Sunshine, Wind, Rain and Royalty by Marriage – this year's Highland Cross had it all!

The Highland Cross is a fabulously well organised event. With 720 people entering the event, there is a huge challenge to looking after the well being and safety of the competitors whilst they cross Glen Affric on a track which is mostly inaccessible by even the most hardy of landrovers - not to mention the logistical nightmare of getting everyone to the start, their bikes to the changeover, and ensuring everyone is reunited with their belongings at the end of the race. I know this from my previous entries, I know this from my younger years helping out at Camban Bothy passing out water and Gatorade, and I was reminded of it again this year as the weather gods couldn't quite decide what to throw at us.

The underfoot conditions were 'soft' to say the least, this translated into 'wet, slippy and difficult' as soon as a very drizzly head wind hit us as we came round the brow of the hill section. We'd been horribly misled by waking up to glorious sunshine and, despite the forecast being for sunshine and showers, the sun deserted us after approx 4 miles running and was never really seen again. I don't know if it was a good or bad year from a casualty perspective but I saw a few folk who had twisted knees/ankles on the treacherous ground and the support helicopter certainly had to land on a few occasions. I was very grateful for the network of radio volunteers who man the route every few miles and can get warm blankets and medical help to folk whilst a plan for helping them get off the hill is put together. I made a point of thanking every one I saw as well as the teams of volunteers who hike into these remote spots just to hand out water and cheer support as we rush past in pursuit of our own personal goals. Whether or not my wheezing thanks could be distinguished as a word I'm not entirely sure but I hope they understood!

Despite the difficult running conditions, I have to say that I felt really strong and enjoyed the event immensely this year. I suspect this has a lot to do with being better rested and looked after before the race; however even in bad conditions the run section is beautiful, which makes it so much more enjoyable than it would be otherwise! As a team we had agreed to run at our own pace and would see each other at the end, over the first 4 miles of track to Glen Licht House we leap frogged each other whilst we found a comfortable pace but once we hit the steep hill pass of Allt Granda Colin surged ahead leaving Jo and I struggling to navigate our way through folk who were walking the single track path in front of us. However once the hill section was done I was able to find a steadier pace and slowly started to make good progress, finally catching Colin at the 10 mile mark of Alltbeithe Youth Hostel. From this point the track becomes much easier with the majority of river crossings complete (!) but the continual Easterly head wind was starting to wear me down; and for the first time ever I was looking forward to the Yellow Brick Road section where I hoped to get some shelter from the trees! I ran the whole distance (apart from sections of the hill where it was unsafe to pass people so walking was a necessity) which is something I've never been able to do before, completing the section in around 3 hrs 30.

Behind me Jo finally caught Colin at mile 18 and they both hit the changeover in around 3 hrs 45. Jo had a very quick changeover and got a good lead on Colin, who had no idea he was so close behind me. We had calculated that based on our expected cycling speeds I needed to be over 20 minutes in front of Colin at the changeover to get to the finishing line before him! Somehow I knew he was on my tail and my little legs have never pedaled so fast; spurred on by the chase, along with the the extra effort I had put into bike training this year, and the loan of Mum's race bike, I achieved the 30 mile cycle section in under 2 hours – my best bike time ever by a long way – and I was in front of Colin by just 3 minutes! Jo crossed the line around 1 minute later, all of us finishing in under 5 hrs 40 giving us a hugely respectable team time. A brilliant effort all round.

There is nothing quite like the experience of cycling into Beauly where the whole town turns out every year to cheer the competitors on as they complete the last mile into town. I read in one of the papers on Sunday that they believed the crowds to be fans of Pippa Middleton who entered the race this year. I would like to correct them in that respect: the locals always come out in force for the event which supports local charities and has been taking place for the last 29 years, they deserve recognition for being out in all weathers for all the competitors and we are very grateful for their cheering – it means the world as you approach the finish line after expending every ounce of energy you have. Never the less its great to see such a wonderful event getting publicity from someone who is becoming a star in her own right, I believe Miss Middleton is a very accomplished athlete and she certainly finished the race is a superb time of 5hrs 05 minutes so she deserves the recognition for that – even if she did 'cheat' by getting a helicopter to the start line rather than joining the rest of us on the bus at silly o'clock in the morning!!!

At the end of the race, we are treated to a buffet prepared by the 'Ladies of Beauly' and this year's prize giving we were also treated to the wonderful sounds of a German Brass Ensemble – one of this year's team entries was from a trio who play with a German Opera. It was an absolutely fantastic end to a fantastic day, and the memories of the wind and rain are already fading. I've heard Colin mention that 'next year' he is going to be quicker at the Changeover.. so I fear that this won't be our last Highland Cross; maybe next time I might beat Mum's record of 5hrs 15 but for now she remains the family record holder and I shall continue to wonder if I'm nearly there yet!

