Petestack Blog

Too much local trail running and bashing over familiar hills so far this year for the near-endgame Munro/Top/Deletion quest to bear, but (in)sanity’s now restored with yesterday’s trip to collect the three tops of Beinn Fhada (Attow) and ‘singleton’ A’ Ghlas-bheinn with precious little else left within a couple of hours’ drive. And I had a lovely wee camera to test too, having just got the Panasonic GM1 after considering just the new 12–32mm (24–64mm equivalent) lens for my GF2 (hitherto my ‘climbing/running’ camera with the 14mm prime) before deciding to go the whole hog for the new tiny body as well…

Now, Beinn Fhada (the Long Mountain) didn’t get its name for nothing, but most of that length passes quickly enough on a broad and runnable ridge once you’re past the awkward and equally well-named Sgurr a’ Choire Ghairbh (Peak of the Rough Corrie), with the first mile or so of not-at-all-runnable ridge taking a similar length of time to the three or more that followed. And you’ll see I continued down to Loch a’ Bhealaich rather than backtrack for the (horrible) direct descent from Meall a’ Bhealaich to the Bealach an Sgairne, but might well have found easier going yet down my planned ridge from point 825 (blue dashes) than ‘short cut’ down Coire an t-Siosalaich. But it’s a pleasant run either way past the loch, with only modest re-ascent to the dramatic Bealach an Sgairne, after which A’ Ghlas-bheinn seems to go on a bit for such a comparatively wee hill, subsequently luring me into an uncompromisingly direct (= steep!) descent WSW when either the ‘Irvine Butterfield’ route north (approx. blue dashes) or ‘SMC Munros’ alternative WNW (blue dots) would surely have been nicer as well as probably both quicker.

So what of the new camera? Having checked just about every English-speaking review and video on the web, bought it and now taken it out on the hill for the day, I’ve no regrets whatsoever about going for body as well as lens. It’s seriously tiny for such a large-sensor camera and handles pretty well for something that size, with the few recurring gripes in otherwise generally rave reviews being pretty well non-issues for me. So many folk seem to have struggled with the control dial, but most of those who’re not just incredibly heavy-handed simply appear to be making incorrect assumptions about its operation. Likewise the much-criticised flash sync speed apparently necessitated by the hybrid mechanical/electronic shutter just isn’t an issue for me and my use. So, sure, I’d have liked a viewfinder as well as the screen, but you can’t have everything in such a tiny package (got one on the G2 I rarely take on the hill, but can’t even imagine lumbering this wee thing with the external EVF you might have been able to fit to the hot shoe it doesn’t have either) and the GM1/12–32mm combo’s just so well suited to outdoor, available-light photography on the move! :-)

Had things turned out differently, this post might have been titled ‘Andy Cole was right’! And perhaps he deserved to be for his typically ‘Andy Cole’ analysis of my 2011 West Highland Way Race report:

Well done again Pete, and a super report. You’re far too young to feel that this race has had its best out of you yet. My prediction is that you’ll think again eventually and we’ll see you back on the start line in around 2014….

But anyone who’s seen the 2014 results will know that my attempt to live up to his long-buried, but quietly haunting, prediction fell somewhat short of the mark with a ‘comeback’ performance that’s left me pondering whether this race had indeed already ‘had its best out of me’.

