Lochaber is one of the 16 ward management areas of the
Highland council of Scotland. Fort William, which is in Lochaber, is considered the outdoor activity centre of the
Scottish Highlands. Apparently Fort William has more rain than anywhere else in
Scotland, i'm not sure if this is true but "fact" suits my purpose for this
moan.
The plan for this weekend was an attempt of the Charlie
Ramsey Round, this circuit involves close to 60 miles, 24 peaks and 28,000 foot of ascent, It is a bit of a hand full
for an old man of 50, but this old man has no idea of his limits so keeps
searching in the vain hope the he will find them before he finds out he is too
old to keep searching.
For this particular round it is common for the runner to
have navigators and support runners on each of the 3 sections (we call these
legs), these support people are changed at the end of each section as the
runner (me) has usually worn them out by then. Obviously navigators er…
navigate and the support runners carry food and drink which leaves me, the
runner, to focus on the running (and walking).
I have been very focused and trained hard all year managing
to become fitter than ever before, I ve had virtually no injuries all year,
plenty of free time for training and bundles of motivation to get out in the
mountains as the weather has been ideal.
Usually I race twice a year and get the rest of my time in
the mountains through support runs and days out with friends. However this year
I have raced much more and spent time on mountain reps to improve my ascent
speed.
Over the weeks preceding the attempt I watch the weather forecasts
and try to fill holes in the support schedule as navigators or support runners
dropout for various reasons.
The final week of build up to this attempt was far more
stressful for me than any previous run and almost led to it being called
off. In the end the start was brought
forward by 24 hours to beat an impending storm.
So tired from the journey and hungry as we had rushed so much I had forgotten to eat, the much revised leg 1 team and I set off from the Youth Hostel in Fort William a day early at
1.03 pm
The first leg of any round is difficult to support as the runner is usually full of energy and usually sets of at a fast pace, today was no exception and only ½ a mile into the ascent I had to ask Chris Rainbow to wait for Leon and
recover my food for the rest of the leg. Of course this left Chris with a lot
of work to do in catching up to me.
At Red Burn I had a drink from the stream and waited for Chris
to arrive before pushing on via the main path. Further up we took advantage of some short cuts to miss some zig zags and made great time arriving at Ben Nevis summit in
1 hour 32 minutes. Great stuff, so after a quick feed we headed for Carn Mor
Dearg and the Arete which leads to it.
Although I am not at home on exposed ridges I like the Arete, i have spent plenty of time training on this sort of ground and found myself making good steady progress over the rocks, unfortunately
Chris hasn't and managed to slip, taking a nasty fall which knocked the wind out of him. After a quick re-group we continued and I
waited at the summit of Carn Mor Dearg. I could see Chris was ok but finding the pace hard so collected my food and a bottle of
drink from him before pushing on.
On the Descent from Carn Mor Dearg and ascent up towards Aonach Mor Chris had been unable to
keep up and shouted to me that he was bailing out and good luck with the rest
of the leg. He headed off in the direction of Glen Nevis.
At this point I have to say that only 2 weeks previously Chris
had finished second in the Coast to Coast race. A 140 mile journey from the
west to east coasts of England, no wonder he was feeling the pace.
My thoughts quickly turned to the leg ahead and I decided I was
up for this and pushed on over the Aonachs and on to the Grey Choire’s and more good going. It had
been a while since I had done this leg but the navigation was easy and the
running a pleasure. It was just unfortunate that I had also forgotten to print
a schedule and was unaware if my pace was good.
I ran out of fluids and managed to find a couple of streams along the way, although the water tasted foul it was certainly better than nothing and helped with the dehydration headache i was suffering with.
On reaching Stob Ban I estimated it would take
me 3 hours to finish the leg, it was 7.30pm, with only 2 and a half hours of
light left and no head torch I made the difficult decision to bail out and
ascended into Glen Nevis and back to Fort William.
So why did this happen after a year of hard training and
preparation? Well, you asked so I’ll tell.
On the build up to the run a couple of key leg 1 navigators
dropped out and asking someone to fill in at the very last minute, who had only
2 weeks previously completed such a hard race, was a very poor move by me.
Forgetting to eat on the morning of the run, this was also
pretty dumb.
Leaving the leg 1 food in the fridge at home? Dumb
Forgetting to print any schedules? Dumb.
No head torch on a leg that may end in the dark? Dumb
Changing the start to try and beat the weather was probably
a good idea but I’m not good when plans change, my head falls in bits. Chris
Armour spent a lot of time re-organising support runners and navigators but
unfortunately I was still in a mental hole.
Most of all, I should have spent more time on the route
beforehand. My usual strategy is relentless training on the route, culminating
in a final solo reccie of 17 to 19 hours. Although it may seem extreme I have
found that this has worked for me on my previous 2 big rounds and it gives me
the confidence that no matter what happens I can complete the challenge.
Despite the best efforts of some very good friends it didn't come off and to these people i owe an apology. Putting them in such a difficult
position by asking them to change around at the last minute was, with hindsight,
not smart. I’m not naming names, you know who you are, sorry guys.
Finally, thank you to everyone who gave their time to help
out, see you again next year.
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