The "Duggan Machine" does it !

During this years WHW race Peter Duggan ran past me on hills a couple of times and I called him a 'machine', well this weekend he pretty much confirmed that when it comes to hills - he is. Pete ran the Ramsay Round a 56 mile (poss longer) loop which takes in 23 Munros and 28,500ft of ascent over Saturday and Sunday.

The Ramsay Round Route

A few weeks ago I offered to help Pete by running as a pacer during his attempt. He had 2 others pacing, a friend of his Jon Gay and Richie Cunningham the winner of this years WHW race. After various permutations on how best to tackle the route a midday start on Saturday was decided upon. I met Richie and we travelled up to Pete's friend Noel's place at Torlundy for the final preparations then it was down to Glen Nevis for the start. Traffic was abysmal so instead of the midday start we had planned, it ended up being a 12.10pm start. The midday start had been preferable as that's when Charlie Ramsay started his initial 23:58 run and Pete had his splits so it would have been easy to compare, as it stood we would just have to subtract 10 off everything.

Jon, Pete, Richie & me

I took the 17:50 train from Spean Bridge then had  leisurely walk in to Craiguaineach Lodge and waited. I wasn't alone though, I had a billion midgies to keep me company ! Pete and Jon almost took me by surprise, arriving at 20:20, well in advance of when I expected them, they were both looking strong and were in good spirits.

From there we headed up the long shoulder of Beinn na Lap into the mist. I was quite surprised by the speed of the ascent, the pace was unrelenting with Pete and Jon certainly not acting like they had been going for 9 hours.

Approaching the summit of Beinn na Lap

As we descended Beinn na Lap it got dark so time for headtorches then a big haul back up Chno Dearg, during which Jon announced the sole was coming off his shoe. Thankfully I had some duct tape with me so at the summit we had a brief stop and Jon was able to make some running repairs (pardon the pun!)

Summit of Chno Dearg

Pete and Jon were about an hour up on Charlie's time by this stage, but the next few miles were to be frustrating and tough. It was dark and misty up there and we had to really concentrate with the navigation to get to the top of Stob Coire Sgriordain, which we did eventually but probably lost 30 mins. The descent down to the dam at the north end of Loch Treig was torturously slow as it was steep rough ground, but we got there eventually. I know Pete found this loss of time annoying, but on the plus side if they hadn't got it already in hand then the leg would have been much worse.

We met Noel and Richie at the dam and had a refueling stop, Pete and Jon seemed in good spirits and the addition of Richie to the team would probably inject a bit of pace. I toyed with the idea of leaving with Noel here but I felt pretty good so decided to go over the next 2 tops then leave.

About 10 minutes into the climb up Stob a Choire Mheadhoin I was ruing my decision to continue. The pace of ascent was phenominal considering how long they had been going and I was struggling just to keep up. We climbed the 850 metres and 5km in 90 minutes and by the top I was beginning to flake. I had been concentrating on bringing food for Pete and Jon that I had overlooked my own requirements, a few sweets from Richie at the top gave me a wee boost which took me over to Stob Coire Easain and from there it was a treacherous descent into the Lairig Leacach.

Everyone knew that this was my bail out point, my job was done, so they went on ahead , the glow of their headtorches disappearing in the mist. I'd put trail shoes on and they were not the best on this terrain so I just took my time doing down the slope. It was such a relief to hit the track, especially when I looked up at Stob Ban which I knew the other 3 were now climbing, there's no way I could've gone up there.

By the time I was on the track it was day light and I now had a very pleasant, early morning, 6 mile run back to my car. As I came down the hill towards Spean Bridge I could see a blonde lady with a dark coat on standing looking out at the view. A bit strange I thought at 5:30 in the morning, but there was a tent not too far away so maybe she was from there. As I got closer she didn't move even though she must hear my feet scuffing on the track. This is what the 'lady' turned out to be -

I think if it had been dark when I had come across I would have wet myself, he was quite spooky in that still morning.

On getting a bit further down the track I looked back and saw that the Grey Corries were now clear and basked in sunlight. I knew the runners would not be far away from getting there and hoped they could make the most of the clear tops.

Early morning sun on the grey Corries

All the way down the track I'd been longing for a can of Irn Bru so when I got back to my car I headed in to Ft William and bought 2 cans which were downed immediately. Then it was back to Noel's where I had a shower then sat down to look at the paper, the next thing I knew it was 9:30am and I was waking up on the sofa.

I'd received a text at 8:30 from Richie saying that Jon had gone on ahead as he was flying, but Pete was on the summit of Aonach Beag and it would be a bit tight. All we could do now was wait, so Noel and I headed down to the finish at the Youth Hostel. Within half an hour of getting there we could see the black clad figure of Jon racing down the mountain, past the throngs of walkers. He crossed the finish in 23hrs 7 mins. I could tell it was bitter sweet for him as he was delighted with his time, but felt guilty at leaving Pete, even although it had been done at Pete's insistance.

Jon had given it his all

Now the time ticked by, would Pete make it ? It was agonisingly close. Through the binoculars Noel spotted someone with white shorts descending, but it wasn't Pete. Where was he, time was running out it would be awful to go through all this and not make it. The he hoved into view. We reckoned that from the point we could see him was about 20 minutes running time to the finish, but there was only 20 minutes to go. The Jon pointed out that they'd actually started at 12:10 so there was really 30 minutes to go ! From that point it was in the bag and Pete made it home in 23:50.

The happiest man on the planet !

Pete and Richie had become separated in the mist on the ascent of Carn Mor Dearg and Richie came home about 10 minutes later looking like he'd been out for a wee Sunday morning 3 miler.

Having had time to reflect on the weekend I am at a loss to know how these guys managed to do what they did. They were so strong for the whole Round, obviously there were lows, as anyone who does endurance events is only too familiar with, but they just kept marching on. I only ran 24 miles and climbed 8,500 ft, they ran over twice that distance and climbed 20,000ft more that me and pretty much dropped me 16 hours in to their run ! I hope in some part it was down in some part to me not having run a single yard since the WHW race - but I doubt it. One thing I can comfortably say is that I will never attempt a Ramsay Round. WELL DONE !!


PS - It has just dawned on me that there are no pictures of Noel on either my blog or Pete's. He played crucial role and his hospitality was exceedingly generous the way he opened up his house to us all. So here he is (2nd from the right in case you're wondering!) -