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We cut short from Lunn Da-Brha, took the shorter road down, | 0:00:00 | 0:00:01 | |
because they were felling trees. | 0:00:01 | 0:00:01 | |
My legs are saying "stop", but the mind is saying "no chance". | 0:00:28 | 0:00:34 | |
Hello and a very warm welcome to The Adventure Show. | 0:00:34 | 0:00:38 | |
This month, we're taking in the majesty of west Scotland, from | 0:00:38 | 0:00:41 | |
Milngavie on the outskirts of Glasgow all the way to Fort William. | 0:00:41 | 0:00:44 | |
This is the one and only Ronhill West Highland Way Race. | 0:00:44 | 0:00:48 | |
They're looking great. You're looking really strong. | 0:00:48 | 0:00:51 | |
That's because the end is near. | 0:00:51 | 0:00:53 | |
The race is 95 miles long. | 0:00:53 | 0:00:55 | |
That is three and a half marathons | 0:00:55 | 0:00:58 | |
nonstop and back-to-back. | 0:00:58 | 0:01:00 | |
So, however you look at this, it's one long, tough race. | 0:01:00 | 0:01:05 | |
The big challenge is in the head, it's keeping going. | 0:01:05 | 0:01:08 | |
It's keeping putting one foot in front of the other time after time. | 0:01:08 | 0:01:11 | |
When it hurts, keeping going. | 0:01:11 | 0:01:13 | |
Then it's going to hurt more than that and they still have | 0:01:13 | 0:01:16 | |
to keep going. | 0:01:16 | 0:01:18 | |
The action starts in the dead of night when all the pubs | 0:01:18 | 0:01:20 | |
are closed and most people are nicely tucked up in their bed. | 0:01:20 | 0:01:23 | |
But our competitors are now gathering to do a race | 0:01:23 | 0:01:27 | |
that will take most people a week to walk. | 0:01:27 | 0:01:30 | |
There's quite a bit of ascent and descent. | 0:01:30 | 0:01:32 | |
About 15,000 feet across the whole route. | 0:01:32 | 0:01:35 | |
Some very runnable bits, | 0:01:35 | 0:01:37 | |
but it is pretty constant. | 0:01:37 | 0:01:40 | |
And just being out for such a long time takes its toll on the body. | 0:01:40 | 0:01:43 | |
Our course record is just over 14 hours. | 0:01:43 | 0:01:45 | |
It is still a long time for anyone to be out and there are | 0:01:45 | 0:01:48 | |
people right up to 35 hours going to be out there. | 0:01:48 | 0:01:50 | |
That was tough, that one. At least you're going downhill for a while. Aye! | 0:01:50 | 0:01:54 | |
Also in this month's Adventure Show, | 0:01:54 | 0:01:57 | |
we're investigating the medical issues of extreme exercise. | 0:01:57 | 0:02:01 | |
People get overloaded with water. | 0:02:01 | 0:02:03 | |
It makes you susceptible to swelling of the tissues, | 0:02:03 | 0:02:06 | |
most notably the brain. | 0:02:06 | 0:02:07 | |
At the extreme end, you can succumb from this. | 0:02:07 | 0:02:10 | |
In spite of that, I'm girding my loins in another gruelling | 0:02:10 | 0:02:14 | |
training session in preparation for the Braveheart triathlon. | 0:02:14 | 0:02:19 | |
And Duncan is discovering that you can have | 0:02:19 | 0:02:21 | |
a fantastic adventure even when the weather is atrocious. | 0:02:21 | 0:02:25 | |
You really have to concentrate on this stuff. | 0:02:25 | 0:02:28 | |
But first to the West Highland Way Race. | 0:02:30 | 0:02:34 | |
It starts at one in the morning, with the best runners finishing | 0:02:34 | 0:02:37 | |
this incredible 95-mile race in around 14 to 15 hours. | 0:02:37 | 0:02:42 | |
Others will be running for 35 hours. | 0:02:42 | 0:02:45 | |
That is a whole day and a half. | 0:02:45 | 0:02:47 | |
Evening, folks, I'm sure we've got another fantastic race ahead. | 0:02:47 | 0:02:50 | |
Statistically, if you are standing here ready to run tonight, | 0:02:50 | 0:02:53 | |
you've done the hard bit because most people drop out of this | 0:02:53 | 0:02:56 | |
race before it starts than get here and don't finish. | 0:02:56 | 0:03:00 | |
So remember that when it gets tough later on. | 0:03:00 | 0:03:02 | |
I know it is going to be absolutely awful and worse than that. | 0:03:03 | 0:03:07 | |
I've watched people over the last two or three years coming in | 0:03:07 | 0:03:11 | |
in different states and I've seen what they're coming in like | 0:03:11 | 0:03:14 | |
and I'm intrigued just to what I'm going to be like. | 0:03:14 | 0:03:18 | |
They talk about hallucinations. I'm dying to see what I hallucinate. | 0:03:18 | 0:03:22 | |
You go through fantastic highs, | 0:03:22 | 0:03:24 | |
terrible lows. | 0:03:24 | 0:03:26 | |
And if you put one foot in front of another you eventually do | 0:03:26 | 0:03:29 | |
something that you thought was impossible. | 0:03:29 | 0:03:33 | |
It is actually my wedding anniversary today and I've | 0:03:33 | 0:03:35 | |
spent it down here getting ready to run. | 0:03:35 | 0:03:38 | |
I'll see my husband tomorrow at Beinglas! | 0:03:38 | 0:03:40 | |
The route starts here in Milngavie on the outskirts of Glasgow. | 0:03:40 | 0:03:44 | |
It heads north to Drymen and the first ascent over Conic Hill. | 0:03:44 | 0:03:47 | |
Then it is along the shores of Loch Lomond through Tyndrum | 0:03:47 | 0:03:51 | |
and on to Bridge Of Orchy. | 0:03:51 | 0:03:54 | |
Here the hard work really starts. | 0:03:54 | 0:03:56 | |
20-odd miles over Rannoch Moor and up the Devil's Staircase before | 0:03:56 | 0:04:00 | |
a taxing descent into Kinlochleven. | 0:04:00 | 0:04:03 | |
But there is a sting in the tail. | 0:04:03 | 0:04:06 | |
A demanding 14 final miles before the finish line at Fort William. | 0:04:06 | 0:04:10 | |
So with just a few seconds to go, these runners now face 95 miles | 0:04:11 | 0:04:15 | |
of some of the roughest, most rugged terrain in the Highlands. | 0:04:15 | 0:04:20 | |
A fantastic race, | 0:04:20 | 0:04:22 | |
a great event and the heroes will be all who take part and finish. | 0:04:22 | 0:04:26 | |
So this is it, no more time for training, | 0:04:26 | 0:04:28 | |
preparation or second thoughts. | 0:04:28 | 0:04:30 | |
KLAXON BLARES | 0:04:30 | 0:04:33 | |
So with head torches on, the race is underway. | 0:04:33 | 0:04:35 | |
15 hours for the fastest, 35 hours for the slowest. | 0:04:35 | 0:04:40 | |
This is an incredible event requiring great skill | 0:04:40 | 0:04:44 | |
and determination. | 0:04:44 | 0:04:45 | |
Up they go up the steps out of Milngavie. | 0:04:47 | 0:04:50 | |
CHEERING | 0:04:50 | 0:04:53 | |
They've got a few miles up through towns and houses and then into | 0:04:53 | 0:04:57 | |
