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Arrochar Alps hill race on Saturday past and I was 'sweeping' at the tail end for the first section of the race.
Unfortunately a botch-up on my part meant I missed the start by ten minutes and my fellow sweeper had to start without me so I spent the first four or five miles along Glen Loin trying to catch up with the field.
Sadly, for such a classic race, there was only a field of 27 runners. Perhaps numbers were low due to the severity of the event but this low turnout combined with the tough route meant that there were no 'diddies' on the start line - only the mega fit - and as such I failed to see any of the entrants until the finish as the weakest runner was probably me.
It was a nice run out the stony track through Glen Loin and I passed quite a few walkers. This Glen felt like a proper suntrap and the heat felt quite oppressive at times, despite just wearing shorts and t-shirt.
I popped out onto the waterboard road and another uphill km or so before reaching the start of the path up Ben Vorlich,
This was a tough ascent and quite monotonous if i'm being honest. Very steep but getting into a steady pace I estimate I made the summit in around 90 minutes.
Lovely views back down Loch Lomond, Loch Long and Loch Katrine as well as the vast uninhabited wilderness to the North West made the long, weary trudge uphill worthwhile and I nipped over to add a small stone to the cairn on the North Top before heading back past the cairn and dropping down to around the 800m contour on the path before heading straight down the rough hillside to the Loch Sloy dam which is the route the race follows.
This particular descent is horrendous on the quads and knees. No doubt the quicker of the runners just disengage their brain and go for it but I just wanted to get to the bottom in once piece as there was plenty of opportunity to turn an ankle or slip on half-hidden rocks and loose control. I normally quite like the descents but this was just ridiculous!
Made it back to the dam with zero feeling left in my quads and met up with my sweeping partner. I had dillusions of doing Ben Vane next before heading back to Arrochar but the descent off Vorlich had destroyed my legs and would have made it an impossibility. As such, we just retreated the way we had come up - back through Glen Loin to Arrochar.
By this time it was around 2.45pm and the first two race finishers had already beaten us back. Quite remarkable considering they had not only covered an extra 3km but also an additional 1500m of ascent by doing Ben Vane, Ben Ime and Ben Narnain all in less time than it took us to do Ben Vorlich and jog back downhill through Glen Loin. The levels of fitness these men and women have never ceases to amaze me. I'm not exactly fast - but neither am I unfit - yet these guys gobble up the ascents and descents with ease.
A quick coffee and a scone in the Arrochar community rooms and then back down the road with a newfound realisation of what sort of training I need to be doing in order to take part in the race myself next year
