Whilst waiting around Glasgow airport for a fews hours, my boredom was broken by Stuart H who had kindly interrupted his own day to have coffee and a chat about all things 'ultra' before my internal flight to Islay. The flight was great with spectacular views across the West of Scotland, I hadnt realise just how beautiful it was. On arrival at the tiny airport at Islay I was picked up by Dave and Phil and taken to the Ardbeg Distillery, the start of the race. Spent an evening looking around, got introduced to the crew, had a few drinks and some banta before hitting the tents. I hadn't been to a Scottish Isle before and was impressed by the scenery, wildlife and the friendliness of the people.
The next morning the other competitors started to arrive and after a few introductions we decided to take a walk to a nearby village, get a bit of lunch and stroll back just in time for the Distillery tour. Which was both educational and intoxicating.
Day 1 - 40 km
The race started from the distillery and meandered around the road system until hitting the trails. The great benefit of all of the routes this week would be the weather which aloud us to take in the fantastic views and wealth of fauna and flora. The course was harrowing as all days were, its hard to describe but the terrain on the islands is a mixture of road, beach, trail, scree, mountainous climbs, general uneven ground, forest trails, coastal paths, loch's, raise beaches (basically cobbles for miles and miles), peat bogs, babies heads (nodules of grass that wobble if trodden on and are as equally frustrating to walk around), babies heads in peat bogs, babies heads in peat bogs with bracken, babies heads in peat bogs with bracken and adder's... the choice was varied...? After a few hours we found camp and did the usual post race admin, which consists of eating, washing (if you call a quick once over with a wemmie wipe a wash that is?), get de-ticked by phil and visit Bob for a nice deep muscle massage. This was the best part of any day, as not only does it do you good but it's a great form of evening entertainment to watch your fellow competitor scream and learch about while Bobs power thumbs do there work and he smiles happily. I have much respect for Bob, he still runs, always positive, knows his stuff and must be around 125 years old. He also carried a broken rib all week which he sustained when he fell off of his massage table whilst sleeping on it nearly killing Big Al in the process. Fortunately, I was sharing with Jo Kilkenny, who’s conveniently small but does have a tendency to sleep diagonally!
Day 2 - 52.5 km
This section would see us travel through a few peat bogs (I think they had tried to find all of the peat bogs on Islay and Jura, well it would be a shame to miss one.. ), then down and along a long sand beach section constantly interchanging positions with the English team, eventually coming up onto the road and into undulating farming country. OK, so I realise your only reading this for the cow story, which is understandable but there's so much more, so hang on in there. A fare few miles into this section and having already passed many cows, horses, deer and even larmas, the place is teaming with wildlife, so I didn't think twice about passing through a heard of highland cows. I carried on up the road which was on a hill. It was then I noticed a very large cow with long grey coloured hair with her calf moving across a field to my right in the distance. A few moments passed and I neared the brow of the hill, when the cow and calf appeared over the brow, coming towards me at an even trot. I thought she would slow up or at least stop and stare (as cows do! well normal cows..) but I was wrong. Sensing she was quite maternal i moved away from the calf and over to her side of the road, however she really wasn't feeling herself today and she sped up. This I didn't expect and literally ran into the peat bog to my left and shouted loudly for her to 'go away' or something simular. She followed to a point and then returned to her calf and trotted down the road. I got back on the road and started walking, thinking that was pretty strange. Then a thought occurred to me, one of the spanish guys Javier was behind me and I turned to see where he was, concerned that she might have a go at him as well. At this moment I must confess the thought of getting my mobile phone out and recording the next scene did occur to me but it all happened so fast I knew I had no time. Funnily (or not!) the next scene is branded into my mind, it is simultaneously funny and yet shocking, awful and somewhat frightening at the same time. Javier walked between the heard but on encountering the cow and calf on the road chose the calf side (big mistake), not the cows as I had. Well, she went mental, I can honestly say I have never seen a cow attack someone with such intent, you could tell she wanted to do some damage. Javier ran into the bog, but fell forward on all fours, the cow followed and pressed down on his back with her head and full weight. I admit I was between laughing ‘oh my god she’s going to bum him’ and oh bloody hell she might kill him’. I ran as fast a I could back downhill, shouting and waving at the cow (which I had only 2 minutes ago ran away from, us humans a strange creatures) until I was within feet of it and it put its head up and made for the road. Javier scrambled over a wire fence and staggered towards me covered from head to toe in peat and looking as shaken as if just been hit by a truck. I got hold of him and asked if anything was broken, legs, arms, head - actually expecting something to be damaged. At one point I thought just how close he was to suffering serious damage, if she had hoofed his head or put too much pressure on his back. I doesn't bare thinking about, he was very lucky.
We walked for a while, I promised to stay with him until the next check point (manned by Jo). We arrived and needed to get Javier clean - he was covered from head to toe in peat and we were stating to see the funny side of it now and helpfully Jo offered him a very small wet wipe???
After refuelling and chatting about it we both began to laugh, although you could see it had had quite an effect on him. I left Javier after a few miles and on reaching the last check point, which was manned by Phil, Neal and a few others I realised they had heard of the encounter and immedialtly asked what had happened, by this time it seemed funnier than ever.. 'well, I've just saved the Spanish bloke from a near death experience, he nearly got bummed by a cow' ... the more the story got told the funnier it became! Leaving the check point I ran into the port to catch the ferry over to Jura. I met Bob at the finish and we needed a quick sprint to meet the boat before it left. Back at the camp a while later I was tucking into my food when Javier appeared, his friends had heard of the cow encounter and had come out to see if he was alright. I asked if he was Ok and and was greeted with ‘ah, my angel!’. One of the Welsh fellas leant across an assured me the Spaniard now owed me his life. The jokes ran all week... strange day though.