the long drag into the wilderness - a long, dark night of running. | 0:04:57 | 0:05:03 | |
Entries to the West Highland Way Race are restricted to 200 folk. | 0:05:05 | 0:05:09 | |
And, as usual, there is a full house. | 0:05:09 | 0:05:12 | |
This is one of Scotland's most prestigious events. | 0:05:12 | 0:05:15 | |
Many come back year after year and it is about far more than | 0:05:15 | 0:05:20 | |
running nonstop for 95 miles. | 0:05:20 | 0:05:23 | |
In 2005 I missed the race because | 0:05:23 | 0:05:25 | |
I had a brain haemorrhage, | 0:05:25 | 0:05:28 | |
but I was back in 2006, a year later, | 0:05:28 | 0:05:31 | |
to tick the box of being back to full health. | 0:05:31 | 0:05:35 | |
In 2013, I was diagnosed with mouth cancer. | 0:05:35 | 0:05:40 | |
In 2014 I was back again to race for the 10th time. | 0:05:40 | 0:05:45 | |
It was something that kept my head up all the way through | 0:05:45 | 0:05:48 | |
treatment and I'm back again for the 12th time. | 0:05:48 | 0:05:52 | |
Running the race is a celebration of health, | 0:05:53 | 0:05:56 | |
fitness and love of friends and just to be here with everyone. | 0:05:56 | 0:06:02 | |
The West Highland Way Race is addictive. | 0:06:02 | 0:06:05 | |
Adrian Stott from Edinburgh has finished a staggering 14 times. | 0:06:05 | 0:06:09 | |
If he completes it this year, he will be the joint record holder. | 0:06:09 | 0:06:13 | |
West Highland Way is just a magical event. | 0:06:13 | 0:06:15 | |
As someone who has always been drawn to challenges, | 0:06:15 | 0:06:18 | |
and trying to get out of my comfort zone, | 0:06:18 | 0:06:20 | |
the intensity of trying to do it in the time limit is fascinating. | 0:06:20 | 0:06:23 | |
See you shortly. OK. | 0:06:23 | 0:06:25 | |
When you are running, especially in the hills and in the mountains, | 0:06:25 | 0:06:29 | |
you just suddenly realise that time is going by and you are | 0:06:29 | 0:06:32 | |
tapping into something really deep inside of yourself and when | 0:06:32 | 0:06:35 | |
you tap into that energy inside yourself, | 0:06:35 | 0:06:37 | |
it's like when you're seven years old and your mum | 0:06:37 | 0:06:39 | |
had to drag you in because you wanted to play out all night. | 0:06:39 | 0:06:42 | |
You have to try and engender that attitude of being a little child. | 0:06:42 | 0:06:45 | |
Running these sort of distances, | 0:06:45 | 0:06:47 | |
you just realise how small you are in this universe. | 0:06:47 | 0:06:49 | |
The oldest competitor this year is 70. | 0:06:49 | 0:06:52 | |
Rob Reid lives at the halfway point of the race and takes an | 0:06:52 | 0:06:56 | |
unusual perspective of the first 53 miles. | 0:06:56 | 0:07:00 | |
I like to think of this event as being a race | 0:07:00 | 0:07:02 | |
that starts at Tyndrum, | 0:07:02 | 0:07:05 | |
and, by the way, I've got to get to Tyndrum first. | 0:07:05 | 0:07:08 | |
I will jog gently along to get to Tyndrum to start the real race. | 0:07:08 | 0:07:12 | |
It's just something that I do for fun. It's like holidays. | 0:07:12 | 0:07:15 | |
It's the build-up to it, the anticipation. | 0:07:15 | 0:07:17 | |
It's something you are looking forward to for weeks and | 0:07:17 | 0:07:20 | |
weeks and weeks. Then it is the enjoyment afterwards. | 0:07:20 | 0:07:22 | |
It's something to talk about and share experiences with other people. | 0:07:22 | 0:07:25 | |
It is fun. Enjoy the sunrise. Barely need the head torch. Hello. | 0:07:25 | 0:07:29 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:07:29 | 0:07:31 | |
I'll see you later. Well done. | 0:07:31 | 0:07:34 | |
Most of the runners have now completed the first segment of | 0:07:36 | 0:07:39 | |
the race and have passed the village of Drymen. | 0:07:39 | 0:07:43 | |
12 miles down, a mere 83 to go. | 0:07:43 | 0:07:45 | |
I just built up to it gradually. | 0:07:45 | 0:07:47 | |
So I've built up from 10ks to half marathons, | 0:07:47 | 0:07:50 | |
marathons and thought that the ultra marathons were crazy, | 0:07:50 | 0:07:54 | |
and it was only super, super fit human beings that could manage it. | 0:07:54 | 0:07:58 | |
Then, I decided to try one and thoroughly enjoyed it. | 0:07:58 | 0:08:02 | |
You never know what kind of adventure lies ahead of you. | 0:08:02 | 0:08:06 | |
I know this trail like the back of my hand now, so it will be nice to | 0:08:06 | 0:08:09 | |
not have to think about navigation | 0:08:09 | 0:08:11 | |
or anything like that and | 0:08:11 | 0:08:13 | |
just focus on running steady and not going off too fast. | 0:08:13 | 0:08:17 | |
Running steady and running a smart race. | 0:08:17 | 0:08:20 | |
So much depends on your mental state of mind as well. | 0:08:20 | 0:08:23 | |
If you let yourself be affected by different factors, | 0:08:23 | 0:08:27 | |
it's amazing once you start struggling, you lose time so fast. | 0:08:27 | 0:08:30 | |
Time seems to move in a different way. | 0:08:30 | 0:08:33 | |
People say there's times when you get low and you come through that. | 0:08:34 | 0:08:38 | |
I've got to keep that in the back of my mind that it may be tough | 0:08:38 | 0:08:41 | |
but if I keep going and maybe have to slow down, maybe walk a bit, | 0:08:41 | 0:08:45 | |
and then hopefully I'll regain some strength and feel better. | 0:08:45 | 0:08:48 | |
But, I think you have to recognise, it is the same for everybody | 0:08:48 | 0:08:50 | |
whether you are at the front or at the back of the race. | 0:08:50 | 0:08:53 | |
It's going to be tough. | 0:08:53 | 0:08:54 | |
I'm just a short distance along the course, ready to greet | 0:08:56 | 0:08:59 | |
the first competitors as they arrive at Conic Hill. | 0:08:59 | 0:09:02 | |
By now they will have completed almost 15 miles and for some, | 0:09:02 | 0:09:06 | |
this would be the end of a half marathon. | 0:09:06 | 0:09:08 | |
But these guys and girls, it's just the warm-up. | 0:09:08 | 0:09:12 | |
At the moment, | 0:09:12 | 0:09:13 | |
very little separates the leading runners in this international field. | 0:09:13 | 0:09:17 | |
American Kris Brown, is currently out in front, but he is | 0:09:17 | 0:09:21 | |
closely followed by Scottish athletes | 0:09:21 | 0:09:23 | |
James Stewart and Alistair Gray. | 0:09:23 | 0:09:26 | |
With Adam Zahoran from Germany in fourth place. | 0:09:26 | 0:09:30 | |
