Date: 29/08/2020 Time: 07:49
Run Stats – 25.2 miles, 3,618ft elevation gain, time: 4hr 59m
This weeks run was supposed to be 22 miles but it ended up being just over 25 miles. The 3 mile jump in distance, the doubling in elevation gain, and the extra 1 hour and 25 minutes running time difference from last week, took its toll, leaving me feeling properly sore for the first time since I started these runs . I think changing my planned route midway through the run didn’t help either. My original route was 3 circuits of a 7.4 mile loop through the hills just behind Tomatin distillery. I never used to eat anything while out running but I knew on the upcoming 80-mile run I would have refuel so I tried to incorporate eating into each run whether I felt like it or not. I had taken a bag with some water and supplies and hung it on a fence post at the start of the loop and my plan was to refuel each time I passed it. Well, best-laid plans and all that.
The run started fine, the weather, standard for here, cold with fine, misty rain. Someone I talked to the other day called this ‘stupid rain’, stupid because you stupidly think you won’t get that wet in it… but you most definitely do. I proved that point by not putting my jacket on until about 5 miles in 🙂
About half a mile into the first loop I passed some cows and their young. I always get a little nervous when moving through a herd of animals due to the unpredictably of their behaviour but it never stops me doing it. They were a bit startled by my approach and legged it away from me through some bushes and across the moorland but something made a huge amount of noise once I passed. I suspected this could be a bull but I hadn’t seen it so carried on with my run and never thought too much of it. I completed loop one covering just over 7 miles, had some food (a bar, a banana, and a rice cake with honey) and some water that had some lemon and salt in it. I’m not keen on the gels so I wanted to practice eating some solid food as I’ve heard that works best on ultras, if you can stomach it.
About a mile and a half into the next loop on another section of the track I approached the herd again, this time they saw me coming up the hill. They were in the middle of the path with a steep drop down to a river on the left hand side and a high bank leading to boggy moorland to the right. Because they had seen me plodding slowly up the hill from a distance they didn’t run away this time, they just waited and watched me. Anytime I see cows standing and staring I can’t help but think of the cows in South Park and it always makes me chuckle. A young bull stood at the side of the group looking inquisitively at this skinny runt of a thing heading in its direction. I was hoping it would turn and leg it away from me but unfortunately it stood it’s ground which made me slightly nervous. It watched me, head tilted, trying to work out what I was, whether I was a threat perhaps, and whether to charge at me or retreat up the hill (this made me think of the bull scene in ‘Withnail and I’ and the advice Marwood got from the farmer). I got closer and closer, still no movement from any of the herd until I was in amongst them, then all of a sudden one of the younger ones bolted up the track away from me. This startled the others and lead all of them, apart from the bull, to run away. The only problem was they were running in the direction I was going.
As I approached the bull I did think about stopping and returning the way I came but I was just about level with it by this point and I thought it might charge me if I ran back down the hill. The bull looked undecided about what it was going to do, ‘to charge or not to charge, that was the question’. It stood its ground as I ran past, as fast as was possible at this point. It was then that the bull must have realised that the rest of the herd were running away just ahead of me so it started running behind me. I don’t think it was charging me as I imagine it would have caught up with me up pretty quickly and steamrolled me if it was. I really started sprinting up the track with the bull running behind me. I think it was still deciding what to do at this point. With fear and frustration in my voice I shouted at the herd to get off the track and out of my way, they didn’t oblige. With the best hill sprint of my life I managed to pass through them and and got ahead of them as they slowed from a run to a walk behind me. Once they were out of sight, I chuckled myself through the next mile or so thinking how bizarre it must have looked and how lucky I was that the bull wasn’t that little bit grumpier. It’s amazing how the adrenaline kicks in during situations like this, it leaves you feeling buzzed, then exhausted.
(I never managed to get any pictures of the cows and bull as I was a little preoccupied with legging it away when my life preservation instincts kicked in, so I have added a photo from another little adventure I had.)
I opted not to go for a third loop in case the bull decided he had enough of me disturbing him and his group and wanted to put me in my place. I chose to head out to one of the trig points instead, this added the extra mileage and a fair bit of extra elevation, meaning I added 20% to last weeks run rather than the intended 10%. During the forced hill sprint I think I strained my hamstrings a little which resulted in a sore back for the remainder of the run. When I got to the trig point at Carn na h-Easgainn I was smiling again; someone had left a Princess Poppy painted stone on it. I have two young daughters and instantly thought how this would have made their trip if they had been there with me. They wouldn’t have been bothered about any views from the top of the hills, or the challenge of getting there, just the fact that there was a Trolls stone at the top.
I jogged tentatively down the hill with a tightness in my back thinking this run had turned into a bit of an adventure. By the time I got back to the car I was quite ready for some food and water, I picked up the bag that I had left near the start of the run, ate the rest of my snacks, then headed home.
During that night I woke up soaked in sweat, I felt okay (other than a sore back) so didn’t really understand why I was drenched in sweat. I figured I would deal with it in the morning so I dried myself off, laid a towel out on my mattress, flipped my duvet and pillow over, and went back to sleep. The next day I searched on the internet for info and discovered that this was a reasonably common occurrence when doing strenuous exercise, particularly if you have just increased the duration or intensity of the session (my run ticked these boxes). Apparently, this is because strenuous exercise can kick your metabolism into overdrive for up to 14 hours after you have finished, you’re body’s response to this is to cool you down by sweating (even if you happen to be sleeping). You have taken your body literally outside your comfort zone and it is trying to rebalance itself (return to homeostasis). All in all, it turned out to be quite an interesting, and educational, little adventure 🙂
This challenge is dedicated to the charity Befrienders Highland. I would really appreciate your support, if you can sponsor me that would be awesome, and if you could share my fundraising page that would be tremendous too.
You can access, read, and share my fundraising page by clicking the link below. If you have already sponsored me or shared my page, I just want to say a massive thanks to you 🙂
