A bowl of porridge, and a pleasant bus journey from Beauly to Kintail started the day, with poor weather forecast for the whole day making me nervous. As the bus reached Loch Cluanie though I could see blue skies, and texted the rest of the team with encouragement, only to receive a text back saying "Thunderstorms and Lightening forecast for the day!".
We pulled in to the start and I got my safety bands attached, then made a beeline for the bacon rolls!
We started 4 minutes late, due to two people thinking they had the same number, causing much confusion, however I managed to find myself a spot near the front of the crowd.
It was a pleasant walk towards Glenlicht house and the first watering station, and I enjoyed the first real climb of the day shortly afterwards.
I got it wrong at the waterfall watering station, mistaking a bin full of water for a rubbish bin, and put the cup in there, oops! The kind helper said she would get it though so I pressed onwards.
Reaching the summit of the pass I felt great and prepared to pose for the photo, but the photographer who is normally there had been scared away by the poor forecast!
It was an enjoyable stroll now to Camban and the next water station, and I took the chance to ease on the pace enough to catch my breath. I felt I was doing fairly well, and enjoyed a chat with some other walkers.
As we approached Alltbeithe youth hostel, the person I was walking with told me that her best walking time was 6 hours 25 and I was on pace for that, which gave me heart, as I did want to take some time off my previous attempts.
As I was approaching the last slope over towards Athnamulloch and the sandwich station, I was expecting to hear the race marshal motorbike behind me to alert us to the first runners, but I was surprised to make it over the bridge before a glimpse of them.
I decided to put my "Don't Stop!" plan in to action, and grabbed some sandiwches (Thanks ladies, they were well delicious and just what I needed!), and kept going on towards the yellow brick road.
Normally by this point I would be feeling quite stiff and achey from the effort of the climbs and descents, but this year I felt quite fresh, and also encouraged by the fact that no runners had caught up.
The first runner caught me up around half way to Affric Lodge, and I checked my clock, seeing I should be able to get to the change over around half past 1 ... this meant I was on for a cracking walk time of 4 hours 30 mins ... I had been worried about being able to manage it in the 5 hours I needed to beat my old time!
Thus inspired I kept on, and the yellow brick road seemed to just flow past, with the odd shower to keep me cool, making it to the change over at 1333h!
I took care to stretch at the change over, and almost cramped up trying to change my socks, but through will power managed to get ready in just 10 minutes (including a much needed nature break!). I soon got in to a rhythm on the bike and with my computer to guide me on distance, started to real in some of the walkers ahead of me.
Quite a few runners overtook me on the cycle, but I wasn't too bothered, as I could tell from their hi-vis vests that they were runners, so were far fitter than any normal human being should be ;-)
The Braes Of Liath had a lot of surface water, and the sharp corners made me quite nervous so I made sure to get round the corners safely rather than silly speeds, then suddenly I was at the junction where the road was open to traffic. I had more confidence this time that the marshalls were stopping the traffic, so I managed to keep good momentum heading in towards Cannich.
The ride seemed shorter, though that could have been helped by the fact I had my bike computer this time so could judge how far I had gone and how much distance was left. Aigas brae was much further on than I remembered, but knowing that from the mileage on my clock, allowed me to put in the extra effort needed to keep going at a higher average speed afterwards.
As ever, the bridge towards Beauly almost broke me, and two cyclists over took me as I reached that, but once I hit the summit I dug in and headed for the (new) finish line. I took care to not slide off the kerb, and looked up at the clock above the finish line to see "4:27:30" as I went the last few meters.
The clock is for the runners, which meant I had to add 2 hours to the time, and since we started 4 minutes late I could take 4 minutes off too .. my best before had been 6:57:58, which means I took 34 minutes off my old time!
Epic win! Mum and Dad both met me at the finish line which was a nice surprise, and I was overcome with joy about how well I had done.
Sara and Colin came in while I was taking a nice cold shower and changing in to some dry/comfortable clothes, and I discovered that the finish line clock (just the display to give an indication to the contestants) had broken and was now showing "0:_ : ". I couldn't find them so went to the information board where I saw who beat who between Sara and Colin ... though I didn't find out till today that it was only by 6 minutes!
I don't think I can do much better than my new time, and I've been threatened with Team Abandonment if I don't run it next year, so I have to carefully consider my options! I definitely want to take part ... we'll see how I feel closer to application time!
I'll leave the running blog part for Sara and Colin to update (Both got personal bests!), but overall it's been a great Crossing, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself :-)
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