I'm the German champion of six hours running and 100km running, | 0:09:30 | 0:09:34 | |
but mostly I run on tarmac asphalt roads and flat, | 0:09:34 | 0:09:39 | |
so I don't have too much experience in hills. | 0:09:39 | 0:09:43 | |
So I don't know what I can run. I am bit afraid, a bit nervous. | 0:09:43 | 0:09:48 | |
Spectacular, huh? It is amazing, are you enjoying it? Oh, yes, for sure. | 0:09:48 | 0:09:53 | |
And you have come over from America? You bet. | 0:09:53 | 0:09:57 | |
Just to do this race? You bet. Fantastic. | 0:09:57 | 0:10:01 | |
Hal Koerner from Oregon has competed | 0:10:01 | 0:10:03 | |
in over 100 ultra marathons | 0:10:03 | 0:10:05 | |
and stood on the podium more than 90 times. | 0:10:05 | 0:10:08 | |
So it is not surprising | 0:10:08 | 0:10:10 | |
he is one of the favourites for today's race. | 0:10:10 | 0:10:13 | |
I love ultra running and I love to be able to run in the | 0:10:13 | 0:10:16 | |
mountains for hours on end. That was life for me. | 0:10:16 | 0:10:18 | |
Adding a little competition to that, | 0:10:18 | 0:10:21 | |
getting to see some new places, meeting great people, | 0:10:21 | 0:10:24 | |
and just the accomplishment of it all is really hard to replicate. | 0:10:24 | 0:10:31 | |
Addicting to a certain degree as well. | 0:10:31 | 0:10:34 | |
Currently out in the lead for the women, Lizzie Wraith is | 0:10:36 | 0:10:39 | |
just 19 minutes behind the fastest man. | 0:10:39 | 0:10:42 | |
And she is in 11th place overall. | 0:10:42 | 0:10:44 | |
How are you doing? Good, thank you. | 0:10:44 | 0:10:47 | |
You are doing fantastically. Thanks. | 0:10:47 | 0:10:50 | |
I'm not really aiming for a time, I'm just looking forward to | 0:10:50 | 0:10:53 | |
getting out in the mountains with a group of like-minded people. | 0:10:53 | 0:10:57 | |
It is a fantastic running community here in Scotland. | 0:10:57 | 0:11:00 | |
I just think that I race better when I go out there with the | 0:11:00 | 0:11:04 | |
attitude of trying to enjoy it. | 0:11:04 | 0:11:06 | |
Let's see what happens, it's just running. What will be will be. | 0:11:06 | 0:11:09 | |
If I put too much pressure on myself I don't think I run at my best. | 0:11:09 | 0:11:14 | |
Morning. Well done, you are doing great. | 0:11:14 | 0:11:17 | |
Cheers, thank you. | 0:11:17 | 0:11:18 | |
And every single runner in this event is competing not only | 0:11:18 | 0:11:21 | |
against each other, but also against themselves. | 0:11:21 | 0:11:25 | |
I was trying to beat 19 hours last year, | 0:11:25 | 0:11:27 | |
I felt really good until about a mile out of Balmaha. | 0:11:27 | 0:11:31 | |
I took a really bad fall, came down really heavy on my knee. | 0:11:31 | 0:11:36 | |
It was so painful I could hardly even stand on my leg, but my | 0:11:36 | 0:11:39 | |
first thought was get moving, if I don't move it's going to stiffen. | 0:11:39 | 0:11:43 | |
So I just started walking on it. | 0:11:43 | 0:11:45 | |
As the pain eased slightly, | 0:11:45 | 0:11:47 | |
I started to get my speed up. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:50 | |
As long as I ran, the pain numbed. | 0:11:50 | 0:11:52 | |
So last year was a bit of a disaster time-wise | 0:11:52 | 0:11:55 | |
but I got my finish, so last year I got a decanter. | 0:11:55 | 0:11:59 | |
After ten, when you do your tenth you get a decanter. | 0:11:59 | 0:12:02 | |
So I wasn't going home without that decanter! | 0:12:02 | 0:12:04 | |
15 miles down, only another 80 to go. | 0:12:05 | 0:12:09 | |
The frontrunners are making really great progress, | 0:12:09 | 0:12:11 | |
and most of the field are still to come through here. We'll be back | 0:12:11 | 0:12:14 | |
on the West Highland Way shortly, | 0:12:14 | 0:12:16 | |
as the racers settle in to the many, many hours running ahead of them. | 0:12:16 | 0:12:20 | |
It's going to be a long couple of days. | 0:12:20 | 0:12:23 | |
The West Highland Way Race started over three decades ago. | 0:12:32 | 0:12:35 | |
It all began when runner Duncan Watson laid down a challenge | 0:12:35 | 0:12:39 | |
to the well-known athlete Bobby Shields. | 0:12:39 | 0:12:42 | |
They created the race we know today. | 0:12:42 | 0:12:45 | |
We met up with Duncan near his home in the Monadhliath mountains. | 0:12:45 | 0:12:49 | |
Back in '85, the mud was really quite oppressive. | 0:12:49 | 0:12:53 | |
I mean, there was thigh-deep mud. | 0:12:53 | 0:12:56 | |
I remember pulling Bobby out of a hole. | 0:12:56 | 0:13:00 | |
On the other side of Conic Hill. | 0:13:00 | 0:13:01 | |
He was right up to his waist. | 0:13:01 | 0:13:04 | |
Well, that's all now been nicely barred and stepped. | 0:13:04 | 0:13:09 | |
There was no steps on the far side of Conic Hill, that was really... | 0:13:09 | 0:13:13 | |
We were on our backsides most of the time, coming down the hill there. | 0:13:13 | 0:13:17 | |
We cut short from Lunn Da-Brha, took the shorter road down, | 0:13:17 | 0:13:22 | |
because they were felling trees. | 0:13:22 | 0:13:24 | |
And the tracks, you're talking two or three miles shorter, probably, | 0:13:26 | 0:13:30 | |
but that would be counteracted by the underfoot conditions. | 0:13:30 | 0:13:37 | |
Both Duncan and Bobby had run the route before, | 0:13:37 | 0:13:41 | |
and completed it in under 20 hours. | 0:13:41 | 0:13:43 | |
But racing against each other brought in extra pressure. | 0:13:43 | 0:13:47 | |
At the bottom of the Devil's Staircase, Allt-na-feadh, I said, | 0:13:47 | 0:13:51 | |
"Look, I'm feeling really bad!" | 0:13:51 | 0:13:53 | |
And he said he was feeling really bad as well, so, I said, | 0:13:53 | 0:13:55 | |
"Why don't we make it a joint effort, right? Eh? | 0:13:55 | 0:13:58 | |
"And really dig in here. Because we could | 0:13:58 | 0:13:59 | |
"help one another rather than work against one another." | 0:13:59 | 0:14:02 | |
So we shook hands, and that was it. | 0:14:02 | 0:14:05 | |
Together, the pair reached Fort William in 17 hours and 48 minutes. | 0:14:05 | 0:14:10 | |
And Duncan's now run the West Highland Way over 15 times, | 0:14:10 | 0:14:14 | |
often doing it solo. | 0:14:14 | 0:14:17 | |
He's now 73, and in spite of some recent medical problems, | 0:14:17 | 0:14:22 | |
he still runs every day. | 0:14:22 | 0:14:24 | |
Because I was raised in central Scotland, son of a butcher, | 0:14:24 | 0:14:28 | |
