzanne and little catriona get out of bed so matthew can get fuelled up and away to tarbert to be in plenty time to run his 12miles with a 6 o'clock start
no problemo and off they go, matthew flies his chunk with a time of exactly 2:00hrs which was his hoped for target so brilliant matthew and the JSC team are off to a great start. Taking over from matthew is jocelyn who managed to get bill, maddie and innes on the road in time
which is more than they did for the ceilidh
and jocelyn set off flying too, encountered a bit of head wind and still managed to come in with a fabulous time of 1:48hrs for her 10 miles.
Next was moi on the beach section, this proved to be a very challenging one for poor moi, i watched her push against the wind wishing i could do it for her, but she ran her wee heart out - her speed was incredible facing a head on wind for the full 9 miles and keeping going - the whole way with no "wee breathers" - a real gutsy performance coming in with a great time of 1:47hrs.
can i add her that joc had commented to moi that it was better they had the wind in their faces as this meant i would have it on my back for my chunk - what a star team mate, this was however before they both ran so i think they might have changed their minds after!!!
i took over from moi and headed off onto the beach at tayinloan then up through the fields and onto the hills, i think i took off too fast as those two monstrous hills were killing the calves but once i settled into my rhythm i really was feeling good and laughing at the hills singing my heart out,
can i at this point mention my fabulous and extremely wonderful escort my dad - he followed me and moi the whole way and drove beside me at some points for a blether, i can never thank him enough for the support he gave his two girls
as he had followed moi the whole way through her hard journey and i think if he could have got onto the beach he would have (he spent many hours with moi and i scouting out our routes and walking chunks of them so we would be safe)
all was going well heading out to brackley met jdcarra and managed a smile for the camera although the legs were starting to get very tired by this point. At this point i was heading into the unknown grianian - hadnt been over this chunk with dad the previous weekend so wasnt sure where i was heading and what the terrain would be like. Well i think i'll liken it to hell on earth
the grassy uphill climb at this point in the race was very cruel and really took away what reserves you had built up, this was then followed by a small piece on the level then onto a rough stony climb steeply upwards again this was followed by an outragously steep downhill but you couldnt gain speed on it unless you were a goat, it was windy and very narrow, fun on another day maybe
a few more ups and downs and im having a look at the garmin and the 15 miles is looming so keep forging on thinking i cant be far away. climb another hill and rewarded by a downhill see carradale village and remember a change that rob had posted it was something to do with seeing swings and playing fields and not following the blue pegs and there is a wee sign "kwr" pointing me away from the village so i congratulate myself for remembering and off i go in the direction away from the village thinking it must be a wee loop round the forest to the network centre
just after this i reach my 15 miles and nearly cry time on the garmin is 2:35hrs and the network centre is nowhere in sight. see a couple in the bushes - picking berries or something
and they tell me im going in the wrong direction so almost crying for my daddy i head back.
as i make my way back i look at the sign a bit closer it says "kwr - walkers to tayinloan" i could greet - nothing to do but strop and huff and shout and swear as i walk along with less n less sugar in the system i think i might be drunk by this point, normally i eat jelly babies by the dozen as the team will tell you but id ran my heart out and stomach felt like i would be sick if i ate, so on i forge and see wee moi ahead and know the end is near. manage to rally round and finish my longest run ever (only ever done 13) 17 miles in 2:53 - gutted at getting lost but elated to hand over to darren.
darren runs the next chunk with his support runner ninja and they just make it look easy cover 6miles of very hard terrain, up n down hills, across beach and up some killer braes in a cracking time of 1:03hrs - unbelievable can i add here that darren was one of our beginners in january !!!!! he went to lochgilphead to run the 10k the next day and got a pb of 53mins so well done darren
a real star
next up francis - what can i say poor francis had a migraine and took a wrong turning, how unlucky, this turning cost her 6 extra miles
and turned her run into the run of her life. a true gutsy run even although her team mates made many attempts to stop her and get her into the car she was having none of it, so our support runner ninja got out and truly supported francis, they were an amazing sight to see running those hills up in skerry country. our heartfelt thanks go out to ninja for the support he gave francis
got to drumore and the rest of us joined them as we had all intented from the start to run the last mile home together. Moi had to go to stars in their eyes and darren had a dinner date so they didnt manage the "last mile" but the rest of us ran to the war memorial together exhausted but jubilant with loads of stories to tell. Just behind us came the solo runner George Reid who had run the full 66 miles on his own so we gave him a heroes welcome
If there was a trophy for furthest travelled we would have it as between us we clocked 74 miles
Very very proud of the whole team as that's what we were - not 6 runners but a team (not forgetting support runner for a minute ninja) - 7 man team but we cant tell Rob that
- all member supporting each other, well i did get up at five and text matthew
we then spent the night jigging at the ceilidh , cant believe i forgot it was byob and i wasnt driving!!!!!!!!!!!!!
my legs are killing me the day