Participating in an event like this requires much dedication from many people so I'd like to make some thankyous. Firstly Thanks to my Mum (Norna Hall) and Stepdad (John Hall) who were a very welcome support team on race day, and particularly to Mum who set me this silly challenge in the first place in 2007 to beat her time which I'm STILL trying to do!! Thanks very much to Angela Mudge & Knead to Relax for their support and helping get my muscles ready for the race. Thanks to Colin for being cajoled into being part of the family team and being patient with me during training! thanks to Gordon Stewart our previous team mate who we were very sorry to have to replace, we hope we did you proud; and thanks to Jo for stepping in at the very last minute with no specific training and still managing to get in a superb finishing time, not to mention raising some money too! A great big thanks to Calum Munro and John Fraser and the huge team of volunteers at Highland Cross for putting on yet another superb event;

and most of all thanks to YOU for your support and donations. You can still sponsor us and check out our total at Just Giving - it's for great causes and is the reason that we put ourselves out in the rain and do it atall!

Our photos of the day are on Flickr for you all to see

there's nothing left to do but taper taper taper .....

... & to raise some money!

Well that's it folks, 5 days until the big event. Colin and I went out for a lovely 10 mile run round Glen Ogle on Saturday to make sure the legs still worked and now we just need to rest. recover and stay injury free ready for the weekend. We had talked about doing a few miles on the bike yesterday but in true pre-Highland Cross style my knees have seized up and my legs ache and I just didn't want to risk doing myself an injury so we spent the day organising our kit instead! I wish I could say it's helped, but I still ache a little today so I may need to and get some Sports Massage treatment to make sure I can definitely move again by the end of the week!!!

Jo popped around to ask us lots of questions on Friday night, and to fill in the paperwork. She mentioned that she intended to try out a run to bike changeover on Saturday, just to check that her legs work on a bike after running, so I hope her training went well too.

All that remains now is to reach our fundraising target. So here are the many ways that you can help to support us in our quest to complete the Highland Cross

• Jo has come up with a brilliant idea and is running a book on her finish time for the event, with a prize of homemade jam. Stick your guess as a comment on this post and add to the 'just-giving' page if you want a shot of some this tasty prize. (T&Cs can be found here !)



• If you like the idea and also want to guess on Colin or I's finishing/drop out time then I shall be offering up homemade shortbread for the closest guess. Same rules as above.



• My brother has pledged an amount of money per finisher of the event (he is hoping to get a place in the event next year!)...



• You can sponsor us via http://www.justgiving.com/arewenearlythereyetmum2011



• and we'd love to hear from you on the day. You can add comments to this blog, You can tweet me @sajatweet or you can yell really loudly from wherever you are and we shall be listening out for you. (It gives us an excuse for that strange squinting look on our face which could otherwise be construed as pain!)
  

A quick change!

At the start of this week we got some bad news, Gordon the third member of our team has had to pull out. He told us that he has been having some pretty serious hospital tests and got some very bad news from his doctors, and amongst other more serious things he was told that he is not allowed to drive. We looked into various ways to get Goron and his bike to Inverness without his needing a car, but unfortunately he lives in quite a remote area and the logistics, effort and costs were spiralling; and frankly he had other more important things to worry about. So Gordon asked us if we could try and find a replacement as it would take a weight off his mind.

With under 2 weeks to go, finding a replacement at this short notice who would a) be fit enough to do the 20 mile foot section followed by 30 mile cycle section and b) want to!!! seemed fairly remote; but never one to shy away from a challenge I set to getting the word out.

I spoke to Mum who, with a rather large number of Highland Cross under her belt, might be able to get the word out round the Highlands; we posted notices up on the local climbing club website (which then promptly crashed); we got messages out on the social networking tool Twitter; we contacted Highland Cross in case they knew of anyone; and we contacted people who knew people in the local hill running club. It was 4 days of frantic searching but finally Jo got in touch.

Jo is running the Lairig Ghru hill race on 26th June (the week after the Highland Cross) and I can only assume she is treating the Highland Cross as a Training Run!!!!!!!!! The Lairig Ghru is 30 miles, taking in 2700ft of ascent so is significantly tougher than the Highland Cross, though without the cycle section - and the whole thought of it terrifies me. Colin and I have spent the last 3 months working as hard as we can to get fit enough to do the Highland Cross and are still nervous about it; I suppose all these things are relative.

