Sunday 28th May 2023
Debbie ran 116km. Thats the furthest in one continual stretch. Yes, she's done desert runs for 5 days but this was a different beast with only having 35 hours to do 152km. Her response when I asked how much she managed to do was
'Just 116km...'
I laughed. There's no 'just' here - as in 'only' 116km. It's simply too amazing.
What happened that she didn't finish? Well she reckons she was just too slow and didn't make the one cut-off point. She could have continued unofficially but she chose to stop. With sore feet and a deep chill, she listened to her body and for the most part, seems okay with it. I'm super proud of her and I hope she doesn't be too hard on herself for not finishing it again.
My morning had me out enjoying the clear blue sky and checking out where the actual finish point of the race was. Fortunately it was very close to the hotel and there were some neon signs out to announce the finish. I saw two runners who had just finished and I was amazed. They both did it under 22 hours which is just phenomenal. But the chap who was second actually ran up Ben Nevis Elevation: 1,345 m (the highest mountain in Scotland) before running the route as part of a different challenge!! I think he was well into his 60’s and I haven't managed to find his name just yet, but just wow.
Now as an almost non runner, I stand in awe at all of these extreme efforts. I contemplated all of this while walking for an hour on the route again. Marlene and Ettienne had set out early and I didn't want to hold them up so I went out behind them. The small town square looked refreshingly pretty as I thought about this walk being my reason for my own 17 years of running. I wanted to do something physical for my 40th birthday and I was very impressed by two of my older aunts walking this way, stage by stage. At that time, while walking the route over seven days, Debbie had seen the information about running the route instead of hiking it. I was doing a maximum of 10 to 15km at the time, I laughed at her saying 'I'm going to run it one day...'
Today, I thought about our sister walk and how so many things have changed since then. But the lay of the land stays the same. I tried to imagine the cattle men who drove their stock from the Highlands to the 'merket' in the city. I saw so many hikers both local and foreigners all starting out their Way this morning and I wondered about walking it again. Marlene had a similar thought while on her run and the idea of 'wild camping' appealed to her. I'm not a happy camper so that all might need to be negotiated on. But right now, I'm negotiating sleep.
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