23 miles of mud, ice & a near death experience !

I was off on Monday 16 February so I decided to try and get a run in now that the snow was shifting. Loch Ordie near Dunkeld is the nearest place for me to get a decent off road run so I planned a route (see below) and headed off there.

The first 3.5 miles were all uphill and as I gained height the paths got icier. It wasn’t cold but there had been a lot of snow last week and it was melting quickly but the snow that had been compressed on the tracks and paths was very slippy, and those that didn’t have ice in them were running with streams of snow melt. My feat got very wet very quickly.

The optimistically entitled "Laird's House with Loch Benachally in the background - I don't think he lives there anymore !

After around 8 miles, following a huge leap over a burn in spate, I found myself on a very narrow path that was full of soft wet snow which went well up my calves. This went on for around 4 miles and my feet got soaked, becoming very cold.

Typical underfoot conditions

As I neared Loch Oisinneach the path became very muddy. I’ve walked in the Scottish hills for 20 years and am pretty adept at picking my way through bogs and assessing if a patch of ground will support me. At a particularly muddy stretch I launched for a tuft of grass thinking it would support me, the next thing I knew I was up to the top of my legs in an ice-cold peat bog. I couldn’t get my legs out as they were being sucked in by the soft peat my hands were just sinking in too.

I was getting cold quickly, couldn’t get my legs out and the nearest thing for me to grab, that wasn’t mud was over 6 feet away. This was the most distant part of my run, my mobile phone didn’t work there as I’d tried a couple of minutes before to make a call, and going by the lack of footprints in the snow there hadn’t been anyone along for a number of days. This was getting potentially serious, I was completely stuck and sinking.

I wriggled out of my new rucksack which was only on it’s second outing and managed to use it to bare my weight which let me kind of swim across the mud until I could grab some heather and pull myself out. The whole episode probably only took no more that 2 minutes but it felt like an eternity…

Lifesaver - My nice new rucksack after my "incident"

Thankfully my shoes stayed on and I got running as quickly as I could to generate some heat. After another couple of miles I came out the snow and the running became much easier, the 5 miles through the snow had slowed me up a lot.

The rest of the run was pretty uneventful, my knee seems to be holding up but the right hamstring gets tight after a while. I arrived back at the car in 4 hours 6 minutes.

Cruachin Hills

I didn’t run during the week since Forfar (but I did get my 1^st deep tissue massage – wow) and this weekend I wasn’t going to get any running either as I was going hillwalking with Gav, who was one of my support runners in the Race, but a couple of decent days on the hill would be more than suitable replacements.

Saturday 7 Feb - An Caisteal & Beinn a’ Chroin

We started at a snowy Derrydarroch Farm and despite having been there a few times now I had no idea where to park on the road ! It was a beautiful day with clear blue skies but it was freezing, -6^oC. But once we crested the ridge onto the high ground and entered the 50mph wind the windchill dropped the temperature to below -20^oC.

Gav heading up Twistin Hill

The summit of An Caisteal

Coping with the windchill






















A slippery descent

We were on the hill for 6 and half hours, covered 8.7 miles and 4,250ft of ascent with crampons and ice-axes most of the day. Walking in crampons really stretches the achilles and when you have tendons as short as mine they were pretty tight when we came off the hill.

Derrydarroch at the end of the day

Gav has a VW camper van so it was down to a quiet corner of the Drover’s car park then we went to the pub for many hours. It was a cracking night with live music and the pub was mobbed.

A very busy Drovers

Sunday 8 Feb - Beinn Dorain and Beinn an Dothaidh

The next day wasn’t too bad considering the amount of (what I like to think of as) carb loading we had indulged in the previous evening.

We met my friend Doug in Tyndrum for a spot of breakfast then it was on to Bridge of Orchy where we were climbing Beinn Dorain and Beinn an Dothaidh the 2 mountains that loom over the village.

Beinn Dorain from the road

It appeared that everyone else in Scotland had the same idea because the hill was very busy. It was another cracking day but this time there was hardly any wind.

Beinn Dorain summit photo

As we climbed the second hill of the day the peace was continually interrupted by a big yellow RAF Sea King which was doing helicopter training with the Oban MRT and dropping them off on the hillside.

We made it back down before the weather closed in from the south and had covered 7.6 miles and 4,200 ft of ascent in just under 5 and a half hours.

I’d had 2 good long days on the hill and my legs felt pretty tired after it.

Forfar multi-terrain half-marathon

Sunday saw the running of the 4th Forfar multi-terrain half marathon. This is a cracking wee race that follows a route around the Forfar footpath network. I’ve run it the last 2 years and the route takes in some road running, big stretches of unavoidable flooded paths, ploughed fields and a big 1 mile climb up Balmashanner Hill at 9 miles. You also have to stop and have your number punched by marshals at 7 different checkpoints which interrupts the rhythm and can be frustrating if there’s a queue.

Because the conditions underfoot are so varied all along the length of the route, and from year to year, it’s good to run without the pressure trying to beat the clock – just run for the hell of it.

There were 143 runners and this year they called runners up in groups of 4 for a kit check, we required waterproof top, hat & gloves – just to run around the perimeter of Forfar ! There were plenty of runners getting their kit checked then passing it back to their buddies, but I didn’t see anyone get refused permission to start.

In 2007 it was my first half-marathon and I ran 1hr 36min. In 2008 it was my first decent run back from ill health and I managed a 1 hr 40min. This year I planned to try and run around 7.30min/mile for the race which I felt I could maybe hold for 13 miles, this would get me in close to the 2007 time and if I could get under it I’d be delighted.

In the first mile I felt I was moving quickly backwards through the pack but got to the 1 mile marker in 6.40min. I was running well within myself but it was faster that I felt comfortable with. I quickly fell in with a chap, who I think was Alan Smith from Deeside Runners, and the 2 of us would end up running pretty much the entire race together.

Mile 4 – 5 was a farm track which was pretty much 1 long puddle interrupted by the odd bit of dry land. We reached 5 miles in 34.30, one of the fastest 5 miles I think I’ve run, but I still felt comfortable and I was moving up the field now.

I got to the foot of the climb at 9 miles in 62.40 – amazingly still under 7 min/mile, but the next mile took 8.30mins. From the top it was pretty much all downhill and I was feeling really good now, until I hit the deep mud in the field at 12 miles.

A dash through an industrial estate to the finish where the clock stopped at 1hr 31min 27s. Crazily – a half-marathon pb and 24th place. I’ve never managed to get under the hour and a half, but if the course had been on road and flatter I probably would have managed it comfortably today. I kept myself relaxed throughout the race and didn’t get too carried away at the start, in fact no-one went past after 1.5 miles.

Ged, Me, Morag & Dave at the finish

The other Dundee Road Runners ran –

Paul Slater – 1.26.35

Ben Newton – 1.27.19

Dave Rodley – 1.33.34

Mo Taggart – 1.40.04

Ged Savage – 1.49.44

Full results HERE