At the weekend a great bunch of like minded folks set out to run across Scotland. I was lucky enough to be amongst them (full report tae follow). We started in Inverness early on Saturday and after a comfortable overnight in Fort Augustus completed the run in Fort William yesterday afternoon.
At various points over the run I got to thinking about time, pace and pain ...and an article I read.
Millions of people, from schoolchildren to overweight
joggers, can run a mile in nine minutes and 20 seconds, and doubtless
hundreds of thousands can hold that pace for a half-hour or more. Extend
the range to the marathon, and the numbers shrink, but still, 26.2
miles at a 9:20 pace is hardly remarkable, something that many thousands
of people can do. Double the marathon, though, then double it again.
Add steep climbs over rocky paths. The numbers shrink. Turn up the heat,
and plunge the course into frigid darkness. Now there are few
nine-and-a-half-minute milers left . Add shrieking headwinds, and dusty
canyons and icy rivers and exposed mountain ridges and what you have is
the Western States Endurance Run,
a 100-miler that has 41,000 feet of ups and downs, and scores of men
and women facing not just thirst, and hunger and fatigue and unforgiving
terrain, but each other, and more daunting, themselves. At the end of
the race, you're left with exactly one human being who can sustain a
9:20 pace.
Full article
Not sure what our average pace was but reckon whatever the statistics were ...we all enjoyed simply sharing the madness.
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