So it started well enough with a typically steady mid-field run to Balmaha and somewhat swifter progression to Rowardennan as I began to get moving in the manner that’s worked for me on three previous occasions. But then it all just went horribly wrong as I was horribly sick (for the first time in any ultra) not long after Rowardennan and struggled forlornly through to Inversnaid with churning thoughts of withdrawal and knowing that I needed at least a good sit-down break to get sorted. So I sat in the Trossachs Search and Rescue van for some 20 minutes, phoning Eileen and Noel (who turned out to be parked up just across the Loch at Inveruglas) to let them know what was going on, then declining an offer to take me out by boat in favour of proceeding to Beinglas. Where I took a much bigger (40-to-50-minute?) lie-on-the-ground break before dribbling on to Auchtertyre with definite thoughts of packing it in, attracting a mini-lecture/pep talk from Richie Cunningham on the way in about how he’d never regretted anything more than the year he scratched at Auchtertyre, then yet another >= 20-minute break when I’d never sat down once between Milngavie and Fort William in 2011! But you just can’t take a decision of such finality passively and, despite the looming enormity of what still lay between me and a fourth finish from four starts, perhaps the ‘helpfully’ insinuating voices in my head were already at it with ‘it’s only three miles to Tyndrum, then you’re really starting to get somewhere at Bridge of Orchy and you’ll not pull out if you get to Glencoe’…

[Photo by Ian Anderson]

So that was that and, strangely enough, the engine that had hitherto been failing me started to show signs of life. Not driving consistently, but responding quickly to fuel whenever I could get it down. And I was starting to move at last, with inter-checkpoint splits progressively tumbling from a desperate worst of 143rd (Beinglas to Auchertyre) to more respectable 26th (Glencoe to Kinlochleven) before stabilising with a final 32nd through the Lairigmor and finishing time of 22:49:09. Which, despite being my worst by over half an hour, a good two hours slower than my best and more like three over my target, has to be a ‘good’ result in a totally unexpected way.

So what went wrong in the first half? To be honest, I just don’t know. It’s pretty well par for the course to find myself intermittently nauseous and perhaps more consistently struggling to take on the fuel I really need as I get deeper into an ultra, but I’ve never been sick like that before. But I’m not the only one who was sick, and others kept themselves going in far better style for far better times. So perhaps I was more sick than them or perhaps I’m just a big woos and simply didn’t try hard enough when I finished absolutely full of running, but guess the answer to that conundrum is lost with the end of the race! What I do know is that I was tired enough after c.32 hours (?) almost continuously awake to find myself literally asleep on my feet at one point approaching Bridge of Orchy, and (while such sleep deprivation is pretty normal when I’ve always had to work before travelling on the ‘race’ Friday) perhaps that had something to do with it? Whatever, I’ve never had such problems balancing hydration with food and especially the hydration required to enable eating at all when even things I’d normally regard as ‘moist’ just kept sticking to my mouth in a cycle of recurring dryness. But huge thanks to Noel and Eileen for seeing me through it all and getting me there!

And so to my second ‘big Saturday’, with a long-standing promise to see Marie Meldrum over the final run of the Celtman! Extreme Scottish Triathlon if ‘still standing after the West Highland Way’. And, whatever problems I’d had on the race, I was not only undeniably still standing but apparently making my quickest recovery (perhaps not so surprising from my slowest time!) and quite fit enough for a marathon-length trail and mountain ‘recovery’ run the following weekend…

So I was waiting with Donnie (Meldrum) for Marie to finish that monster 202km bike ride (and she’s quite the smiling wee monster on a bike!) at the Achnashellach transition area, where she arrived as first lady with an unknown but hopefully decent lead. But she quickly appeared in some distress on the long incline up to the Coulin Pass, with tight calves, swollen feet and pins and needles in apparently over-tight shoes leading to the somewhat risky decision to remove her socks, after which she ran for nearly six hours without! But it’s such a lovely run through to Glen Torridon once you’re over the top that we were soon making steady 9-minute miles with one largely downhill 7:38 that I thought getting just a little on the fast side for what was yet to come.

Now, thinking I was doing a good job looking after Marie, I was somewhat taken aback to find myself castigated by a zealous marshal (one of the organisers?) at the pre-mountain Torridon checkpoint for not automatically emptying/repacking her rucksack for him (‘poor’, or was it ‘bad’, support running, he said!) while she was intercepted by the TV crew. So we all got a little narked by that, but I’ve double-checked the Race Manual since, can’t see anything specifically delegating her kit check to me and guess we just have to put it down to unfortunate timing when we hadn’t expected her to be doing interviews instead of presenting her bag for inspection!

