Glencoe Mountain Trail Run

Post date: Sep 3, 2017 7:47:18 PM

By Lorraine MacDonald

Early morning start for me & Kathleen on Saturday 26th August, up at 5am away for 6am. We didn't have a clue what was in front of us as we

set off all cheery & chatty.

Our start was 9.30am we actually arrived at at Glencoe mountain resort at 7.30am haha we could have had another hour in bed. (I got the blame

for that!)

I only discovered on the Friday night when I read through the itinerary (properly) that the half marathon was actually over 15 miles 🙈I

hadn't even trained the way I normally would have for a half marathon, so 15miles was a bit ahh! Anyway plan was nice & slow & enjoy the

scenery.

We stood in the line for our numbers getting eating alive by guess what MIDGIES!!

Anyway I was feeling a bit oh god what have we signed up for, I said to Kathleen I don't think the run will finish coming down the ski lift

line, looking up at it like🤔, no way she said. lol I said nothing about the map actually saying we were finishing there & said to Kathleen

(och there will be a road round to the finish). 🤔

Set off at 9.30am, first 2 miles were not ideal but in retrospect they were amazing compared to what was in front. Mile 3 we turned on to marsh

land, peat, bogs & heather was all you could see, half the time we didn't know if we were on the right track or not. It was actually funny

& there were loads of runners around us having a laugh so all was fine especially when I nearly fell in a burn that just seemed to appear in

front of me. After about 3 miles on the marsh sinking & pulling your legs up out of bogs the whole time our legs were feeling heavy, jumping

over burns & bogs all the way, Kathleen face planted right into a big muddy bog at one point lol 😂 I could do nothing but laugh as she was

laying off, we came off that section at mile 8ish to a check point had a couple of jelly babies & a drink (not beer wish it had been) then back

onto the west highland way, it was great to get back onto decent ground under foot, but by mile 10 the legs where giving up totally knackered

after the marshy section & we were struggling, I left Kathleen at mile 11ish, got to mile 12ish & couldn't believe I was seeing an arrow

pointing up the steepest hill on the same marshy rocky ground we left at mile 8, so that was it heart sank there was no way I could run up that,

got half way up & started to walk, again it was bogs & burns, it took 40 minutes to cover the 2 miles up, didn't seem that long as again I was

having a laugh with fellow runners, the decent well what can I say 900 feet down under the ski lifts didn't know wether to laugh or cry, it was

scary coming down, took 35 minutes to come down. I was never so happy to see a finish line & was even happier to see my sister come over the

finish line as I know she doesn't like heights 😂 (this time she couldn't blame me as she chose the run)! I finished in 3hrs39 Kathleen 3hrs49 longest half marathon ever 😂 proud of that!

We then quickly got showered & headed over to finish ourselves off with a walk on Ben Nevis, me & Kat were quite happy to come down from about half way as the beer in the Ben Nevis Inn was calling & great beer it was!!

Great challenge & Great day out!!

(Ps Hope I haven't put anyone off entering this challenge it really is fun!)