Thoughts about 2012 and racing

It's that time of year again where the race season is over and its time to knuckle down for some serious base building over the winter months. Time to think about races for next year.

I *almost* put an entry in for the 2012 WHW race but common sense prevailed. Firstly, I was not 100% sure and I’m guessing you need to be pretty certain before entering. Secondly, even though I had ran a qualifying race (two in fact) I still haven’t ran the Highland Fling and that is a bit of a mental hurdle for me. Lastly, I have a number of other running goals to consider and running a *huge* race in the middle of the year would likely make them unachievable in 2012. My rough race plan for 2012 is:

March 11th  Inverness HM PB attempt
April 15th Lochaber Marathon PB attempt
April 28th Highland Fling Ultra
May recovery
June/July PB attempts over 2 or 3 races (10k/10M/HM)
August 4th Devil O The Highlands Ultra
Middle of August: walk West Highland Way with my dad.

Then I can choose either an autumn ultra (Glenmore or Glen Ogle), autumn marathon PB attempt (Loch Ness, Toon Moor) or autumn HM PB attempt (Aviemore Half, Glen Clova, Fraserburgh). Or create my own autumn challenge outwith races?

I would have to sacrifice running the D33 to go for the earlier PB attempts and not run the Cateran Trail Ultra to get my speed up for summer racing. This way I’ll hopefully get some shiny new PBs as well as a couple of *good* attempts at ultras.

WHW Walk Photos

My Dad is a keen walker and trains hard to walk one road marathon and one trail marathon each year. This year he completed the Belfast Marathon and the Causeway Coast Marathon (in third place no less!). For his 70th birthday this year he came over from N-Ireland and we went for a 2 day walk from Bridge of Orchy to Fort William (staying over in Kinlochleven). The weather was terrible even for October. At least there were no midgies! I took a lot of photos and here are my favourites.

It was interesting to get time to look around more in comparison to running the Devil O The Highlands. I certainly appreciated having a better camera than my wee mobile phone cam that I used during the race.

My Dad totally enjoyed it and we are hoping to walk the full distance over 5 days at some point in 2012. Preferably in full sunshine and during season so we can use a baggage service!