24hrs before the race, Pete Williams rang me up saying that his usual partner for the race, Andy Harris, couldn’t make it. Would I stand in? Of course I would! This years event was to take place in the Galloway Hills near Dumfries. After a swift drive down, I met Pete and we registered our names and change of team and settled down to prepare for the weekends event.
Saturday – The theme for the day was set at dawn with torrential rain. This was to be unrelenting throuhout the day providing us with some challenging conditions to run in. We completed the first day in 05:40:11 and placed 35th.
After finishing the first day, we dried ourelves out and settled down for the evening. Plenty of strategic eating and rehydration along with plenty of sleep saw us prepared for the next day.
Sunday – What a difference a day makes! Glorious blue skies and sunshine and a lovely crisp day – perfect running conditions. It didn’t take long for the stiffness to wear off and we started to make some good progress. The end was in sight and after an annoying navigational error adding some unwanted time onto our total we finished in 04:57:43.
A total of 44km and 3050m of ascent in 10:37:54 placing us overall 51st.
We were both happy with this result and ran together as a good team. When one was flagging, the other kept the pace going. The conditions were tough and motivation was low at times, but we throughly enjoyed every minute (in retrospect!). See you next year!
