The Highlander Mountain Marathon
A Winter Mountain Marathon in the Sunshine
Alasdair Lawton (Highlander MM) / 16.04.2007
In the Highlands at the end of March the weather could do anything; rain, hail, snow ... or even two days of glorious sunshine. And that was the weather what the lucky competitors in the first Highlander Mountain Marathon competed in!The first attempt at a winter mountain marathon, with support from sponsors Craigdon Mountain Sports, began many months before the competitors arrived with numerous planning meetings to organise marquees, toilets, timing etc and long days on the hills around Strathconon for our planners Alec Keith and Ian Hay, designing courses to test the navigation and endurance of the competitors.
It was then left to our course controller Ray Wilby to check all the courses to make sure they were fair and accurate. All this hard work was rewarded on the morning of 31st March 2007 with a glorious sunrise to greet the competitors preparing to start day one of their two-day challenge. The Highlander remained largely true to the traditional mountain marathon format of teams of two competitors navigating to find set checkpoints whilst carrying sufficient equipment to be completely self-sufficient for two days in the hills.
Having taken full advantage of the hearty breakfasts on offer from the Red Poppy Outdoor Catering team the 92 teams soon vanished into the hills of Strathconon, whilst the organising team set about moving everything from the start point in Milton a few miles further up the glen to the site of the overnight camp at Inverchoran.
By mid-afternoon the first teams started to appear at the midway camp, some having completed over 30km and almost 2000m of ascent. The sun was still shining and most competitors took full advantage of the conditions to stretch out, relax and compare stories from the first day, whilst others were grateful for the massage services being provided by Julie to breathe some life back into tired limbs. By late afternoon the majority of the teams were in and the Red Poppy Team were serving up bowls of steaming pasta in the mid camp marquee to restore energy to the tired bodies of the competitors.
We had always thought that some traditional highland music would add to the atmosphere of the evening so we had booked Hackum Plackum, led by Selwyn Roberts to play some tunes. We had never really thought that competitors would be interested in dancing after a hard day running on the hills but Selwyn would have none of that, so tables were cleared and the organising team were called to the floor for the first dance, a strip-the-willow, after which Selwyn took control of the event and soon nearly everyone was spinning round the ‘dance floor’. The band called it a day at 10pm and the last of the competitors and organisers still standing retired for the night. See All Event Posts
