West Highland Way Relay...Leg 1

There was only one way I could think of to describe to you how I felt this morning when my alarm went off at 5.50 and it was by showing you the above clip. That was exactly how I felt...then realisation struck as to why I had set my alarm for this unearthly hour! Saturday 7th June. The club WHW relay and I was on the 1st leg. Starting at 7am!

I think I must have been swearing under my breath as I finally stumbled out of bed. Jeremy muttered in his sleep..'you'll be fine when you get out there!' Yeah! Course I will, that's the easy bit! Have I mentioned that I don't do getting up well?

As I stepped outside the warm air surrounded me...it was going to be a scorcher. Suddenly I was glad to be on the early stretch. I jogged the .75m down to Milgavie Road where my fellow 'leg 1' runners were collecting me-Theresa and Gillian. As I was waiting Katherine (the forth member of the leg) came running round the corner. Totally putting me to shame, she approached- smiling -shouted 'see you in 5' and carried right on past! Yes, she was running to the start....well it was only about a mile. Why didn't I do that!!

We gathered in M & S car park. I was pleasantly surprised how many Garscubers were out at this crazy time. The timekeepers were all given their bright yellow stopwatches, and we all made our way to the start.

Now I run the start of the west highland way A LOT, so it was quite novel to have a whole load of fellow runners there (at 7am-did I mention that?!)to cheer us on and say 'ready, steady GO!'

It was great running with the girls. As predicted the sun was really hotting up and I was glad I had chosen to wear my running vest. We ran a comfortable steady pace. As I don't make the adults sessions at the club now a days there was lots to catch up on. They had all done the Dunbarton 10k on Thurs and had done some absolutely fantastic pb's. Well Done to them all.



We were chatting so much we reached the Carbeth huts in next to no time. As we approached we heard a runner approaching, catching us up. It was Robert M. He was upping his miles and had caught us up easily. He ran our leg in addition to two more planned stretches of the Way!

Team Garscube support team were waving us on at the road:-) Wish they were out in such force to cheer me on on all my weekend runs!! Mind you any other day and I would assume it was an hallucination!

I know I did this route last week but it is amazing how different it can be from week to week. The time flew in and I hardly noticed the miles fly by. We were approaching the Beech Trees....100 meters to go. Suddenly, everyone remembered it was a relay 'race' and started sprinting....I wasn't going to be left behind so I did too! It's amazing what a few spectators with stop watches and a finish line can do!

I was sorry that I couldn't carry on up to Fort William and lend support for the runners at later stages. I had to work in Glasgow today.

It was a great experience though and I can't wait to see how everyone got on throughout the day.

The sun shone and I am sure they will all be partying hard up in Fort William as I write this!

6.9m -1:06