December 2007

Not doing much running but still going to the club when not in hospital. I’m getting slower and the Xmas run, which is only 6 miles, takes me 59 mins.

November 2007

20 November and do my first run since the start of October and after my initial dose of chemo, which finished 3 days ago. Feel a bit slow but pretty good considering and manage the 7.5 mile route in 58 mins.

October 2007

The training was going along nicely I was up from my normal 8 miles to about 20 miles a week, not much but no injuries, things were going well. Then disaster, the day before I move house I’m diagnosed with a fairly serious illness, which will seriously hamper my training with the treatment lasting well into 2008.

I consider contacting Dario and asking him to rip up my application but then have second thoughts and decide that the thought of the race will keep me motivated to try and keep some form of fitness throughout my treatment and if I recover in time I may still be able to participate.

Summer 2007

Back in the summer of 2007 I stumbled across the West Highland Way race website, purely by accident. I think had a vague awareness of the Caledonian Challenge and thought that was impressive enough, but when I found details of the full West Highland Way race I thought - that looks different .

I’d taken up running in the autumn of 2006 in an effort to regain some fitness as I was approaching mid-30’s and if I didn’t tackle the problem then the beer gut would’ve taken over. So I joined Dundee Road Runners, an extremely friendly and welcoming club, who I would recommend to anyone thinking about running in the Dundee area. To my surprise I quite enjoyed running and after a few weeks it began to hurt less and less.

My original intention had been to run the Ben Nevis hill race, however the entries for that filled up in minutes and the list was closed. So I ended up looking for a new challenge and the WHW race seemed to be the event I needed to push myself both physically and mentally – 96 miles non-stop(ish) through the west coast of Scotland.

So at the beginning of August I fired away my application, training plan and my cheque but towards the end of August I received a telephone call from Dario, the race organiser. He wasn’t convinced about my ultra-marathon experience (I didn’t even have any marathon experience, let alone an ultra !), I tried my best to convince him that I was a fairly determined individual who had already began training for the race, however he was fair and decided that due to the limited number of places available and the fact I was an unknown quantity he would retain my entry form and if I finished the Highland Fling in April I’d get a place on the waiting list.

Training commenced in earnest shortly thereafter and began to slowly increase my weekly mileage and go out on my bike a lot.