Highlander Mountain Marathon 2012 (Kinlochewe)

We didn’t have high hopes for our finishing place for this event, Ian had been on his deathbed for 10 days and was very close to pulling out, me, well, I’ve got two children in nappies so training time has been pretty limited.

The Highlander is the first mountain marathon of the year so the weather can be variable. This year it was kind to us, good visibility but with a dusting of snow on both days to make it interesting. Fortunately, unlike other MMs the organisers set up a marquee overnight so you can be warm and dry if the weather is really bad. Did I mention they also sell beer and have a ceilidh? Surely the best MM in the calendar!

A Kodak moment halfway between Checkpoints 2 and 3

Day one went fairly well for us, we only made one small mistake that lost us about 10 minutes but some good navigation/route choices served us well overall.

Other teams (Ian far left) heading steeply up to check 5

We were delighted and very very surprised to find ourselves in 3rd place at the over night camp. We were way off second place (about 14 minutes) but had a buffer of about 3 minutes between us and the Swedish team in 4th.

Day 2 was very enjoyable for me, the route planners had been kind and my legs felt good all day, our navigation and route choice was spot on all day. We ended up being the fastest on the course for the second day, and finished third overall in B class, about 4 minutes off second place and a good 8 minutes or so between us and 4th. Our first podium finish!

Heading up to the 1st checkpoint on day 2

Big thanks to Ian for his excellent navigation (again) – he considers the finer point of navigation whilst I nag him to keep moving in what I believe to be the general direction…seems to work well for us as a team despite a tensions getting high as we get tired!

A great weekend and a great event. We heard whispers about the location next year which will be awesome if it turns out to be true. On a sadder note, I’ve also  heard that it may be the last Highlander if numbers don’t pick up…so tell your friends and we’ll see you there in 2013!

-Matt