Jo is a member of our climbing club but we've not yet met her - she must be a superstar. She has signed up to an event that we've spent months training for at 8 days notice. Somebody had suggested that her husband Adrian might be up for the challenge, but he is currently on a stretch of the John O Groats to Lands End cycle ride so can't help out (!!). Jo got the message and thought that Highland Cross would be perfect for her and so volunteered. She is coming round tonight to sort the paperwork and to work out transport arragements etc and I can't wait to meet someone who is so generous (crazy?!) as to help us out as such short notice.

We are very sorry that Gordon isn't able to do his second Highland Cross this year, but we will be doing our best to do his team proud and I suspect Jo is going to put in a time that will put us all to shame!

Getting in the miles and ticking off the milestones

I've mentioned on a previous post how satisfying it is to be able to tick off milestones on a training plan, and this past week has had a stack of them so I should be feeling very satisfied. The truth is that with under 2 weeks to go I'm more nervous than I've ever been at this point in the run up to the Cross.

During the week I tried out my first run to bike changeover. This turns out to be quite tricky when you live in a small top floor flat with no bike storage apart from the spare room; never the less with a bit of pre-planning and organisation I still managed the changeover (including running down the stairs with my bike!) in just over 5 minutes. I'm going to try it again this week just to make sure I'm confident which gear I need to put in my changeover bag.

On Saturday we had our last long run. We went for 16 miles round Loch Ard, a route we did on the mountain bike earlier on in our training. The running was hard going as it was forest trail all the way round, the theory had been this would be better for our ankles but it was pretty hard going on the knees and relatively boring scenery compared to our more recent runs. I am also nervous it was not long enough (though I did 17 miles if you include mustering*); but Colin has a pretty active job and has been knackered after the runs, so we didn't dare push our distance further for fear of causing injury. Running magazines say that not making the distance before the race shouldn't be such an issue as excitement and adrenaline gives you an extra push on the day, but I'm not so sure it applies to runs with a 30 mile cycle on the end!

The big milestone for both Colin and I this week was a cycle ride up Duke's Pass between Callander and Aberfoyle. Colin had been wanting to cycle this pass since before we'd moved up to Stirlingshire. It's well known amongst local cycling enthusiasts, and personally I had been dreading having to do it as it had reached iconic epic status in my head! Our research informed us that there are two ways to tackle this pass: head North, the short steep way; or head South, the long slow uphill grind. We decided that because our knees were a bit tender from the run on Saturday, and I suffer from sore knees cycling up steep hills at the best of time, that we would do the Southern route and went out to Callendar via Doune, then across the pass to Aberfoyle and then back via Thornhill. Around 45 miles in total and right at the top of my daily distance since I first got on Mum's road bike in April (actually, possibly the furthest I've ever cycled in a day!!!!)

As we reached Callander and Bridge of Turk I was feeling great, and the sunshine picking out the hill tops around us made for really enjoyable riding. However I couldn't help but feel a bit of trepidation as we passed the sign for Dukes Pass. As we started the up and I heard a voice say "don't put so much effort into the cycling" I may have said some rude words, but much to my surprise steady pedalling got me to the top much quicker than I had expected... I suspect the strangely East/North Easterly wind giving us a push had a lot to do with it but I wasn't complaining! Then came the down, and I actually enjoyed some of it - well, until the steep hairpins which I think I took at around 5mph with my new back brakes being tested to the limit, but honestly I do think my confidence has improved a little bit!!!! We had reached Aberfoyle after 28 miles in 2 hours & 10 minutes so I was really pleased, in fact I was practically beaming and at that moment there was hope that I would be convinced to keep up road cycling after the cross; something that has never been done before. I've only ever done it for training!

We then had a discussion about whether or not to stop for a cuppa. I felt fine and wanted to get the miles under my belt but Colin wisely reminded me that we were returning into a head wind the whole way back from there, and so we stopped, and he got his chocolate slice. I was very grateful that we had stopped as the head wind back was absolutely draining, by the end of the relatively shorter 17 mile return journey which took just over 1.5 hours I was very thankful to be home. I now know what way I hope the wind is blowing in a fortnight, 30 miles of that effort after a run and I'll be a wreck!

Now for 2 weeks of taper with my fingers firmly crossed for favourable weather. Please do remember to support us on the day, you can do so by:

• keeping your fingers crossed for good weather and the best wind direction between now and then


• cheering loudly between 11am and 5pm


• and even if you don't have time or inclination for the above then you can sponsor us too
  

*Mustering is when the front runners run back to the back of the pack, in this case my running back to Colin, to keep the pack together.

not lost, just not where we were supposed to be!