One steep ascent of Coire an Laoigh later and you’re onto the ridge between Spidean Coire nan Clach and Ruadh-stac Mor, where a couple of chilly showers in an otherwise stunning day saw Marie back in arm warmers and me donning hat and gloves for a while. And, with no chasing girls in sight as we returned (Marie’s hand bleeding from a wee stumble) from the out-and-back to Ruadh-stac Mor, I was truly starting to believe it was her day. But she clearly still needed much convincing, with her manically gabbled and quite palpably untrue ‘I love running’ mantra bringing disbelieving looks and queries from others not as ‘tuned in’ as me! So down the horrid scree gully and through the boulder field to Loch Coire Mhic Fhearchair and you start thinking you’re home, but it’s still a helluva long way round the mountain, down to the road and along the road to the finish. Prolonged ‘first lady’ cheering from Zoe Newsam’s all-girl marshal team at the Coire Dubh Mor path junction and Marie’s energised into a big pace increase, but further on she’s seeing ‘girls’ chasing her in every guy (and we’d have to admit a few did get past) catching her up! So I had to bully her mercilessly along the road, by which time I was hurting too with the previous Saturday’s 95 miles starting to take their toll, but we got there still running with Marie (‘I’m not a runner’) having pretty well held onto a massive post-bike lead despite that slightly sticky Coulin Pass by completing the crucial ‘mountain’ part of the run quickest of all the girls to finish 33 minutes ahead of her nearest female competitor.

And that’s that, really. It’s a huge win in a major event for Marie, I’m quite enjoying basking in the reflected glory, hugely touched by some of the things she’s written and said about it all… and we’re talking about next year’s Norseman (with a possible recce to this year’s), for which she’s won a guaranteed place! :-)

[Photo by Donnie Meldrum]

Yesterday Nicky Spinks broke the ladies’ record for Ramsay’s Round set 25 years ago by Helene Diamantides, recording 19 hours 39 minutes for a time bettered only by Adrian Belton’s outright record also set in 1989. So of course I’m proud to have been involved, running with her (and others) for 19 miles from Fersit over Stob Coire Sgriodain, Chno Dearg and Beinn na Lap to Locheilt Lodge (the ruin at Loch Eilde Mor)!

Now, while Nicky’s stunning new record is first and foremost a well-deserved reward for meticulous planning, preparation and execution, she had a big, strong support team out to see her round, and we had five runners (Willy Kitchen, Dave Lund, Gavin Williams, Sarah Mackenzie and me) waiting at the Loch Treig Dam to take her through to the ‘Beinn na Lap’ railway bridge when she arrived a few minutes up on schedule with just Spyke (Stephen Pyke) left of her Grey Corries team. And, with us all carrying food and drink bags for her (built-in insurance for dropping pacers?), we soon had a hilarious misunderstanding on the ascent of Stob Coire Sgriodain which went something like this…

It’s a warm day, but not oppressively so, and Pete’s out in front making sure we’re not going over any unnecessary knolls etc. and giving the others a moving target when someone calls from behind, ‘Pete have you got energy?’ To which Pete (feeling strong) replies, ‘yes’, and they reply ‘can you leave it here for Nicky?’ So Pete (assuming that means cool it and let Nicky take the lead) says sorry if he was getting too far in front, but it turns out what they actually meant was could you leave a bottle of that pink stuff (labelled ‘energy’) for Nicky to pick up then just carry on because you were doing fine! :-O

Not much else to say about the hills here except that I enjoyed the daylight and good visibility when the last few times I’ve done this group have been in wet, cold, windy, nighttime conditions, and thought our lines up Stob Coire Sgriodain and off Chno Dearg onto Beinn na Lap were about as good as it gets (what a difference the visibility makes on the gnarlier ground!). So on to the railway bridge minus Willy (last seen near top of Beinn na Lap), where Tim Rippon, Ian Charlesworth and Lee (surname?) were waiting to accompany Nicky, Sarah and me through to Loch Eilde Mor. And here I had to give chase at near 7-minute-miling after stopping to fill my water bottle and finding them already gone!

