A Report from the Winners

To be honest, I was a bit nervous in the fortnight leading up to this, as snow and rain lashed Northern Scotland. Back in Gairloch in 2010 we had sunbathed at the half way camp, and the temperature overnight was 12 degrees. Now the forecast was for snow showers and hard frosts, but at least light winds. We drove up on the Friday, had a look at the campsite and selected a pitch in the Beinn Eighe visitor centre to spend the night (an advantage of a big car and removable seats).
The morning dawned as cold as we had expected, and having demisted the car we set off to the official car park and a brisk walk to a leisurely 8.30 ish start. The map showed checkpoints to the North and South of Loch Maree, with a boat trip looking likely, not least because of a “strict” 5.30 cut off time at the end of day one. Katy Boocock had pointed the Adventure Show cameras at us because Jacqui was the only female in the A class, but the start line was a confusing place for our first interview, and I hope they stopped filming as we ran off up the wrong hill and had to sneak off down the valley.
The course for day one was one of the best I have run in twenty years of Mountain Marathons, and by far the best I have run in Britain. We passed over a high shoulder of Slioch before heading North to Lochan Fada, with magnificent views up past Ben Lair, then North again and heading out almost to Carnmore before passing South over the ridge again and round to Letterewe, where a camera crew and a short wait for the boat were waiting. Then a brisk walk took us to the breezy and tussocky campsite at the foot of the path to Beinn Eighe.      
At this point we discovered that Sam and Andy, the run away favourites, had misplaced a knoll (probably because they were going so fast), and instead of scraping into the one hour chasing start, we found ourselves narrowly leading the race. And so we had another chat with the nice people from the telly, admitting that we were very surprised to find ourselves in this position after an accurate but steady day, and that the chances of keeping our place were pretty slim.
The night was as cold as we expected, with a brisk hail shower just before we needed to get up. Luckily we now had another 8.30 start, and the bacon butties of the morning were as good as the chips from the night before. None of that OMM puritanism here.
A short interview, and after a short tussle with some lochans, we set off toward Beinn Eighe, with the next control high in Coire Mhic Fhearchair, up in the snow. We then followed the walkers’ route up the stony gully up to the ridge, with a short stop to put on any clothes we had forgotten, and a sharp descent and stony climb to the col below Ruadh-stac Beag. From here it was pretty much downhill via a short diversion to the lochans on the flank of Meall a Ghiuthais. We had seen most of the teams from the chasing start, but at least one was unaccounted for, and the last few controls were a race against virtual competition.
The cameras were at the finish, but we wanted to download before we said anything we might regret. Our worst fears were realised when we saw that we were second, but more careful reading showed that it was second on the day: we were 12 minutes behind on day two, but a 15 minute head start had given us a 3 minute winning margin after almost twelve hours of running. (Although the margin for third place was 10 seconds over fourth!)
One more interview, and a totally unexpected victorious prize giving. On both days we worked as hard as we could, and conscious of our relative lack of speed, we tried our best to be efficient and accurate. In the end, however, the quality of the course made winning seem less important. I cannot stress enough how good these two days of running were, and together with the fantastic organisation and friendly atmosphere, it is hard to see how this event is not booked up within weeks.
Finally I have to say my perception of the media has been transformed by the Adventure Show people. There were cameras all round the course, in surprisingly obscure and distant places, and they even had a lead presenter manning the control beneath the Triple Buttress. When they wanted to talk to us they were very polite, and equally understanding when we were more interested in tea and flapjack. I hope we managed a degree of coherence and that we are not totally edited out of the final cut.

Highlander 2013? Book now! Results

Mark and Jacqui Higginbottom

and one from further down the pack

I was convinced by a former club mate of mine from Glossop (you may recall him as one of Jasmin's friend who got lost at the Manor Water fell race) to give a mountain marathon a go. Foolishly I agreed and despite our obvious unsuitability for a navigational race we settled on the C-class Highlander Mountain Marathon last weekend. Travelling up on Friday afternoon was successful and we arrived in time to register and find the campsite at Taagan then off to the hotel bar to check out the competition (and a very fine selection of ales!)

Saturday started with a 4km walk to the C and D starts at the base of the Slioch horseshoe before a climb directly to the ridge before traversing and dropping down toward Loch Fionn. Despite the met office assuring the weather would be terrible the sun was splitting the sky and with a small smattering of snow on the very tops conditions were spectacular.

The day proceeded without too many navigational blunders and we arrived at the finish in plenty of time to catch the dinghy service ferrying competitors across loch maree to the overnight campsite. We were rather surprised to find we had done better than anticipated and accidentally got ourselves involved in the chasing start! This was not in the plan. Still, undettered by the idea of competition we decided to make the most of the cracking celidh with food and liquid refreshment which is, I am assured, the norm for this event.

Sunday came far too quickly and despite oversleeping by 50 minutes we were able to dib just in time to take our position in the start, though we had to skip the bacon butties on offer. Inspite of the hail storm that occured just as we set off up the first climb we managed to make reasonable process on other teams in the dibbing start, although neither of us really felt too energetic early on, and were moving steadily until we were caught by the first two teams about 3 hours in. The final hour and a half proved to be by far the most runnable part of the weekend and thankfully this coincided with our most energetic spell of the weekend and we managed to keep the leaders in sight and hold off the second and third placed teams through to the finish to claim a surprising fourth place. A great finish to a superb weekend.

Alex McVey