I knew a colleague at work had run it a few years ago, and managed a fast time (for him) of 1hr40mins since he said it was mostly downhill. Sally had also run it in 2010 and reported the same. I hadn't run in Rothiemurchus before and thought it would be a great opportunity.
The booking process wasn't the slickest with a dodgy website and some post submission requirement to check your name on the entry list, but I paid my £35 fee and forgot about it.
After arriving in Newtonmore in a downpour, I headed the 20mins up the road to Aviemore and registration which was being held in the resort hotel. Parking was fairly chaotic, but I was in and out of the hotel with my runner's pack (brown envelope containing timing chip, number, bag label and pins) in a couple of minutes.
On the Sunday morning, the rain had passed and skies were overcast. Temperature was around 8C, but calm. Sally drove me up to Aviemore and I jumped out at La Taverna roundabout for the short walk up to the hotel car park and the waiting buses. Although I was wearing shorts, I did have extra layers on top, including hat & gloves. It was brass-monkeys waiting in the queue. There was a real mixture of runners, most of them looking cold!
On the bus, I chatted to the young lad sat next to me. He was from Aberdeen, and it was his first time running the race too. He had done a couple of other halfs (Nairn and Aberdeen), plus the Edinburgh full this year so was capable. He said he was aiming for 90mins which I was impressed with.
10mins up the road, we were dropped at the entrance to Badaguish Outdoor Centre in the woods. It was very busy, with hunners of other runners dotting about trying to keep warm. I thought it wise to make a toilet trip, so joined a queue. 20mins later I was still in the queue and clearly not moving anywhere fast. I took the next best option, along with other opportunist males.
Eventually it was time to line up along a single track road, beside the predicted time markers. I stood between 1h40 and 1h45 and checked out my neighbours who all looked as cold as I felt! There is actually a 10K race that starts from Badaguish at the same time as the Half, but heads off in the opposite direction so there was some confusion initially where to line up.
At 09:58 we all started to shuffle towards the actual start line. There was a lot of nervous laughter, a bit of stretching, last minute gear checks. And then we were jogging...over the starting mats...beeping of watches. I waited for the pace to increase but it didn't and everyone around me was settling into what felt like a slow jog. Sack this! I dodged to the side and squeezed past as many as I could until I was running at a better pace.
 |
| The field starts to open out |
The initial couple of kilometres were a real delight, along a wide LR track through plantation, then downhill with an incredible vista over Loch Morlich and up to the Northern Corries. Now I was at race pace, with good spacing between other runners. Suddenly I spotted the young lad I had been chatting to on the bus about 100m ahead. I was gaining on him.
We ran through Glenmore, briefly on the road before back into the forest and then over the road again for some climbing up to the high point at 6km / 403m. The field was really spaced out now and there were some people walking on the gradients. I kept the young lad in view, conciously trying to catch him, and by 8km there were only 4 other runners between us, possibly 50m. If he was going for 90minutes, I was doing good and this only helped me run faster.
Between 10km until 11.5km, the paths became a little less maintained and at one point we had to splash through a shin deep river. The path also was narrow and winding, which made overtaking a little tricky. The tarmac arrived at last, and I took the opportunity to stuff a gel down my neck. I walked while doing this so lost a few places but managed to claw them back.
The road was good running since it was downhill and constantly changing direction without any long straight sections. I settled in behind a tall bloke, using him as a wind shelter but when he inexplicably started to slow, I made sure to pass him. At both of the water stations, I grabbed a cup and stopped to drink losing more places. The young lad was now 20 places away, perhaps 300m distant, but I wasn't bothered.
With one mile to go, a runner overtook me after being on my heels for a while. He had obviously noted me flagging, and said "Break 8minutes for this final mile and we'll be under 1h35, dig deep!"
What a motivation!! Was that true?? Was I really going that fast?? I didn't look at my watch and just kept plodding, trying hard to not be overtaken again.
We were now catching up with the 10K stragglers who offered shouts of encouragement at our passing. The Bridge Inn flashed to the left, then under the railway line, up the hill to the Aviemore high street where marshalls had stopped the traffic to allow us to cross. I got my GoPro out and tried to up the pace for the final straight across the grass.
People lined the tapes on either side, clapping us in and on the left I saw Sally with the kids waving. Over the finish line, stop the watch. Happy days!!!
101 / 1035
01:33:38
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