So Nicky was clearly tired and struggling a little with her food and drink, but made good time through the long ‘track’ section to pick up a few minutes lost on the hills and arrive at Locheilt Lodge with a similar slight cushion to the one with which Spyke had left her. And here we had Jon Gay’s team (+ Tim and Lee from ours) waiting to take her up onto the Mamores, with Charlie Ramsay and Nancy Kennedy as walk-in/-out support and quiet confidence that getting back onto more continuous hills after the long drag of the central section should really get her going again. And so it proved, with whatever we could pick up from a curious mixture of recalcitrant tracker (which stopped working for a long section of the Mamores) and FRA Forums thread showing her to be storming through with increasing margins over her 20:15 schedule to that startling 19:39 at the start/finish point of Glen Nevis Youth Hostel, which we were there to see after our own walkout to Mamore Lodge.

Some further snippets (re. ‘UK big three’) in the SHR news report, which shares some wording with my blog post simply because I wrote both (so no plagiarism here!). On which note I can only finish by borrowing some more of my own words to congratulate Nicky for a stunning new record (what a performance, Nicky!) that should stand the test of time. :-)

Don’t like bladders with drinking tubes for running (stopped using them and went back to bottles years ago), but don’t like handhelds either (like to keep my hands as free as possible). So I’ve been using my Nathan belts or a sack with hip-level holsters for most of my ultras and longer training/fun runs, but rarely escape from a long run without these things rubbing holes in my back. So I was already looking for something with chest-level, front bottle carriers when my interest was recently picqued by the increasingly popular Ultimate Direction Signature Series vests and, with the West Highland Way Race just weeks away, quickly found myself ordering the new version of the middle (Scott Jurek) model.

So, after receiving it through the post on Thursday and taking it for a run through the Lairig Mor to Blar a’ Chaorainn and back yesterday (Saturday) afternoon, what’s the verdict? Well, I like it. A lot! With just a light jacket in the back compartment and ‘asymmetrically’ loaded with a single bottle to one side for test purposes, it felt both stable and more like a comfortable piece of clothing than something hanging off me. And the slimmer Lucozade Sport bottle I took (as typical of straight-from-the-shop 500ml types) to try in place of those supplied by Ultimate Direction can be secured in these holders when they just bounce out of the Nathan holsters, opening up a whole new range of replenishment strategies. (The Nathan bottles also fit, so pretty sure most standard cycling bottles, 330ml soft drinks cans and even 440/500ml beer cans should too!)

Some other points maybe worth noting for prospective purchasers:

While the Scott Jurek vest has the capacity to store and carry a surprising amount of food and clothing, it’s no taller than the more minimal (4oz/112g lighter) Anton Krupicka model and still so neat I’d doubt many folk would regret taking it over that. Especially when the AK’s shallower bottle holders look more risky for some of the drinks solutions suggested above and I can’t see many phones fitting the ‘Smart Phone compatible pouches’ of either where my Samsung weatherproof brick sits comfortably in the SJ’s under-arm pockets. And the larger Peter Bakwin model, being both considerably (4″/11cm) taller as well as another 5oz/144g heavier, seems a bit more of a ‘pack’ geared to those seeking the ‘adventure’ its name implies. So, while AK ‘race’, SJ ‘ultra’ and PB ‘adventure’ seem pretty clear clues to their designers’ goals, I’d expect the mid-range SJ to be the most popular both as the easy choice for vacillating purchasers like me and the only one to come in three clear (small, medium and large) sizes where the others come in just two (small/medium and medium/large). Which brings me onto the topic of sizing, where many (but not all) reviews I’ve seen suggest that Ultimate Direction’s sizing is generous (ie bigger than quoted). To which I can only add that my large (36″ to 44″) SJ is a perfect snug fit for my 40″ chest in just T-shirt with the sternum straps pulled right in but the side adjustment straps left at their default (middle) setting. Which seems right to me because it keeps the bottles well to my front (where some might prefer a bigger gap at the middle?), so no regrets over sizing here when the medium (quoted at up to 39″) sounds a bit neat and I’ve still got room to play with either way for extra layers or the positively tight fit I’ve not yet found a need for. Might also be worth postulating that my experience (if repeated over the other sizes) suggests a snug fit at the middle of the quoted range when similarly adjusted, but can’t promise that!