we ate a lot of red meat and pies and all the bad things | 0:14:28 | 0:14:32 | |
before I started running. | 0:14:32 | 0:14:34 | |
Then when I started running I changed my diet totally. | 0:14:34 | 0:14:37 | |
Bad living resulted in some build-up of stuff in an artery, | 0:14:37 | 0:14:41 | |
so they put a stent in and I was running the next day. | 0:14:41 | 0:14:44 | |
Running in countryside like this, | 0:14:45 | 0:14:48 | |
it's just... It just gives me a big high. | 0:14:48 | 0:14:51 | |
The guy said if I hadn't been so fit I'd probably have been dead 30 years ago. | 0:14:53 | 0:14:56 | |
Yeah, I guess running's given me that! | 0:14:56 | 0:15:00 | |
I actually only finished the race twice. | 0:15:01 | 0:15:04 | |
But I haven't got a goblet yet, now. | 0:15:04 | 0:15:06 | |
Next year, do you think? | 0:15:06 | 0:15:08 | |
And if Duncan does decide to compete again next year, | 0:15:08 | 0:15:12 | |
he'll almost certainly be the oldest person to take part in the race. | 0:15:12 | 0:15:16 | |
Right now, though, we're taking a break from running, | 0:15:23 | 0:15:26 | |
because Duncan McCallum's got his very own challenge, | 0:15:26 | 0:15:29 | |
that should test him to the limit on a wild, wet and windy day. | 0:15:29 | 0:15:33 | |
I'm here in the west coast fishing village of Mallaig. | 0:15:34 | 0:15:37 | |
The bike's all lubed, it's all pumped up, | 0:15:37 | 0:15:39 | |
and I'm ready for a bit of a biking adventure. But, | 0:15:39 | 0:15:42 | |
although there are some fantastic trails in the hillside around here, | 0:15:42 | 0:15:45 | |
I'm looking for something just a little bit more special. | 0:15:45 | 0:15:47 | |
I'm here to meet Billy Simmonds, and we're going to head up Loch Nevis | 0:15:49 | 0:15:52 | |
into the best scenery in Scotland, | 0:15:52 | 0:15:54 | |
to look for some of the most | 0:15:54 | 0:15:55 | |
inaccessible mountain biking in the country. | 0:15:55 | 0:15:57 | |
And you can only get there by boat. | 0:15:57 | 0:16:00 | |
Hey, Billy! Duncan! Pleased to meet you. | 0:16:02 | 0:16:05 | |
Wow, I was expecting something a bit bigger than this! | 0:16:05 | 0:16:08 | |
She's fit for purpose. You'll be surprised what this wee ship can do. | 0:16:08 | 0:16:11 | |
Billy Simmonds spent 25 years as a trawlerman, | 0:16:11 | 0:16:15 | |
but recently decided to put that behind him | 0:16:15 | 0:16:17 | |
and do something he's passionate about. | 0:16:17 | 0:16:19 | |
'It was a big decision to take. It was a big gamble to take, too. | 0:16:19 | 0:16:23 | |
'A big risk. I was secure, I was good at what I did. | 0:16:23 | 0:16:26 | |
'I knew where I was going. But it was just consuming my life. | 0:16:26 | 0:16:30 | |
'My life was just becoming about making money. | 0:16:30 | 0:16:33 | |
'So I just decided I wanted to make the change and | 0:16:33 | 0:16:36 | |
'do something I wanted to do in life, not what I had to do. | 0:16:36 | 0:16:40 | |
'I was always projecting myself 15 years into the future. | 0:16:40 | 0:16:43 | |
'What am I going to be like? What am I going to be doing? | 0:16:43 | 0:16:45 | |
'Am I just going to be wandering up and down the pier? | 0:16:45 | 0:16:48 | |
'Because the fishing is hard. It accelerates your age.' | 0:16:48 | 0:16:50 | |
You have to think of your wellbeing, too. | 0:16:50 | 0:16:52 | |
So I thought, where do I want to be in 15, 20 years' time? | 0:16:52 | 0:16:56 | |
Is this what I want to be doing? | 0:16:56 | 0:16:57 | |
So I just wanted to build something unique to me. | 0:16:57 | 0:17:00 | |
Billy's a highly talented mountain biker, | 0:17:00 | 0:17:03 | |
so he set up an adventure sports company. | 0:17:03 | 0:17:05 | |
But one with a difference. | 0:17:05 | 0:17:08 | |
Using his boat, he's able to get right off the beaten track. | 0:17:08 | 0:17:12 | |
Just over an hour after the trip began, | 0:17:12 | 0:17:15 | |
he and Duncan are now in the heart of Moidart. | 0:17:15 | 0:17:18 | |
So where do we go from here? I can see there's an old ruin | 0:17:18 | 0:17:21 | |
just there at the bottom of the glen. | 0:17:21 | 0:17:23 | |
We'll exit to the left of that, | 0:17:23 | 0:17:26 | |
and we'll pick up a meandering stalker's trail. | 0:17:26 | 0:17:28 | |
It's really steep! | 0:17:28 | 0:17:30 | |
It's gonna test you, it'll test most people. | 0:17:30 | 0:17:33 | |
Three quarters of the way up, you're going to be wishing you | 0:17:33 | 0:17:35 | |
hadn't done it. But once we get to the top, | 0:17:35 | 0:17:37 | |
it's going to be a different story. | 0:17:37 | 0:17:39 | |
We're escaping from this horrific weather. | 0:17:39 | 0:17:42 | |
The weather chooses us. | 0:17:42 | 0:17:44 | |
Too philosophical for me! | 0:17:44 | 0:17:46 | |
This is Scotland. So is this the start, now, of the hike-a-bike? | 0:17:46 | 0:17:50 | |
Yes, that's us. That's as far as we're going to pedal at the moment. | 0:17:50 | 0:17:55 | |
We've got our 500 metre hike-a-bike. | 0:17:55 | 0:17:57 | |
Don't kid yourself, this is mountain biking. | 0:17:59 | 0:18:01 | |
Shanks's pony on your feet is the preferred way, | 0:18:01 | 0:18:03 | |
it's the most natural way, | 0:18:03 | 0:18:05 | |
so entering the mountain bike, it's another challenge. | 0:18:05 | 0:18:08 | |
And it's just so rewarding on the opposite side. | 0:18:08 | 0:18:11 | |
Once we start coming down these descents, | 0:18:13 | 0:18:15 | |
it's the feeling of freedom. | 0:18:15 | 0:18:16 | |
Nearly there, Duncan. Nearly there. Can you feel it? | 0:18:18 | 0:18:20 | |
Oh, I can, the wind... You can feel the... The atmosphere. | 0:18:20 | 0:18:23 | |
The wind has changed, | 0:18:23 | 0:18:24 | |
and there's a wee drop of pressure or something, it's different. | 0:18:24 | 0:18:27 | |
It's this last few metres, | 0:18:27 | 0:18:29 | |
you can really feel that the summit's coming. | 0:18:29 | 0:18:32 | |
To engage in this sort of wilderness, | 0:18:33 | 0:18:35 | |
you're out here, you're by yourself, | 0:18:35 | 0:18:37 | |
you're basically on your own, | 0:18:37 | 0:18:39 | |
and you've got to get out here on your own. | 0:18:39 | 0:18:41 | |
So, compared to what you're going to | 0:18:41 | 0:18:43 | |
experience in most places in Scotland, | 0:18:43 | 0:18:45 | |
it's well up there. | 0:18:45 | 0:18:47 | |
What I would love to do here is just spend a bit of time on my own, | 0:18:47 | 0:18:49 | |
