West Highland Way 2005

Scotland has a healthy running scene.  On June 12 over 9000 people took part in the Edinburgh Marathon and relay.  On 18 June, midsummer weekend, in Scotland saw a whole host of events taking place throughout the country.  The u/20 and u/23 track championships in Dumfries in the South-West; the 10k road race championships just outside Glasgow; the 14 mile 7 Hills of Edinburgh multi-terrain race and further north there was the Highland Cross Duathlon, a 20 mile trail run preceding a 35 mile cycle in the Highlands. 

The jewel in the crown of all this midsummer madness has to be the West Highland Way race – a 95 mile epic through some of Scotland’s most stunning scenery.  It is the longest event to receive a permit from Scottish Athletics.

A record number of 105 entries had been received for the event.  Race information states simply competitors have 35 hours to run, walk or crawl the 95 miles/150 kilometres of Scotland’s most popular long distance trail from Milngavie, a satellite town 7 miles north of Glasgow, to Fort William at the foot of Great Britain’s highest mountain, Ben Nevis.

While entries are encouraged from anyone willing to take up “life’s little challenges” they have to show an ability to not only deal with what is a serious endurance event, but to have experience of running in extremes of climate in mountainous terrain.  Believe me in Scotland, even at midsummer, you can experience four seasons in a day.

The race starts at 1 am in the morning.  A condition of entry is that competitors must have motorised back up with two able bodied helpers.  There are 7 check points the runners pass through and the Trossachs Mountain Rescue Team are an integral part of the safety back up of the event. 

The runners back up crew are basically responsible for feeding and watering their runner, and if need be, going to look for him if he is overdue at a meeting point and/or accompanying him on the last two or three stages in the mountains; nb: accompanying leading runners (deliberate pacing) is not permitted, but for the mid-pack and slower runners it can be the difference between them finishing and not finishing.

The 18th edition of the event was held in extremely humid conditions.  At the first road crossing (4 mile feed stop) experienced runners were commenting on the level of sweating at 1.40am in the morning while just jogging!  One sensed feed schedules were being revised drastically if the humidity levels continued over the next 24 hours.

Pre-race women’s favourite, Kate Jenkins, became a relatively early casualty dropping out at the 43 mile check point at Derrydarroch Farm just above Loch Lomond.

The men’s race, on paper the most open for years, was taking shape with youngster, Paddy Jumelle leading with Bruce Hall, from Edinburgh, Norman McLellan from Orkney, Allan Douglas from East Kilbride and Carl Pryce from Aberdeen all in contention and going well.

As always with the West Highland Way with the two biggest climbs coming in the last 20 miles, there is an element of last man standing and who would pace themselves the best.

Paddy Jumelle running his first event beyond 50 miles and running very bravely, by his own admission, fell apart in the last 10 miles.  Leading even with only 4 miles to go both Norman McLellan and Bruce Hall past him in the later stages, Hall proving to have paced himself better to dip under the 19 hour mark to record 18:57:30.

McLellan running in 19:19:19 with Paddy Jumelle hanging on for third in 19:33:30.  With McLellan recording a podium finish Allan Douglas was first over 40.

Adrian Tarit Stott of the Sri Chinmoy club in Edinburgh (see top picture), one of the most experienced runners in the field, recorded his ninth West Highland Way finish, running strongly in the latter stages to take the over 50 prize in 21:00:42.  He had passed the leading woman, Glasgow’s Debbie Cox in the last forest stage above Glen Nevis.  Debbie who had run very steady up to Kingshouse (70 miles) struggled over the last third of the race, but hung on well to take the women’s prize, comfortably clear of Cleveland’s Cath Worth.

Further down the race 49 arrived having completed the full 95 mile distance.

24 hours into the race the weather took a turn for the worse with a major thunderstorm in the Kinlochleven Devil’s Staircase area reducing visibility and seriously flooding the trail.  A decision was taken by organisers in the interests of safety to close the course and retire all runners still out on the course.

Although hard on the intrepid souls who were determined to finish, the organisers felt the competitors safety was their prime concern, but everyone who reached the 70 mile check point at Kingshouse and beyond were deemed to have finished and received the finisher’s goblet.

Dario Melaragni and his organising team again staged things superbly.  Full results and race information @  www.westhighlandwayrace.org