The pacepushers Playing A Way

12:33 19.48 miles 3:53:28

Average 11:59 min/miles

The pacepushers went out to run on the West Highland Way yesterday. Mrs pacepusher was really up for it and wanted to run a section she hadn’t done before. So we decided on Beinglass to Bridge Of Orchy, with the option of me continuing to Victoria Bridge if I was so inclined. We didn’t set any alarms, and didn’t exactly rush to get ready, so it was already late morning when we were about to leave. Which is when Marco text me to say there had been an accident on the road along side Loch Lomond. We checked some other routes to get to where we wanted to be, but the other options would have taken us till about Tuesday. We looked on-line and the accident had happened at about 08:30, as it was now about 10 am we decided to risk it. So off we went in our two cars towards Bridge Of Orchy. The traffic was pretty much fine, and there was no aftermath from the accident.       

Drovers Inn to Beinglass Farm
0.46 miles 4:30

We left Mrs p’s car at Bridge Of Orchy and drove to the Drovers Inn, stopping briefly at Tyndrum to buy suncream. Mrs pacepusher duly applied the horrid stuff causing the weather to cloud over! It was very hot though, hotter than you realised until you started running. Today I was carrying a bottle of sports drink, with a second one in my belt, Jellybabies and grapes. I packed everything up (including the car key) in my hydration belt, put it on all set for the off, then realised I hadn’t locked the car yet! aaaarrrggghhh, so annoying! So, having got ready for a second time we headed off, but not till I’d taken Mrs pacepushers photo outside the Drovers Inn. She was looking very professional in matching kit, Camelbak and very bright trail shoes of which I’m very jealous! 

Beinglass Farm to Derrydarroch Farm
3.21 miles 40:07:05 Average 12:30 min/miles

I was keen to record the mileage between each of the possible meeting points today. When I run the race on 21st June, I want to know what lies ahead of me each time so that I can break the 95 miles into smaller chunks, ‘Babysteps’ as described by Dean Karnazes. So I used the manual lap function on my GPS, rather than recording every mile as I usually do, to record each section. 

It wasn’t long before Mrs pacepusher used her remarkable vegetarian powers of finding dead sheep in the Scottish countryside. I had to block her vewe (see what I did there?) as she ran passed, I didn’t want a repeat performance of the last time this happened. As you’ll see from the photo on the left, not all the sheep were dead (cue photo caption: hey Ewe! You’re Baaaared!) and the lambs were very cute throughout the run.

I remembered this section as being really hilly from Monday. It isn’t really, not if you haven’t run 41 miles first, so I ran most of the inclines. I was feeling good and Mrs pacepusher was running strongly. As mentioned though, it was really hot and humid. We were both drinking more than normal, and finding it hard to catch our breath as we ran. I was sweating like a fatboy in a sauna, and was worrying about fluids. I new there would be a chance to get water at Auchtertyre Farm but that was still a long way away, and I only had sports drink with me. I didn’t want to not drink enough, so I just kept drinking as and when I wanted it. I would keep the empty bottle until I could get water. 

Derrydarroch Farm to A82 underpass
0.98 miles 13:19

It’s just a short run to the next possible meeting point where the Way passes under the A82. Mrs pacepusher had the job of clearing the path of scary looking cattle. I find cows a bit of a worry.  They’re so unpredictable, and their size means they could do you a fair amount of harm. I was once chased by a full herd in the Lake District, and had to leapfrog over a fence! The big cow on the path (there’s a joke there somewhere but I value my life!) didn’t move when we ran past. It just stared ominously at us.  

A82 underpass to Auchtertyre
5.45 miles 1:12:47 Average 13:21 min/miles

A lot of people dislike this section, especially the long stretch to Bogle Glen (which always makes me think of TV programme, Monarch Of The Glen) but I find it a good stretch to find some rhythm and chalk off a couple of miles (as long as the cows stay off the path). After Bogle Glen, it’s a really undulating section through the forest which I’m really starting to like. Don’t get me wrong here, The uphills can be tough, but the downhills are great. Mrs pacepusher followed the lead of her hubby, and positively flew down the hills, although she was probably a little more cautious than I tend to be. There’s a photo on her blog of her running down a hill. She’s blurred she’s running so quick! 

Auchtertyre to Tyndrum
2.7 miles 38:07 Average 14:07 min/miles

After a short break of just over 3 minutes, a pint of milk consumed and the water bottles refilled, we were off towards Tyndrum. I felt much better after drinking the milk, I’d got sick of sports drink and was really thirsty. I now had a bottle of water for this section too which was most welcome.

Unfortunately over this stage Mrs pacepusher began to struggle. She has a re-occurring chest problem that (despite me telling her to go to the docs, she hasn’t) keeps flaring up on runs if she gets her fluid intake wrong. With the heat, and running with her Camelpak, she drank more than she’s used to. She gets a really bad pain across her chest, which moves across her back if she doesn’t stop. I took her Camelbak off her and tried to get her to focus on her breathing for the last wee stretch to Tyndrum to see if that helped. It didn’t! 

Tyndrum to Bridge Of Orchy
6.63 miles 59:12 Average 8:56 min/miles

I waited briefly for Mrs pacepusher, she’d had enough now, her chest was really hurting her and she felt she couldn’t run on. Having left the car at Bridge Of Orchy, there was no choice but for one of us to go on… that one of us would be me then! So after a break of just over 2 minutes, I gave her back her Camelbak and headed off up the hill. 

This is the first time that I’ve run this section feeling tired, I think Monday was still in my legs, and I found it tougher than I remember it being. That might also be because of the speed I was running it at though too! If it wasn’t an incline, I was running generally at sub 8:00 pace, occasionally sub 7:00! I stopped at a waterfall, desperate for water, took a drink, then soaked my buff and put it on my head to cool down. The sun was back to full force now.

I’d gone past 5 guys with bikes on the hills out of Tyndrum. They came whizzing passed me on the downhill section, but generally they were never that far in front, and it really spurred me on. I’d realised I could break one hour for the section so was flying over the last mile. The guys with their bikes had stopped to re-group at the train station and I flew passed them. A comment from one of them of, “That guy’s gonna beat us!” spurred me on further, and I ran my legs off to reach the far side of the bridge in under an hour.

When I got back to Mrs pacepusher in Tyndrum, I told her that I’d been running faster than planned as I was worried about her getting cold, and sitting on her own. She replied, “don’t start blaming me”. I pointed out that ‘Thank you’ would be a more reasonable response!