and you're planning to shoot off and meet us at the bottom? | 0:18:49 | 0:18:52 | |
My plan is to abandon yous, and I'll get the grub ready down there. | 0:18:52 | 0:18:57 | |
Just ride it, gently, don't get too carried away. | 0:18:57 | 0:19:01 | |
There's a few bits where you can go over the bars. | 0:19:01 | 0:19:03 | |
I don't think I'm going to hang around here too long, | 0:19:03 | 0:19:06 | |
because it is really cold. | 0:19:06 | 0:19:07 | |
I think this is a careful-as-you-go one. | 0:19:07 | 0:19:10 | |
Oh, man, oh, man! | 0:19:10 | 0:19:12 | |
As an adventure bike ride, this is something else. | 0:19:16 | 0:19:20 | |
It's really tough. | 0:19:21 | 0:19:23 | |
Eight of ten for commitment, | 0:19:23 | 0:19:25 | |
nine out of ten for adventure, | 0:19:25 | 0:19:27 | |
ten out of ten for being in an extraordinary place. | 0:19:27 | 0:19:31 | |
You really have to concentrate on this stuff. | 0:19:33 | 0:19:37 | |
A fat bike like this floats on top of all the mud | 0:19:41 | 0:19:46 | |
and the dirt... | 0:19:46 | 0:19:48 | |
..and through the water, but it's heavy. | 0:19:50 | 0:19:53 | |
They were originally designed for riding in snow, | 0:19:55 | 0:19:59 | |
so you wanted a tyre that would float above the snow. | 0:19:59 | 0:20:03 | |
But it also works really nicely for Scottish bogs and water | 0:20:03 | 0:20:08 | |
and sand and on horrible slidey conditions, and on rock, | 0:20:08 | 0:20:12 | |
where a tyre would normally just sit on the rock and skip off. | 0:20:12 | 0:20:17 | |
It's quite remarkable how grippy it is. | 0:20:17 | 0:20:20 | |
Huge disadvantage going uphill, because the resistance is so much. | 0:20:21 | 0:20:27 | |
On the descent it's really good. | 0:20:27 | 0:20:29 | |
Way-hey! | 0:20:32 | 0:20:34 | |
Ha! Oh... | 0:20:35 | 0:20:37 | |
Oh, dear. Poor Duncan. Pride before a fall, and all that. | 0:20:37 | 0:20:40 | |
This is a bike ride Duncan is not likely to forget in a hurry. | 0:20:40 | 0:20:44 | |
Oh, I have to say, the top part of that | 0:20:45 | 0:20:49 | |
in the weather was something else, | 0:20:49 | 0:20:52 | |
it really was tough. I went over the handlebars, | 0:20:52 | 0:20:55 | |
fell in a ditch, | 0:20:55 | 0:20:57 | |
walked lots of it. | 0:20:57 | 0:21:00 | |
But now, this last bit, | 0:21:00 | 0:21:02 | |
coming down into the village is absolutely beautiful. | 0:21:02 | 0:21:06 | |
This is an amazing, amazing place. | 0:21:07 | 0:21:10 | |
And this is an incredible adventure bike ride. | 0:21:11 | 0:21:14 | |
And we'll be joining Duncan for more off-road adventures | 0:21:15 | 0:21:18 | |
later in the series. | 0:21:18 | 0:21:20 | |
But after Moidart, they'll have a lot to live up to. | 0:21:20 | 0:21:22 | |
Hiya. Welcome back to the West Highland Way Race, | 0:21:30 | 0:21:33 | |
where the sun is just beginning to rise. | 0:21:33 | 0:21:35 | |
And what a beautiful view it is for the competitors, | 0:21:35 | 0:21:38 | |
as they race down past Conic Hill. | 0:21:38 | 0:21:41 | |
Oh, Loch Lomond, we love you. | 0:21:41 | 0:21:43 | |
So, do you guys know this route already? | 0:21:43 | 0:21:45 | |
Have you done this race before? | 0:21:45 | 0:21:46 | |
I did this last year. It's kind of like childbirth! | 0:21:46 | 0:21:51 | |
I know what it's going to be like, but still back again! | 0:21:51 | 0:21:54 | |
I ran with a couple of girls from my running club last year, | 0:21:56 | 0:21:58 | |
and we stayed together for the first 50 miles | 0:21:58 | 0:22:01 | |
and chatted! | 0:22:01 | 0:22:03 | |
It's like a day out! | 0:22:03 | 0:22:05 | |
Some people have wine, coffee, cake. | 0:22:05 | 0:22:06 | |
We just ran. | 0:22:08 | 0:22:09 | |
Our club, Stonehaven Running Club, | 0:22:09 | 0:22:11 | |
there's a lot of people in the club do ultras, | 0:22:11 | 0:22:14 | |
and we've all been sort of gradually pulled into it, | 0:22:14 | 0:22:16 | |
supporting each other and gradually | 0:22:16 | 0:22:18 | |
getting a bit further and a bit further, | 0:22:18 | 0:22:20 | |
doing longer races each year and | 0:22:20 | 0:22:22 | |
most of my friends have now done it, so I have to! | 0:22:22 | 0:22:26 | |
I have to try. | 0:22:26 | 0:22:28 | |
Are we nearly at Fort William? | 0:22:28 | 0:22:29 | |
Well, here's the bad news. | 0:22:29 | 0:22:31 | |
There's just one or two miles still to go. | 0:22:31 | 0:22:34 | |
Right now, there's the rugged, | 0:22:34 | 0:22:36 | |
wooded shoreline of Loch Lomond to negotiate, | 0:22:36 | 0:22:39 | |
followed by an ascent of the north end of the loch. | 0:22:39 | 0:22:41 | |
It's 6.40 in the morning, and American runner Kris Brown | 0:22:41 | 0:22:46 | |
is still in the lead. | 0:22:46 | 0:22:47 | |
Can't sneak up on me like that, man! | 0:22:47 | 0:22:49 | |
How's it going? It's fine. | 0:22:49 | 0:22:51 | |
Enjoying it? Yeah, I hear it's beautiful. | 0:22:51 | 0:22:54 | |
Just eight minutes behind, | 0:22:54 | 0:22:56 | |
James Stewart from Croy is now in second place. | 0:22:56 | 0:22:59 | |
How are you feeling? | 0:22:59 | 0:23:01 | |
Yeah, not too bad. | 0:23:01 | 0:23:02 | |
Not too bad. | 0:23:02 | 0:23:04 | |
Worth it for this view. | 0:23:04 | 0:23:06 | |
The third to complete this section | 0:23:06 | 0:23:09 | |
is the German six-hour and 100km road champion | 0:23:09 | 0:23:11 | |
Adam Zahoran. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:13 | |
Enjoying it? | 0:23:13 | 0:23:14 | |
Ha-ha-ha! This section, not really, no! | 0:23:14 | 0:23:17 | |
'It will be a tough race for me, | 0:23:17 | 0:23:20 | |
'I will just try to do my best and be as fast as I can. | 0:23:20 | 0:23:24 | |
'I tried to find my own pace.' | 0:23:24 | 0:23:27 | |
I shouldn't be tired, physically or mentally, before 80, 90km. | 0:23:27 | 0:23:32 | |
Just after it. | 0:23:32 | 0:23:34 | |
The front racers are now starting to spread out. | 0:23:34 | 0:23:37 | |
40 minutes after the first man through, | 0:23:37 | 0:23:40 | |
Alistair Gray from Helensburgh is in fourth place. | 0:23:40 | 0:23:43 | |
How are you feeling? Great! | 0:23:43 | 0:23:45 | |
Good time. Getting there. | 0:23:45 | 0:23:47 | |
Slowly but surely. | 0:23:47 | 0:23:48 | |
It's the first time he's tackled this distance. | 0:23:48 | 0:23:52 | |
But that challenge is not the only reason he's running today. | 0:23:52 | 0:23:55 | |