This weekend we were supposed to be in Skye but after much staring at the weather forecast, some feedback from a local via Twitter (Skye photographer @Landscapes365), and a long discussion in the pub we decided that camping in gale force winds and torrential rain was a bad idea and we ended up in Cairngorms. What we didn't expect was that this turned out to be the start of a theme of not ending up where we were supposed to be!

It sometimes seems like training for the Highland Cross takes over your life, it's too easy to miss out on events and trips away because you need to 'get in a run' or 'do more miles on the bike'. Colin and I are keen climbers, and joined the Ochil Mountaineering Club when we moved to Stirlingshire at the end of last year; but we've hardly been out on rock this year let alone out with the club as much as we would like. However, this weekend we were determined we would do the club trip to Skye and had a lovely run and bike ride planned to coincide with the occasion. So, when the trip was cancelled due to bad weather, we were determined to go on a trip of some sorts and joined a few hardy club members in the Cairngorms where we hoped the weather would be much better.

I spent Friday pouring over maps and plotting with tools to find an alternative route for our long run on Saturday and in the end I came up with three options which we could choose between based on weather and underfoot conditions when we arrived. On the Saturday morning we went for the longer run based on it being more sheltered and involving no river crossings, it was slightly more than our target distance but we decided that we could walk the first mile to warm up and that would give us our target distance of 15 miles running.

We started off well, the track up to Ryvoan bothy was nice running and generally the shelter of the trees prevented the wind from slowing us down. The downside of running through forestry tracks is that they are not always clearly marked on the map (or that is my excuse anyway!) and at around the 5 mile mark we ended up heading the wrong way down a track for just over a mile before realising our mistake and having to turn back from where we weren't supposed to be. To begin with this didn't seem to affect us too much, but by about the 10 mile mark we had actually run 12 miles and still had 5 to go and the folly of our mistake was beginning to take its toll. The reassuring thing is that though Colin stopped running after his GPS told him he had run 15 miles and then walked the final 2.5 miles, and I stopped after around 16 miles, walking the rest, we both recovered well and managed a total distance of over 18 miles if you include the walk. We nearly did the whole Highland Cross foot section distance by mistake!!!

This mistake aside the run was really pleasant, and because it was low level we avoided much of the bad weather which was hitting the tops. Our friends who did some munro walking that day suffered a little more buffetting and encountered a river which required extreme measures to cross. Photographs of this are censored for reasons of decency!

On the Sunday we were supposed to be doing a long bike ride but the wind had significantly increased and was gusting well over 50mph in places - after such a big day on Saturday we decided (with very little persuasion!) to postpone our cycle ride until the Monday and joined the others for a low level walk from Aviemore. Apart from a few showers the weather was fantastic, and if it wasn't for the fact that even at only a few hundred metres in height the wind was blowing so hard I couldn't stand upright, you would have wondered why we weren't off doing something more intrepid - as we were supposed to be!

We topped the weekend off on Monday with a bike ride taking in a circuit of Stirling, Carron Valley, Fintry and Kippen - where we stopped for tea and cake of course! - before returning home. The wind had dropped, the sun shone and I really enjoyed it. All in all it was well worth changing our plans over the weekend, and though we weren't always where we were supposed to be - from a training perspective I hope we are right on track.

and the wind blew so hard we ended up in Oz!

This is a picture of our new friend Joey. He is a wallaby and we saw him out cycling today. I'm led to believe that wallaby's live in the wonderful land of Oz so the wind must have been blowing very hard!!!! I tell you what, it certainly felt like it was, and I would have given anything for a pair of red slippers that I could click together to get me home again.. but unfortunately we had to use pedal power the whole way.

In fact the wind has blown quite hard most of the weekend. After a fairly gentle weeks training, partly because we didn't want to overdo the training, and partly because Colin's knees have been playing up again, we had a couple of long sessions planned for this weekend. Yesterday we headed out to Bridge of Turk to run the Glen Lednock circular - a 13 mile hill track which I had spotted on a map the other week and have since found descriptions of in various guidebooks. I've been really looking forward to running the route and had been advised by a couple of people it would be great training for the Highland Cross, so despite the grey skies and high winds I had set out for the run in quite good spirits.

Colin was a little nervous due to the lack of running he has done over the past few weeks whilst resting his knee, but he decided that he could always walk the route if running proved to be too painful. The track was fairly 'undulating' to say the least and the last big steep hill had a real sting in the tail of a false summit made worse by the fact that it was hidden in the cloud - so when we got there we really had thought that we'd reached the top. The low cloud turned into heavy rain and the wind increased making the last half of the run a particularly cold affair and very hard work. Never the less both of our legs held out well and it was just as good a training route as I had hoped for. I think it makes a much nicer run or mountain bike than a walk, and I would certainly do it again - but maybe in slightly better weather!