It’s an expensive little bit of kit, but (on the evidence of just one run) one that really does its job. Feels (as stated above) more like a comfy piece of clothing than something hanging off you, is surely more stable as a ‘vest’ than any comparable arrangement with bottle holsters on rucksack straps and doesn’t get anywhere near the area of my back that hip belts and bottle belts rub through. So I’ve got it scoring over both bottle belts and rucksacks on definite comfort (as well as probable stability) grounds, with bottle-to-holster replaceability tying the Nathan belts (straightforward with either) but completely surpassing the OMM sack where they’re almost impossible to put back on the move (not that I could recommend OMM anyway after the Cypher Smock affair!).

Cheapest price I could find for the SJ version 2.0 was Swaledale Outdoors at £99.97, who were also impressively quick delivering (free, second class) on Thursday from an order placed Monday night. And, yes, you can still find the original model cheaper, but might want to watch Scott Jurek talking about the differences between them first!

First blog post for months, but why not when I’ve got a good, big run to report?

Knew I wanted something in the 40–50 mile region about now, but not what till I drew up and measured this ‘big Blackwater loop’ on the map last weekend at c.45 miles. At which point, having run everything west of the railway before (most of it many times) but never really considered a pedestrian route between Rannoch and Corrour Stations to link it all up, I was suddenly positively tingling with the anticipation that sent me out to try it yesterday.

So what to say about it here? It’s big, wild and bleak, it’s not quick overall (46.86 miles recorded in just under 10 hours 21 minutes) with much awkwardly arrhythmic terrain on the ‘telegraph pole’ section of Rannoch Moor, degenerating track north-westwards past the ruins of Corrour Old Lodge on the flank of Carn Dearg and ditch-leaping path from Loch Treig to Luibeilt, but it’s very, very satisfying and possibly still the easiest route right round the Blackwater (unless that’s taking Gleann Iolairean and the Ciaran Water from Loch Treig to the reservoir, which just doesn’t make such a nicely balanced ‘loop’ shape on the map)!

Note that the red track is what I actually ran and the largely-obscured blue track behind what I drew last weekend, with the three obvious differences being 1. a slightly different line to the track through the forest north of Loch Laidon (where online satellite imagery suggests there may still be a second track following the drawn ‘map’ line?), 2. an extra wee bit run at the west end of Loch Ossian (strange if I should miss the ‘normal’ way when we do this bit regularly on school D of E expeditions unless it was just chock-a-block with all the heavy vehicles etc. working on the Corrour Estate road improvements!), and 3. the crossing of the Abhainn Rath just east of Luibeilt (where, as usual, I followed my nose to find the best way on the day).

Having previously questioned here ‘how much I want to go on banging my head off a brick wall’ and ‘whether it’s time to call it a day when […] I’m realistically never going to break two hours’, I’m probably encouraged enough by Saturday’s new Ben Race PB of 2:07:27 at age 49 to keep banging my head off that wall for a while longer. So I was hill-fit, lighter than usual for September (maintaining training/shape better into the school term) and had a great ascent, but clearly still need to get down quicker to threaten the magic time. Lose the five minutes or so I’m handing back to many (most?) of those summiting around me, however, and I’m left with a more realistic two-and-a-half to squeeze from the ascent, which may well depend on the formation, dissolution and negotiation of those infernal walking ‘snakes’ low on the hill when I’m still wanting to run. So let’s just say that sub-2:05’s clearly achievable and 1:59:59 could yet be on with some luck on the way up and a bolder descent?

