Running: Taming the West Highland Way

Jun 26 2009 by Susan Bryden, Dumfries Standard Friday

TO MANY runners, their biggest goal is to run a marathon. Other runners however, set their sights on something more extreme.

Three such runners are Dumfries Running Club members Paul Hart, Sebastian Pflanz and Norman Neilson. Their goal was to complete the West Highland Way Race.

This involved setting off from Milngavie at 1am on Saturday, June 20, covering 95 miles along the West Highland Way route finishing at Fort William within a 35 hour time limit.

Before Saturday’s event only 427 had ever completed the race since it was first established fully in 1991. Record entries for this year meant that the three Dumfries runners set off with 143 others on this epic journey. Only 122 of these runners managed to complete the race and Paul, Sebastian and Norman were among those who were successful.

For Paul Hart, now a seasoned ultra runner and Scottish 100K team member, the challenge of running 95 miles in a single race was further than he had run before.

From the start of the race Paul was in the leading group of 10 runners as they ran through the darkness towards Drymen and then the first big hill climb over Conic Hill. Descending into Balmaha after nearly 20 miles of running, Loch Lomond came into view for the first time with the early morning daylight now appearing.

The next stage of the route follows the east side of Loch Lomond for another 20 miles over some rough terrain, made worse by the abundance of midgies in the overcast conditions. After 40 miles Paul had now moved into fifth place and was running well. However, with the help of his support crew, he stayed strong through the middle part of the race passing Tyndrum, Bridge of Orchy followed by a long section over Rannoch Moor which meant 70 miles has now been completed.

Still in fifth place, Paul gathered himself for the what many consider the toughest part of the race, the climb up the Devil’s Staircase before a tough and rocky descent into Kinlochleven.

With 14 miles to go Paul’s confidence grew that he was closing in on the finish. His support team of fellow Dumfries running club members Vicky Little, Sandy Shankland, Dougie Brown, Alan McKean and Les Hill gave him final words of encouragement as he prepared for yet another tough hill climb out of Kinlochleven before the final undulating sections to Fort William.

He maintained his form over these final miles to cross the finish line in Fort William in a tremendous time of 17 hours 12 minutes, well inside his target time and in fifth place overall. In previous years this time would have been good enough to win the race.

Paul was even more satisfied that this performance puts him 12th on the all time list for the West Highland Way Race.

Sebastian felt very comfortable over the first 14 miles. Dawn broke as he went up Conic and down into Balmaha.

The next section to Rowardennan includes many short steep climbs, and Seb eased off the pace. Along northern Loch Lomond progress was slow. At this stage he started to develop knee pain, but managed to reach his support team at Auchtertyre, beyond 50 miles, in less than 10 hours.

The climb out of Bridge of Orchy went well, but he struggled with the descent to Inveroran, with his knee and foot becoming quite painful. The long steady climb up Rannoch Moor went well and he managed to overtake several competitors. But once again he had some difficulty with the descent, with his foot and knee preventing a steady run.

The Devil’s Staircase was the hardest part of the race for Sebastian – the climb was tough and slow and the descent into Kinlochleven very painful.

Although the last section through Nevis Forest contains some nasty steep climbs he made good progress. The final descent into Glen Nevis was hampered again by his ankle and knee and he was unable to sustain a run. The short road run into Fort William at the end was painful but sweet at the same time for Sebastian. He finished in good shape, in 17th place, with a time of 20 hrs 40 min 19 secs.

After the race he said: “There’s no doubt, that much of the credit for my success goes to my team.”

Norman Neilson set off with Sebastian and they ran together to their first meeting point with their support teams. He left Balmaha before Sebastian but wasn’t feeling great. He found himself struggling with the numerous short climbs on the next section of the race and was finding refuelling difficult.

By the time he got to Rowardennan his wife Margaret described him as “looking like a corpse that was refusing to lie down”.

Despite being in a pretty awful state a mere quarter of the way into the race Norman completed it in 23 hrs 38 min, achieving his target of a sub-24 hour run.

Massive congratulations go out to all three runners. Hopefully they will be featured in the coverage of the race on the BBC Adventure Show later this year.