March 2008 Day 2

Balmaha - Inverarnan, 21 miles

The day started off brilliantly. On leaving Balmaha there was an immediate steep climb, where I paused at the top to take photos followed straight away by a steep climb down. That set the pattern for the day. Climb up, climb down. Pfft. Did no-one ever think of making a path *around* the hills. You would have thought that a path that runs by the shores of a Loch would be flat wouldn't you? I mean, the water level is flat, so the path must be. Oh no. The path was fairly straightforward and apart from being 'undulating' was quite comfortable. The guidebooks definition of undulating is very different to mine. A long steep high climb is apparently undulating but to me it's a long steep high climb. Undulating to me is where the road dips or rises a few feet. But it was nice. Beautiful surrondings. Stony but mostly runnable terrain and plenty of photo opportunities. I loved the wooded approach to Rowardennan, but shortly after that I embarked on what is most definitely my favourite part of the route so far - the foresty lochside path from Rowardennan to Inversnaid. Although this involved quite a few significant climbs, it was such beautiful surroundings that it didn't matter. And the hard track would have been perfect if I had been wearing road shoes. Unfortunately I wasn't. So this 7 mile stretch in Mudrocs was not so ideal. So then I reached the Inversnaid Hotel, and began the final 6-7 miles to my bed for the night at Inverarnon. Is it possible to love something and hate it at the same time? Actually, forget that. I didn't love it at all. I just hated the next 3-4 miles. The path at times was imaginary. Rock climbing was involved. *And* I had to use my hands to climb at times. (Non-OCD sufferers won't get that one). How can anyone possibly run along that. I found it difficult to walk, let alone run. It frequently took me 30 seconds to work out my next step. Along this bit I clocked a couple of miles in the 40 minute region. Each. Srsly. As well as the lack of a path you had a drop into the loch on your left and almost a sheer rise on you right, so you had to pick your rock carefully if you didn't want a swim. It wasn't helped by the fact that I was throwing a sulky tantrum. 2 steps forward, then stand still, pout and decide to stop and wait for someone to come along and rescue you. Except that wouldn't have worked as I saw less that 10 people all day. So I unwillingly and bad-temperedly ploughed on. Gracious creature that I am. At one point I decided to take a diversion to see Rob Roy's cave (I am such a tourist). It involved more clambering over rocks and trying not to fall into the Loch. All to see a big rock with 'CAVE' written on it in 2 foots high white graffiti. Nice. But eventually the non-existent path from hell came to an end, and I had 3 miles or so of mostly runnable ups and downs to the inn. I think I even clocked a sub-14 minute mile. Well, there were still roots and stones and rocks and streams to skip over... Although I did really hate that rocky bit, the rest of the day was great, and I still love it. Total mileage 22.16 (I seem to be good at adding extra bits on) in 6.33. Today felt tough, and was it daunting as it brought home the reality of racing over this terrain. I blamed the slowness yesterday on Conic Hill, but I was even slower today. I am starting to doubt whether I can complete either the Fling or the WHW Race within the limits. I think I can do the distance, as I'm a stubborn old cow with an endurance brain, but I will be so slow. Too slow? Two things have become clear - I underestimated how much fitness I had lost, and underestimated how challenging the terrain would be. Bring on tomorrow...