(With thanks to Thomas Loehndorf for the great photos!)

A belated mention here too for the previous weekend’s filmed Canadian attempt at Ramsay’s Round, which saw me assigned (by local coordinators Charlie Ramsay and Jon Gay) to join Mark Leggett, John Hepburn and Wendy Dodds in supporting the runners Simon Donato and Paul ‘Turbo’ Trebilcock on the middle leg from Loch Eilde Lodge to Fersit, and finally ended (after a wild night and even wilder morning) with Turbo stopped at Fersit and Simon bravely battling on westwards to finish out of time in just under 27 hours. So not an official (sub-24) Ramsay’s Round, but a sterling effort in ultimately almost untenable conditions which also saw another strong attempt in the opposite (clockwise) direction abandoned on the Mamores some hours after we met on Chno Dearg, and a 23:53 for round #74 by Joe Mann off a start some half-day earlier impressing us all when we heard about it!

The Coll Half’s never easy. While the island might be low, it’s far from flat and, with one section on sandy track and the virtual certainty of battling the wind somewhere as you run round what can seem like a continuously uphill loop, it’s the hardest/slowest half-marathon course I know. Which might explain why it had been the scene of my three slowest times (1:41:29, 1:42:14 and 1:42:43) anywhere, with 2013’s result now making that four! Except that this one’s different, with 1:39:29 in possibly the hardest conditions yet being not only two minutes less bad than my least bad previous on Coll but my first actual improvement there. Which, being hill-fit but far from road-fast (oops!) after a big summer of hill running and walking but negligible road running or speed work, I could almost convince myself is respectable as ‘equating’ to a good five minutes (or maybe even half-a-minute-per-mile) faster on any ‘normal’ course. So, yep, let’s just pretend it’s respectable and hope for something more respectable again next year!

With thanks for the usual great company from regulars including the Dumfries crowd and Eileen, who took the photo with Keith’s camera.

https://collhalfmarathon.org.uk/half-marathon-2013/

Strange how the Cairngorms have become better known over the past 200 years as ‘blue mountains’ than their older generic name of Am Monadh Ruadh (the red mountain-land) when they’re so clearly coloured by pink granite rather than hazy blue close-up, but (while something’s clearly been lost through the change) who knows… perhaps ‘Cairngorms’ was just easier for visitors? Though, despite being more likely to call them the Cairngorms myself with ‘I’m off to the Monadh Ruadh’ sadly sounding wilfully obscure today, I point-blank refuse to call Sgor an Lochain Uaine ‘The Angel’s Peak’ and now (mindful of the Victorian sanitisation that inspired that particular abomination) find myself increasingly favouring the restoration of Bod an Deamhain over The Devil’s P****!

To get to the point (not P****!), however, I found myself back in the Cairngorms/Monadh Ruadh just three days after getting home from my last visit, but this time with running rather than backpacking on the agenda for a hefty couple of days. And what a joy it was after that (still very satisfying) walking tour to get really moving with minimal gear, covering 27 miles over the hills on Tuesday and 18 yesterday morning…

So Tuesday’s circuit southwards from Braeriach and back over Carn a’ Mhaim and Ben Macdui was devised as a mopping-up exercise to get things previously missed, with Ben Macdui included specifically for my one missing Top of Sron Riach. And yesterday’s morning run up the Bynacks likewise just struck me as a tidy idea, leaving just the western end of the range from Geal-charn to Carn Cloich-mhuilinn to collect another time, with the strange ‘tick’ of Carn Ban Mor there resulting from the 2008 ML Assessment that had also brought me Sgor an Lochain Uaine, Cairn Toul and Bod an Deamhain but awkwardly left me wanting Stob Coire an t-Saighdeir (the Top south of Cairn Toul). And I’m afraid that’s about all I’ve got to say right now when just uploading the map and some photos is going to save me much further agonising over words!