We are lucky in that since moving to the Stirling area we have met a couple of hill runners through our climbing club, and have had some excellent routes suggested to us. This also meant that we got given the name of Angela Mudge who does great sports massage. Both Colin and I treated ourselves to a sports massage this week and I have to say I think its helped loads with the heavy legs I was experiencing this time last week. Not to mention the great advice she has given on stretches to do and places to go training. Angela also happens to be a top fell runner and all round great athlete, she not only knows of the Highland Cross but has won the womens race a couple of time, this means that when she is offering advice you listen... Thus I can now be seen sitting on a couple of tennis balls of an evening, don't ask!


As for the cycling Colin has really been picking up the pace, and I am being made to work hard on speed, hills and confidence. The deal is that I pick the long runs and he picks the long cycles but this is now backfiring and today he had me out on a 38 mile circuit to Auchingarrich Wildlife Park and back. Despite cycling not being my favourite sport I do have to confess that I am loving cycling the local back roads; they are generally quiet with very friendly drivers using them, and are taking us to places with amazing scenery that we wouldn't normally go. However, that said, today was incredibly hard work. It didn't seem to matter which direction we cycled in, the wind would buffet us so much I found it difficult to stay on the road. At one point I was actually having to pedal to go down hill - most annoying! It was therefore a joy to come round a corner and see Joey sat next to the road at the entrance to the wildlife park.

We have marked the Wildlife Park down as an interesting looking place to go back to when we've finished the Highland Cross and can spend a relaxing Saturday there without having to run or cycle back again in some crazy weather. Its under 4 weeks to go now, so just two more long runs - let's hope the conditions on the day are a bit better than the weather we've been training in this weekend.

The reason we do it....

I had a really interesting discussion with someone this week about the Highland Cross and the reason they do/don't enter events like it. For them the issue was fundraising and this made me sit up and take notice as I'd not really considered this aspect as a negative before.

Fundraising is something that is very close to my heart and something I've always been involved in one way or another: from my days at university when I was heavily involved in the student charities group RAG (organising and participating in events or running around streets with a collecting can) to my various attempts to run silly distances for charity to, more recently, the professional work that I've done with charities to help them find new ways to fundraise online. I had never really considered that fundraising might be something that would put people off entering an event. In fact, for me, more often than not, it is the whole reason for doing the event in the fist place!

The other side of the coin, so to speak, is that for people who do events like this because they enjoy them or because of the competitive aspect, then they do so many events that asking people for donations/sponsorship for each one could be seen as taking a liberty. This leads me to wonder whether there is a fine line for charities to balance between attracting the 'club' runners and other people who run for the enjoyment, and insisting on entrants raising money.

For large events such as the Great North Run or the London or Edinburgh marathons it is possible to pay an entry fee through a ballot system, if you subsequently choose to raise money for a charity then that is your choice. The events are large, always over subscribed, and have a good mix of abilities. However for smaller charity specific events is there a large section of potential competitors who just don't enter as they don't want to ask people for sponsorship, and are these the competitors who would potentially add prestige to the event and guarantee press coverage?

For the Highland Cross my understanding is that this has never been an issue as they are always over subscribed and can basically accept applications by invite only. The event numbers have to be kept to a small due to safety reasons: the cross country trail really isn't suitable for vehicular transport if there is an accident and in places the trail is steep and single track so overtaking your competitor just isn't an option; if they had more than the 750 entries it would just be too crowded. The event focuses on different local charities each year and so is heavily supported locally, all of which means that it can be self sustaining; but I wonder if all competitive fundraising events have this luxury. You only have to see the adverts that Cancer Research UK has out at the moment to try and drum up interest on the Race for Life event to realise that even large charities with this sort of event can struggle. Have people finally reached fundraising event overload or is it just a sign of the hard times that we are going through?

For my part I expect to find fundraising alot tougher this year. Colin and I have recently moved and therefore are in the process of meeting new friends and changing jobs. It seems horribly rude to meet someone for the first time and then thrust a sponsorship form under their noses! However the world of the web means that we are able to keep in touch with friends and family on email and Facebook which does help greatly; and one of the main reasons I write this blog is I like to try and prove to those folk we know around the world and who do follow us that we're earning those donations and sponsorships received. I can't say how pleased I am to see we've already reached over £100 so for those who've donated so far - thankyou very much.... and for those who've been holding off please don't forget to visit our Just Giving page. We really do appreciate it.