He's also doing this for a member of his family. | 0:23:55 | 0:23:59 | |
My aunt is blind and when I'm out in these places, you know, | 0:23:59 | 0:24:03 | |
I do think myself quite lucky to be able to experience fully the | 0:24:03 | 0:24:06 | |
landscapes that I'm kind of going through. | 0:24:06 | 0:24:07 | |
And I often think of my aunt and people like her who just don't | 0:24:07 | 0:24:11 | |
have that same... That same experience that I have. | 0:24:11 | 0:24:16 | |
So it is an emotional thing for me, moving through these landscapes | 0:24:16 | 0:24:19 | |
and knowing that they'll never quite see it the way I do. | 0:24:19 | 0:24:23 | |
But that's not to say that blind people don't experience them, | 0:24:23 | 0:24:26 | |
it's just they do it in a different way, so my aunt, for example, | 0:24:26 | 0:24:30 | |
can sense when things are tall or when things are big or heavy, | 0:24:30 | 0:24:34 | |
just through, I suppose, a kind of subconscious osmosis and quite | 0:24:34 | 0:24:38 | |
often when I'm running, if you shut your eyes for just half a second, | 0:24:38 | 0:24:41 | |
you can smell the fields or you can smell the path and the trees, | 0:24:41 | 0:24:44 | |
or these things that you forget when you can see as well as we can. | 0:24:44 | 0:24:48 | |
In the women's race, the competition is heating up. | 0:24:50 | 0:24:52 | |
Lizzie Wraith from Bath is still in the lead. | 0:24:52 | 0:24:55 | |
You're doing great! | 0:24:55 | 0:24:57 | |
But just five minutes behind her is Morgan Windram-Geddes. | 0:24:57 | 0:25:01 | |
She grew up in America, but now lives in Fife. | 0:25:01 | 0:25:04 | |
Second-place lady, how are you feeling? | 0:25:04 | 0:25:07 | |
OK. Quite good. | 0:25:07 | 0:25:09 | |
No-one, apart from our poor camera person, is lingering here. | 0:25:09 | 0:25:13 | |
The Scottish problem is out in force. | 0:25:13 | 0:25:17 | |
Here you go, you'll like this. | 0:25:17 | 0:25:19 | |
This is the midges who've committed suicide on my | 0:25:19 | 0:25:23 | |
telephone screen, for some reason. | 0:25:23 | 0:25:27 | |
Ah, loving it! | 0:25:27 | 0:25:29 | |
The ones that eat you are making up for the ones that you eat. | 0:25:29 | 0:25:33 | |
Hello, again. Hello. How're you doing? | 0:25:33 | 0:25:36 | |
Brilliant, these midges are great! | 0:25:36 | 0:25:38 | |
Keep us running faster. | 0:25:38 | 0:25:39 | |
Further up the course, | 0:25:40 | 0:25:42 | |
there's bad news for two of the American runners. | 0:25:42 | 0:25:45 | |
Hal Coroner suffered an injury and has had to withdraw. | 0:25:45 | 0:25:49 | |
And Kris Brown, who was leading the race, has taken a wrong turn. | 0:25:49 | 0:25:53 | |
It's going to cost him precious minutes and will be | 0:25:53 | 0:25:56 | |
a real psychological downer. | 0:25:56 | 0:25:58 | |
That means Scotland's James Stewart has moved up into first place. | 0:25:59 | 0:26:03 | |
He's spent many hours of training on the West Highland Way, | 0:26:03 | 0:26:07 | |
but his success as an ultra marathon runner is recent. | 0:26:07 | 0:26:11 | |
It's actually almost happened overnight. | 0:26:11 | 0:26:13 | |
I was OK at ultra until about December 2014 | 0:26:13 | 0:26:16 | |
when I brought on a coach and he's just lifted me to the next level. | 0:26:16 | 0:26:21 | |
It's kind of hard to believe yet because I'm, like, | 0:26:21 | 0:26:23 | |
40 years old, which is quite neat as well, | 0:26:23 | 0:26:26 | |
because it shows you're not too old to do something quite cool. | 0:26:26 | 0:26:29 | |
It's certainly looking cool for James today. | 0:26:29 | 0:26:31 | |
But as he pounds into Bridge of Orchy, | 0:26:31 | 0:26:33 | |
he knows Adam Zahoran's not far behind. | 0:26:33 | 0:26:36 | |
I came up through that section quite quick. You did, you did. | 0:26:36 | 0:26:39 | |
But just watch your way, you're way ahead of schedule, so... | 0:26:39 | 0:26:42 | |
I need to be though. | 0:26:42 | 0:26:44 | |
OK, good luck. Cheers. | 0:26:44 | 0:26:45 | |
Less than 15 minutes later, Adam makes it to this checkpoint. | 0:26:45 | 0:26:49 | |
This is where support teams are vital. | 0:26:49 | 0:26:52 | |
Want it tighter? | 0:26:52 | 0:26:54 | |
Er... I don't know. | 0:26:54 | 0:26:56 | |
He was meant to be a little bit insecure about the technical | 0:26:56 | 0:27:01 | |
aspects of the trails, so he didn't want to risk getting injured, | 0:27:01 | 0:27:07 | |
and that was a little bit mentally stressful for him. | 0:27:07 | 0:27:10 | |
It's a big adventure for him. | 0:27:10 | 0:27:13 | |
He said, "I have no idea how I can deal with it." | 0:27:13 | 0:27:17 | |
11 minutes later, Kris Brown has now dropped into third place. | 0:27:17 | 0:27:21 | |
His mistake has cost him over half an hour. | 0:27:21 | 0:27:24 | |
Well done. Well done. | 0:27:24 | 0:27:26 | |
You know, it really is easy to underestimate the extreme | 0:27:26 | 0:27:28 | |
nature of this challenge. | 0:27:28 | 0:27:30 | |
Despite enjoying a bacon roll or two, | 0:27:30 | 0:27:32 | |
I consider myself to be a fairly fit individual. | 0:27:32 | 0:27:35 | |
But the idea of keeping going at a decent pace for the best part | 0:27:35 | 0:27:38 | |
of two days...just fills me with horror. | 0:27:38 | 0:27:41 | |
And when you look at these competitors, they look like everyday people. | 0:27:41 | 0:27:45 | |
But there must be something going on in here, something that keeps them | 0:27:45 | 0:27:50 | |
going when their body is screaming at them, "Stop!" | 0:27:50 | 0:27:54 | |
If you've never run that far, it's scary. | 0:27:56 | 0:27:59 | |
You don't know what the body's going to do, | 0:27:59 | 0:28:01 | |
you don't really have experience of race conditions. | 0:28:01 | 0:28:04 | |
Like, yeah, you go for your training runs and you eat some stuff and | 0:28:04 | 0:28:08 | |
drink some stuff, but you try and put a bit of speed behind it and | 0:28:08 | 0:28:12 | |
the wheels fall off and you get upset and you say | 0:28:12 | 0:28:16 | |
you'll never do it again and you think | 0:28:16 | 0:28:19 | |
two days later, "No, I can do better." | 0:28:19 | 0:28:22 | |
And so you start again and around you go. | 0:28:22 | 0:28:25 | |
When I am going through a bad patch in the ultra, I make sure | 0:28:27 | 0:28:30 | |
that I take some fuel on board, because often, that might be part of | 0:28:30 | 0:28:33 | |
