Highland Fling

I marshaled in 2012, I've just entered the 2013 event. Can't wait!

Anyone else?

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Comments

  • WiBWiB ✭✭✭

    I haven't entered yet but was planning to do it until the SDW50 popped up... not sure now! Will have to decide quite soon to get a place I guess.

  • I'm keeping an eye on the numbers and will enter once it drops below a certain amount. There were over 200 places left when I last looked, and they seem to be selling at a steady trickle of a couple a day after the initial rush died down, so I reckon there will be a while to go yet before it completely fills.

     

  • well done RWD.

    i loved last year and keen to run again, but i also fancy the Cateran and they are quite close together. do both? not sure.

    me too TP. i'm too poor to enter just yet!  image

  • The Cateran is beautiful. I was up that way in the summer scoping it out, under the guise of a 'romantic weekend away'. Even managed to get my OH out walking with me for a few miles on a section of it which was a minor miracle as he's a real couch potato.

    I also fancy the Glasgow to Edinburgh but not figured out yet how they can make it stretch out to 56 miles seeing as it's only 45 in the car...

  • i think it's because it follows the canal path so isn't a direct route.

    i personally can't think of anything worse! :/ too flat for me. but each to his own. it turns out wor lass is expecting 3 days before cateran so it's out! image highland fling it is image

  • Oh, congrats! Yes, maybe better not do the Cateran then. Mightn't go down so well!

    And yes, I know the idea of running on flat tarmac is most ultra people's idea of hell but I really fancy it. I've cycled a lot of the G2E canal path route and it's rather pretty once you get out of Glasgow. Maybe next year... image

  • Thanks image

    i do actually like the canal too, and I think there is a certain novelty value to running between the cities. good luck if you do it! image

    i'd recommend Jedburgh, but it was HARD.

  • After running 3 marathons i have taken the plunge and entered the Fling on a whim. I am hoping that fellow "flingers" will be able to share training plans / nutrition tips etc. Any other first timers entering? 

     

  • shawkshawk ✭✭✭

    For those who've done this before, how easy is the route to follow? Timing of the race and distance make this a good training run for SDW and the scenery looks pretty amazing!

  • T RexT Rex ✭✭✭

    The only problem you might have with nav is between about miles 50-51.  After crossing the road from Auchtertyre with its campsite you come out on a forestry track that seems to go on and on without a waymark.  The first time I did WHW I did feel I had gone astray at this point. But have patience, after what seems ages a waymark comes pointing you right and into some new plantation with one mile to go!

    I prefer the Footprint map over Harvey's - it's clearer and easier to use on the run (if you need to - best to have it in your pack anyway).

    Done the Fling four times and it's a cracking event, very friendly, and as you say, scenic. You'll find there are a few distinctly unrunnable sections along L Lomond!

  • The tree roots! the tree roots! image

    great event. good for a first timer. easy to follow.

  • Arrrrrrrrrrrrgh not the tree roots!!!!! imageimage

    Well, thats me entered, 3rd time for me too image.

    Just hope 5wks is long enough for the leggies to recover from TP100 image.

    Will be different having everyone start at 6am, but hopefully it should thin out fairly rapidly being 'flat' for the first 12m.

    Route - I've seen people going slightly askew on the road about 0.5m outside Drymen - you take the left hand bend at the bottom of a hill on a single track road then almost immediately look for a hole in the wall to your right - go through this and down some steps into a field and you are on track - I shouted people back this year who missed the gap.

  • I like the sound of the mass start much better. Really wasn't looking forward to starting early then being overtaken by a galloping bunch of 60+ year olds, then a galloping bunch of 50+ year olds, then a galloping bunch of 40+ year olds, then everyone bloody else! Now I can begin as I mean to go on: near the back but not quite last... image
  • oh I didn't realise it was a mass start. marvellous. good idea.

    although it does mean i'll have to get a lift to the start instead of the train.

  • Has anyone done this and the Fellsman and could compare the two? I know the Fellsman is longer and rougher but how did you find them? I'm veering towards the Fellsman but I'm told the scenery on the fling is incredible
  • shawkshawk ✭✭✭

    Thanks for the navigation summaries, sounds perfect, I'll have a quick ponder about logistics and get signed up in the next few days.

    Slightly off topic: is there an organised event that covers the other half of the route? I was up in Fort William a few years ago and really loved it around there so to go back and run there would be very appealing.

  • Cheers cc, pretty much what I thought, read the reviews of the Fellsman last year after I had to drop out and thought it sounded incredibly tough, first time I've heard of people dropping out of race in the uk from wind blindness!
  • There is, It's called DEvil of the Highlands and takes place in August but it requires a support team.

  • Yup, entry list for the Devil is open just now. It usually fills up fast.
  • Hey Elspeth image....have you entered yet? Go on, go on, go on, go on, go on......image

  • shawkshawk ✭✭✭

    Yeah needing a support team is off-putting, think it will have to be the Fling image

  • Just about to enter the Highland fling, but non running OH ( doesn't drive either!!) wants to come - anyone know what kind of transport links there are between start and finish?
  • Scot Rail do a couple of trains a day between Glasgow Queens Street and Fort William, stopping at Tyndrum.

    Scottish city link buses also call at Tyndrum but I've no idea how often they run. Usually they are few and far between.

    It should be possible, but your OH will have a lot of hanging about to do. Luckily some nice cafes in Tyndrum image.

  • Just what I was going to say! She could see you off at the start, get a lift to one of the checkpoints, help to hand out drop bags etc, see you run through, then get a lift to the finish when the checkpoint closes. The organisers love having extra helpers.



    Though maybe if she's not into running she'd rather tear her face off with hot pliers than have to hang around for hours handing out jelly babies...
  • that sounds so much fun I might just be a marshall myself instead of running! image

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