WHW Race - a supporting role

My pal Jason Harrision called up to ask if I was interested in supporting him for a WHW race attempt ...at the time supporting appealed more than running it so was more than happy to have a solid excuse not to even consider entering.

The other half of the support team was Mark Rawlinson who I knew from GL3D events.

The three of us met up in Milngavie around 23:30 on the Friday night with the actual race starting at 1am ! Wandering around the car park it was nice to meet up with some pals from other events. This was especially true for Kate (Highlander Mountain Marathon / Highland Fling), Tony (Marathon des Sables / Highland Fling) and James (Marathon des Sables / Highland Fling).

Some words and a round of applause for Dario ...and the race was on.

Mark and me headed up to Balamaha and the first support point. Hopefully, with a few hours to go until Jason arrived we had some time for a bit of sleep. Rather than sticking up a tent, we opted for crashing out on the grass in sleeping bags with midge hoods. It can as a bit of a surprise to be woken by Jason who was a bit ahead of schedule but I felt a tad guilty none the less. We jumped up and started what was to be a regular routine of serving Dhall, coffee and whatever else was needed.

Jason headed off to Rowardennan along the WHW - Mark and me did the same in the van. Jason came through looking strong and once he was on his way along the shore, we re-joined the caravan of madness and headed north to Beinn Ghlas farm.

Confident that we had loads of time, Mark put the tent up and I crashed out in the van. I woke to the sound of someone knocking on the window ...asking if I was Mark or Graham - SHIT SHIT SHIT !!!! We had slept in again and Jason was already getting support from another team ...oh dear. We fussed around in that way that only guilty support teams can.

Did the whole dhall, coffee, painkillers dance again at Auchentyre and tried to work out if a sub 24 hour race was still possible for Jason. Briefly bumped into Rob Treadwell who I had not seen since the Sarawak Jungle back in 2002 which was really nice ..shame it was so brief.

We continued to leap frog Jason in the van and soon established a nice wee support camp at Bridge of Orchy. Chatted with folks and actually was ready for Jason coming in. For me this marked the start of the interesting section(s) of the route.

The next support point was at the Glen Coe ski centre. It was one of those almost perfect summer evenings - enough wind to keep the midges away and warm enough to mean t-shirt was enough. I ran out onto the moor a bit to meet Jason reckoning he might be starting to need a bit more than dhall.

As we fed him, I asked if he still wanted me to run from Kinlochleven with him to which he asked if I could run from this point on. I got changed, sorted the pack and we trotted off towards the Kingy and on to the Devils Staircase. Kept pace / overtook a few teams until the start of the descent where one of the girl runners appeared to gain wings and skipped off down the path ...we admired her enthusiasm but left her to it.

Coming into Kinloch, the wheels were really starting to come off for the big fella. I sorted myself out whilst Mark fed Jason gels, crisps, flat coke and anything else that would go down. Jason complained about feeling sick and we suggested the best thing to do was start moving towards Fort William again. This seemed to work and by the edge of the village, he was starting to actually feel good again. We kept a steady pace on the climb up into the lairg where a good running pace took over. Night was starting to close in and headtorches were required just before the forest that indicated. Sadly, it was also here that I realised the sub 24 hour target was gone - I decided to keep that to myself but it turned out that Jason had been keeping an eye on pace and time was well (which was impressive considering he had been running for over 20 hours).

We dropped onto the road and the boy put in a strong finish (even thanking 3 bushes for coming out to welcome him to the finish ....he did think they were people however). Jason crossed the line in 24 hours and 41 minutes - awesome I reckon.

It was a blast doing support and I really enjoyed the experience ...now all I need is a good excuse for next year :-)