The following are the slides I used for a talk given to the leaders of Maxwell Means Parish Church
on Friday 14 November 2008
The Race ….
# Starts at 1am on the Saturday in June nearest to the longest day of the year
# Limited entry – 08 race 150, 09 race 175
# Each runner needs a motorised back-up
# Strict cut off times along the route
# Must finish inside 35hrs
# Race started in 1985 when 2 runners Bobby Shields & Duncan Watson challenged each other to run the newly established West Highland Way
# The route was completed in 1991 and the race has officially been run
over the full 95miles from that year on
#Since 1991 427 people have completed the race at least once and
two runners hold the record for 13 finishes
# Always been a keen runner
# In October 2006 after injury looking for a new challenge
Entered for the 2007 race ….
# Trained hard for 8 months
# Averaging about 40miles per week
# Monthly training runs on the route
# Aiming for sub 23hrs
# I was struggling with an injury picked up on the 53 mile Highland Fling in April
2008 race ….
# Trained harder – over 50miles a week
# Trained specifically to overcome sore quads
# Training had gone well, no injuries
# Aiming for a time of 21hrs 30mins
# Saturday 21 June 2008 at 1am I lined up with 135 other runners
