Ultra Santa

Yes i am! But let's start at the beginning shall we?

Got home from work and faffed around putting beer, wine and cider in fridge and generally dong nothing much. Simon arrived around 7.30 and demanded tea and beer, which he got. Phil & Anna arrived about 9.30 and the drinking started properly. By 1.30am we decided that maybe, just maybe we should go to bed owing to fact that we (well nearly all of us) were running 55 miles the next morning and had to be up early!

After 2 hours sleep(yes, really) we got up , had breakfast and got our race bags ready. I'd made (the best)sandwiches the previous night for me & Simon, or Simon and I, whichever way you like it.They were all wrapped up individually in tin foil, mine were cut into teeny wee pieces, Simon's a bit bigger, so he chucked his into his bag, and mine into mine, more on that later OK.....

Journey through to the Weej was uneventful, and we found it after asking a few folk who had no clue but got there eventually. Lots of fetchie hugs and race chat and before we knew it it was time for off. Eeeep. No going back now. First wee bit was downhill and it was difficult not to go off fast, then we turned onto Canal, was with Anna, for about a mile but she is waaay too fast so i let her go off, watch Simon disappear waaay into distance within a mile too and i settled into my own wee pace. Ended up running the most of first 13miles with Chris aka rentboy,we put the worlds to right and we both had our own personal reasons for this race being special to us.

I stopped to faff with my bag and put my number on it and lost Chris but kept him in my sight just ahead, i knew i was getting fairly close to first checkpoint when suddenly i saw a fetch shirt in the distance, coming towards us. it was Soph, i did what i do best and shouted SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPH and nearly scared the 3 folk in front of me enough to almost fall into the canal hhahahaha, oops. Soph soon caught us and i told her i wanted to change my shoes and top as i was too hot and it was really quite muddy, slippy and wet and i wanted to change into my roclites. She relayed info to Phil who of course had it all waiting and ready at first checkpoint. star :o)Got to checkpoint (13.1 miles)Hugged Phil, Whipped off top, got new one on, changed shoes and off i went.

My plan was to not stop at checkpoints unless there was reason to, like to fill bottle, change etc. I didn't stop at any further checkpoints :o) I was on my own for about 15 miles i think, swapping places randomly with some Irish guys, i had my ipod on and was really quite as happy as Larry, singing along to likes of Abba, the killers and wham, cant say I'm not diverse!Ran through Falkirk whee(22.25miles) which just amazing, lots of support there and it was first time I've been there. Phil thought the Falkirk wheel was a Ferris wheel, double lol @ that btw :o) Soph met me there and walked me up the hill where she told me Anna had been struggling a bit with her leg she injured over Christmas, met Phil coming back down hill got big hug and he said I'd probably catch Anna up.

I stopped(my only stop!) just after wheel as i had blister on toe, got out my compeeds and patched it up and headed back off again.

Just past the wheel there was a really long, really dark tunnel, it was horrible, water running down sides and dripping nto you, wet slippy cobbles and only a wee fence to stop you falling in, which would've been no good had i slipped, I'd have gone straight in canal! It was bloody freezing too, i only had my wee vest top on so i just kept running and running through it, getting chased my ghosts and ghouls and monsters (no kidding, lots of shadows,weird noises and all sorts!) Passed a guy walking through gingerly carrying his head torch, maybe i should've took mine out but i couldn't be bothered raking for it!
Not long after that i caught up with Anna, she was in fair bit of pain but soldiering on, she eventually told me to bog off when i told her to walk fast when we took a walking break, she'd already decided she was pulling out at next Checkpoint so i told her I'd let Phil know where she was and left her.
At around mile 28 i think? not entirely sure i met Alan aka Tizer on fetch (boabs pal) he is Mr Speedy and i was bit worried about him running with me being slow but he was an utter star. His wife gave me bottle of lucozade and off we went to next checkpoint, not sure how many miles it was but they passed in a whirl, thanks for company Alan, hope you're training goes well for Edinburgh.

Got to checkpoint(33.75 miles) feeling good.i ran through again, nice to see DaveK and his family there supporting, you've no idea the boost it gives to see friendly faces! I picked up Soph here as she was running rest of race with me.....