Day 3 - 32 km
I now realised how tough the course was and there were a few people struggling, however I wasn't content with just completing now I felt OK enough to try to step things up (I had tweaked my ankle the week before coming away, I only spoke to Andy W briefly about it, I don't know why but thought it would just go away as these things sometimes do when racing). I decided to drop some non-compulsory kit (spare clothes and the poles which I hadnt used at all) and get further up the field if possible. Starting well, with a good run around the base of the Paps, we ascended into the cloud and met up with a few of the front group who had made a slight nav era and were retracing their steps, a few more caught up and there were approx ten of us navigating around the loch's before we started to descend back down the other side. Coming out of the cloud I locked in with Jo and Sam and we started to make a gap between us and the rest of the group. Jo wasn't at full throttle which suited me and conveniently kept her from overdoing it as she had been suffering from a virus the week before. Nevertheless, we made good ground and eventually pulled away from all the other runners as we came to the bottom of the peat bogs, onto rough ground and eventually hit the road. A couple of jelly babies down, we both plugged in to some music and did our best to nail the road section. My ankle had started to ache now and after a few miles had to take breaks on the uphill, but we ran most of the way until the pain became too much. Then onto a forest section and we tanked it down into Talbert to finish in 4th place. Only 40mins off of Robert and Donnie from Team Skye (who ran consistently well all week, well done fellas) and Manuel Alonso.
Day 4 - 50 km
An out and back section today and our second 50 km this week. Although the ankle wasn't too bad but i knew I had to be careful. I also knew I wanted to pushing on in the same way as yesterday. So I started running, mostly with Manuel Lopez, who is good company and we discussed different races as we ran, a couple of his team mates caught us up. At this point everything was good, I had felt very energetic, had eaten well, muscles felt fresh and the weather was being kind to us. Then my ankle sent me a much bigger warning than it had been doing and I had to stop in th road, I gritted my teeth and cursed. It just wasn't up to the terrain, it had been constantly twisted and turned, had gone over on it a few times but luckily these pains had dissipated as I ran. But this was obviously it, I was walking from now on, I tried to run but every time it was obvious it was no good. I trudged on to the Corrievrecken whirlpool and the turn point, by the time I got there a few of the front runners had turned around and were now coming back, I was now 30mins off my pace. This just got worse as the day went on but I resided myself just to finish and caught Javier who was struggling with his toes banging and the saw calf (yes, we did that joke many times!) he had sustained from the cow incident. It was good to chat and we discussed families, favourite runners and other races. The spanish teams had previously met both Marco Olmo and Scott Jureck, the conversation was interesting and cheered me up and we had a good if not long walk in. Today the camp at Talbert was a welcome site.
Day 5 - 29 km
Residing to the fact that I was now just to finish the race, I made the decision to join up with the Welsh boys - they were also carrying injuries but showed that sort of loyalty you only get in races like this, they stuck together - helped each other through and were a laugh a minute despite the ordeal of dragging yourself through this inhospitable terrain. The day turned out to be a stormer, we trudged along around lake Talberts' raised beaches and peat bogs (did I mention they have peat bogs?). The first section was a total bastard, babies heads in peat bogs with bracken running through it, so not only do you disappear into it from time to time, but the bloody bracken trips you up as well. Not to mention seeing an adder at close quarters which hissed at us to bugger off, we did, but it just made you think how many more you might be treading on....great? Up and down the side of the Paps this time. Then down Evans walk (what joker named this wants his head testing as its just another peat bog?) and onto the road. Matt had sustained probably the most serious knee injury and occasionally we sat on rocks or lay in the sun waiting for him, he and Dai both did tremendously well that day. Laughing, mostly at ourselves as we were all aching or in some sort of discomfort, walking those final glory miles in the sun will be a lasting memory. After sometime we came towards Craighouse and the finished but again we would not cross the line without Matt. We sat on a wall and waited for him, then one of the fellas produced a Welsh Flag and made me hold it, I tried to object by telling them I was a rose between four leeks but they were having none of it and we came over the bridge together singing ‘Flower of Scotland’ (badly) and so ended the Scottish Ultra 2010. Many shots of Whisky, shaking of hands and constant laughter made for the most cheerful end to a fantastic race.
With the Welsh boys at the Finish
(Matt, Dan, Dean, Me and Mark (Dai)
At the prize giving and Phil's auction. Javier was given a Highland cow (not a real one obviously, he is still badly effected by his experience) as a memento and I received a Vango bladder pack for the rare and much sort after award of ‘Man against Beast’.
(On this race I think everyone involved whether running or crewing got on great, Dave, Phil, Bob, Big Al, the other Dave, Neal, Dugga and Bob, the English lads, Sam, Jo, the Welsh boys, the two Spanish Teams and Team Skye all came together by the end and there was a really good atmosphere, which is important if people are to enjoy the race to its full - I would like to thank everybody for making it a great experience. Even the day after when everyone else had left and I was kicking my heels, Phil took me off fishing for Pollack, we didnt catch anything but it was a nice way to end the break.)
Me and Javier (el matador)
Later that night in the pub we retold the cow story (to anyone who would listen!) and held up tradition by drinking late into the night. The funniest moment came when Ivan (a particularly mad Spanish runner) decided he wanted to wear Dave's kilt (they cant hold their drink to well..!). Dave obliged and then dressed Ivan up in it, who then proceed to pick up a bar stool upside down as a makeshift set of bagpipes and march around the pub. As if this wasn't enough (we were crying with laughter at this stage) he then went onto create his own (phil like) auction, where he was apparently taking bids to see his bollocks “do I ‘ear foortey pownds’.. what a star! What a night. What a race.
The scene was luckily recorded by his team mate Manuel..