the reason, you're just running low on energy, and often I just tell | 0:28:33 | 0:28:37 | |
myself, the faster I keep running, the faster I'll get through it. | 0:28:37 | 0:28:42 | |
So it's definitely just being strong in your head | 0:28:42 | 0:28:45 | |
and not giving in to the pain. | 0:28:45 | 0:28:47 | |
Still leading the field for the women, | 0:28:47 | 0:28:49 | |
Lizzie Wraith is having an amazing run. | 0:28:49 | 0:28:51 | |
She's now in fourth place overall. | 0:28:51 | 0:28:54 | |
It's getting warm now. | 0:28:54 | 0:28:56 | |
There's a nice breeze. It's kind of perfect, really. | 0:28:59 | 0:29:03 | |
Good luck. | 0:29:03 | 0:29:05 | |
Meanwhile, Morgan Windram-Geddes is just over ten minutes behind. | 0:29:05 | 0:29:09 | |
Although they've covered over half the distance, | 0:29:09 | 0:29:11 | |
they're still nearly a marathon-and-a-half ahead. | 0:29:11 | 0:29:15 | |
Second lady, well done. | 0:29:15 | 0:29:16 | |
How you feeling? I'm all right. Knees are sore. Knees are sore. | 0:29:16 | 0:29:20 | |
All those downhills. Are they giving you water on one? | 0:29:21 | 0:29:23 | |
What else do you want in the other? Just half-and-half. OK. | 0:29:23 | 0:29:27 | |
Just keep eating as much as you can. | 0:29:27 | 0:29:29 | |
Morgan, especially at the start of the race, just doesn't eat, | 0:29:29 | 0:29:32 | |
so she's been eating a little bit, because she lost weight at | 0:29:32 | 0:29:35 | |
the first checkpoint and we had to get her to eat, so, yeah, | 0:29:35 | 0:29:37 | |
we've just been trying to get her to eat as much as possible. | 0:29:37 | 0:29:41 | |
Just keep walking and eating, yeah. | 0:29:41 | 0:29:43 | |
You're OK. CLAPPING | 0:29:43 | 0:29:45 | |
The third woman and 15th overall is experienced ultra runner | 0:29:45 | 0:29:48 | |
Lorna McMillan from Glasgow. | 0:29:48 | 0:29:51 | |
And after nearly 60 miles, | 0:29:51 | 0:29:53 | |
she looks like she's been out for an afternoon stroll. | 0:29:53 | 0:29:55 | |
Hiya. Hi, Lorna, how're you feeling? So you're going to eat then, aren't you, Lorna? Because... | 0:29:55 | 0:29:59 | |
Not too bad, not too bad. | 0:29:59 | 0:30:00 | |
Glad to be getting the miles behind me. It's getting quite warm out there. | 0:30:00 | 0:30:04 | |
Yeah, it's good. You're doing well. Looking forward to the next half? | 0:30:04 | 0:30:07 | |
Well, about a mile and a half up the hill, I'll get a Jelly Baby | 0:30:07 | 0:30:10 | |
in Jelly Baby Hill, so I'm looking forward to that. | 0:30:10 | 0:30:12 | |
I think I'm getting an orange one, so I'm delighted. | 0:30:12 | 0:30:14 | |
Apparently I've got to eat these and I'm not sure I feel like it. | 0:30:14 | 0:30:17 | |
Thank you, Carol. | 0:30:17 | 0:30:20 | |
The leaders have now passed the Glencoe Ski Centre and are | 0:30:20 | 0:30:23 | |
starting up the aptly named Devil's Staircase. | 0:30:23 | 0:30:26 | |
Ahead is a gruelling 1,000 feet of ascent. | 0:30:26 | 0:30:30 | |
Very tough now. | 0:30:30 | 0:30:32 | |
Two big hills coming up, so... | 0:30:32 | 0:30:34 | |
The last I heard, I had a 14-minute lead, | 0:30:34 | 0:30:37 | |
so I can go quite easy. | 0:30:37 | 0:30:40 | |
So I've got to stay disciplined and focus. | 0:30:40 | 0:30:43 | |
And I've allowed for my pace to walk up this hill. | 0:30:43 | 0:30:48 | |
There was four guys who went off like hunting dogs at the start. | 0:30:48 | 0:30:55 | |
There's no way I would go with them. | 0:30:55 | 0:30:58 | |
Because you know that it's going to come back to you. | 0:30:58 | 0:31:01 | |
But I managed to kind of get back in the lead at Bridge of Orchy. | 0:31:02 | 0:31:07 | |
And I've just been slowly building it since then. | 0:31:07 | 0:31:10 | |
Take it easy. | 0:31:10 | 0:31:11 | |
Yes, this is really good. | 0:31:11 | 0:31:13 | |
As James heads up to the top of the Staircase, | 0:31:13 | 0:31:16 | |
Adam's now starting the ascent. | 0:31:16 | 0:31:18 | |
How is your race going? | 0:31:18 | 0:31:20 | |
Yeah, it's pretty tough to be honest, but it's lovely scenery. | 0:31:20 | 0:31:24 | |
But I have to admit, I'm looking forward to finishing. | 0:31:24 | 0:31:29 | |
On the other hand, I'm a geologist, so it is a paradise for me. | 0:31:29 | 0:31:34 | |
Oh, it's time for a walk. | 0:31:36 | 0:31:38 | |
This race is now beginning to take its toll on everyone. | 0:31:40 | 0:31:43 | |
And Kris Brown, who took a wrong turn before Bridge of Orchy, | 0:31:43 | 0:31:46 | |
is slipping down the field. | 0:31:46 | 0:31:48 | |
That means Lizzie Wraith has moved up into third place. | 0:31:48 | 0:31:53 | |
Physically, she's putting in a fantastic performance. | 0:31:53 | 0:31:56 | |
But as a sports scientist, | 0:31:56 | 0:31:58 | |
she knows success depends on far more than fitness. | 0:31:58 | 0:32:02 | |
I definitely think ultra running is a lot in your mind. | 0:32:02 | 0:32:06 | |
Often, everything in your body is telling you to stop and | 0:32:06 | 0:32:09 | |
it's your mind that has to be strong enough to keep you going and keep | 0:32:09 | 0:32:13 | |
pushing and I always just try and tell myself to keep putting one foot | 0:32:13 | 0:32:17 | |
in front of the other, every step is a step closer to Fort William. | 0:32:17 | 0:32:20 | |
So, yeah, it's definitely mind over matter. | 0:32:20 | 0:32:23 | |
I think that ultra runners are a bit strange. | 0:32:23 | 0:32:26 | |
We probably do enjoy the pain of it. | 0:32:26 | 0:32:28 | |
Maybe not at the time, but certainly retrospectively. | 0:32:28 | 0:32:31 | |
There's something about pushing your limits and overcoming your fears | 0:32:31 | 0:32:35 | |
that's really satisfying in ultra running. | 0:32:35 | 0:32:38 | |
Someone else who's having a great race is Australian runner, | 0:32:38 | 0:32:41 | |
Jacob Tangey, who now lives in Edinburgh. | 0:32:41 | 0:32:44 | |
At the Glencoe Ski Centre, he was lying in seventh place. | 0:32:44 | 0:32:48 | |
Now, he's moved up to fourth. | 0:32:48 | 0:32:51 | |
How's things, mate? How's things with you? | 0:32:51 | 0:32:53 | |
Oh, yeah. | 0:32:53 | 0:32:55 | |
They're getting better! They're getting better, are they? | 0:32:55 | 0:32:57 | |
Every step! And now you're in fourth place. | 0:32:57 | 0:32:59 | |
Apparently so. | 0:32:59 | 0:33:01 | |
No, it doesn't matter in this race. Everybody's equal. | 0:33:01 | 0:33:04 | |
