Devil O' The Highlands 2011

I have ran 2 ultramarathons before and had crumbled quite badly in both near the end. After the four hour mark they had gone to hell in a bucket. This was clearly a pacing issue as I was trying to race them and couldn't keep a marathon pace up beyond marathon distance (DOH!). My only goal for the Devil Ultra was to finish strong with a smile on my face. To that extent, Vikki kindly agreed to let me run with her and hopefully this would be mutually beneficial - she would stop me storming off and I might push her to run more sections than she normally might have. Ian and Laurie were our support crew and a fantastic job they did as well.

In the end it worked out perfect. To be honest I could not believe that 6, then 7, then 8 hours had passed and I still felt top of the world. I am so chuffed about this that I'm still sitting here with a grin on my face

 

Needless to say I will be back again next year as I found it absolutely superb. I do, however, want to take note of lessons learned:

- running well within your limits makes for a far better expreience.
- running well within your limits allows you to go much much further.
- walking (either enforced on hills or by choice) for sections helps later in the race.
- food I am happy with: shot blocks for running, soy milk/soy pudding/bananas for checkpoints.
- if you need to poop then do so ASAP. Don't hold it in.
- I got sore sides (kidneys?) in the last few miles. I am not sure what caused this but I think too much liquid and/or electrolytes (too much or too little?).
- you are not immune to midgies and there is a reason why support crew are wearing those funny hats. I now look like I have chicken pox.