Highlander Mountain Marathon

A mountain marathon in the Highlands in April could either mean two things; completely crystal blue skies or shed loads of precipitation. We got both this weekend as high winds blew through snow squalls (although blizzards may be a better description) between brighter spells.



Friday night at the event centre in Torridon village was pretty grim and an anxious night was spent in the tent listening to the rain lashing against the fly sheet and being battered by sudden gusts of wind rolling down the flanks of Ben Alligin. Saturday was much better and at 7.30am we set off on a magical mystery bus tour to the other side of the hills by Loch Carron. Very unexpected. 'A' class had a slight twist where you could leave out one of the checkpoints of your choice. This had the effect of splitting everyone up and we saw hardly anyone all day. The checkpoints were in superb locations and the running was suprisingly good on stalkers paths and deer tracks. I have run and walked a fair bit round the area before, but the course took me to parts where I would have never had the inclination to go. After 30km of running we reached the overnight camp near Coulin after 7hs and unexpectedly in 5th place.


The overnight camp was much more pleasant compared to all other mountain marathons I have done due to the suply of cooked food, hot drinks, beer and a band. Still, I felt the need to heat up some extra food in the tent. It was less windy than the previous night, but there had been a dusting of snow. All in all a very cosy night, although the thought of another day trogging through snow was not that inspiring.


Day 2 was awful. My feet, having just spent the last 12 hours thawing them out, were agony after just 10min of running. This sensation ebbed and flowed throughout the day in direct proportion the the depth of snow and water on the ground. I was carrying most of the kit, but my partner had bad blisters and was struggling to raise the speed above walking pace. It took 2hs to get the first 2 checkpoints and even the spells of sunshine could do little to improve my mood. Deep snow and tricky terrain kept our pace to a minimum throughout the day. The combination of the pain in my feet and a frustration at the lack of running terrain made it all very demotivating. If Jonathan hadn't been so keen to finish I am sure I would have joined the dnfs. Eventually, we reached the 3 last rather cruelly placed checkpoints, having mastered a lethal near-vertical heather gully and a waist-deep river crossing, and finished having surprisingly only dropping one place.

I suppose I must have had some enjoyable moments out of the 7.5hs (25km in distance) we were 'running' for. Previously I have read somewhere that 'there are no bad days, just learning days', so it was without a doubt a day to learn something. Would I do it again? Most definetly!