Come one, come all and enjoy the fun! | 0:33:04 | 0:33:07 | |
As the sun blazes down on the runners, | 0:33:07 | 0:33:09 | |
that isn't as easy as it sounds. | 0:33:09 | 0:33:12 | |
Morgan Windram-Geddes is just a couple of minutes behind Jacob | 0:33:12 | 0:33:16 | |
and after a childhood spent in America, she's used to the heat. | 0:33:16 | 0:33:21 | |
But this is one of the most brutal sections of the race. | 0:33:21 | 0:33:24 | |
It's really hot. | 0:33:24 | 0:33:25 | |
But it's OK, there's a nice descent after the climb. | 0:33:27 | 0:33:29 | |
That's good. | 0:33:31 | 0:33:32 | |
Did you expect to be this far up, or...? No, I didn't. | 0:33:32 | 0:33:36 | |
But I just held back a bit at the start, didn't go off like a maniac. | 0:33:39 | 0:33:41 | |
But I just held back a bit at the start, didn't go off like a maniac. | 0:33:42 | 0:33:43 | |
I think it paid off. | 0:33:44 | 0:33:46 | |
For several miles, | 0:33:47 | 0:33:48 | |
Morgan's been running alongside Guy Langdon from Bath. | 0:33:48 | 0:33:52 | |
He's also finding things hard. | 0:33:52 | 0:33:54 | |
I heard it was quite an easy race! HE CHUCKLES | 0:33:54 | 0:33:57 | |
I don't know where I got that from, but I'm going to try and | 0:33:57 | 0:34:00 | |
find out who told me that and have a word with them. | 0:34:00 | 0:34:04 | |
This is the hardest thing I've ever done. | 0:34:04 | 0:34:06 | |
Is that good at this stage of the race to have somebody to run with? | 0:34:06 | 0:34:09 | |
It's nice, yeah. You know somebody else is suffering right with you. | 0:34:09 | 0:34:13 | |
Everyone's been on the go for over 12 hours and exhaustion | 0:34:15 | 0:34:19 | |
is setting in. | 0:34:19 | 0:34:21 | |
Racers like this push the human body right to the limit | 0:34:21 | 0:34:25 | |
and with this comes a whole range of medical issues. | 0:34:25 | 0:34:29 | |
Some of which can be life-threatening. | 0:34:29 | 0:34:31 | |
Chris Ellis is a local GP who became aware of this event when | 0:34:31 | 0:34:35 | |
he was brought in to treat competitors in difficulties. | 0:34:35 | 0:34:38 | |
In 2005, this race happened, | 0:34:38 | 0:34:41 | |
unbeknown to me, I'd never heard of it, | 0:34:41 | 0:34:43 | |
and only became aware of it following some admissions to | 0:34:43 | 0:34:46 | |
the local Fort William Hospital. | 0:34:46 | 0:34:48 | |
It was apparent that a phenomenon was happening that had been | 0:34:48 | 0:34:52 | |
described in literature from events elsewhere, | 0:34:52 | 0:34:54 | |
reflecting something that was first identified in South Africa in 1985. | 0:34:54 | 0:34:58 | |
The issue, Exercise Associated Hyponatraemia, or EAH, | 0:34:58 | 0:35:03 | |
is still little known about and is incredibly serious. | 0:35:03 | 0:35:08 | |
The best way to identify it is by monitoring competitors' weight. | 0:35:08 | 0:35:12 | |
People get overloaded with water, | 0:35:12 | 0:35:14 | |
which has a diluting effect on the body salts and makes you | 0:35:14 | 0:35:17 | |
susceptible to swelling of the tissues, | 0:35:17 | 0:35:20 | |
most notably the brain, and adverse consequences that go with that. | 0:35:20 | 0:35:23 | |
And those adverse consequences are? | 0:35:23 | 0:35:25 | |
There are many, but the most recognised spectrum would be early | 0:35:25 | 0:35:29 | |
swelling of the brain associated with waterlogging might make | 0:35:29 | 0:35:33 | |
you confused and then you might progress on to having some | 0:35:33 | 0:35:36 | |
seizures or fits and then if it's ongoing, you become unconscious | 0:35:36 | 0:35:41 | |
and then at the extreme end, you can succumb from this. | 0:35:41 | 0:35:43 | |
The critical thing that was identified in South Africa, | 0:35:45 | 0:35:48 | |
that hormone produced by the master hormone gland, | 0:35:48 | 0:35:51 | |
the pituitary gland up in the brain, which makes you hang on to water, | 0:35:51 | 0:35:55 | |
assumes higher levels, say, at about four hours of exertion. | 0:35:55 | 0:35:58 | |
That's not very long - I mean, | 0:35:58 | 0:36:00 | |
four hours is a reasonably long bike ride, | 0:36:00 | 0:36:02 | |
or a marathon that you run slowly, or a hill walk. | 0:36:02 | 0:36:05 | |
Certainly, we have seen this phenomenon of low sodium in | 0:36:05 | 0:36:08 | |
slower runners, so the likelihood of it happening increases | 0:36:08 | 0:36:11 | |
the longer the event goes on. | 0:36:11 | 0:36:13 | |
Now, I'm not saying that everybody who runs ultras or events | 0:36:13 | 0:36:17 | |
exceeding four hours is subject to this phenomenon of producing | 0:36:17 | 0:36:20 | |
this hang-on-to-water hormone, but that's the underlying basis of it, | 0:36:20 | 0:36:25 | |
in conjunction with drinking water without really thinking about it. | 0:36:25 | 0:36:28 | |
Hi! Hello. | 0:36:28 | 0:36:31 | |
We are now in a very, very hot day, and the traditional advice was, | 0:36:31 | 0:36:35 | |
drink a litre of water every 45 minutes. | 0:36:35 | 0:36:39 | |
Are you saying that is now not the correct advice? | 0:36:39 | 0:36:41 | |
Definitely - drinking by the clock or trying to stay ahead of the game | 0:36:41 | 0:36:45 | |
is not generally advocated and that thirst is as good a guide | 0:36:45 | 0:36:49 | |
as any, with regard to your fluid requirements. | 0:36:49 | 0:36:52 | |
And if you'd like to find out more about Dr Chris Ellis's work, | 0:36:52 | 0:36:55 | |
and what else is going on on The Adventure Show, | 0:36:55 | 0:36:58 | |
as ever, follow us on Facebook. | 0:36:58 | 0:37:01 | |
The lead runners have now made their way up and down | 0:37:01 | 0:37:04 | |
the Devil's Staircase, and with its battering descent, | 0:37:04 | 0:37:06 | |
it is one of the toughest parts of the course. | 0:37:06 | 0:37:09 | |
However, what remains is a 15-mile drag into Fort William. | 0:37:09 | 0:37:13 | |
We'll be back shortly to see how they are getting on. | 0:37:13 | 0:37:16 | |
You may have gathered by now | 0:37:23 | 0:37:24 | |
that I've signed up for the Braveheart Triathlon - | 0:37:24 | 0:37:26 | |
56 miles on the bike and a half marathon up and down Ben Nevis. | 0:37:26 | 0:37:30 | |
But it is the swim that fills me with fear. | 0:37:30 | 0:37:33 | |
Now, 1.2 miles swimming in Loch Linnhe might not seem much | 0:37:35 | 0:37:38 | |
to you, but for me, it's horrendous, | 0:37:38 | 0:37:42 | |
worse than the run and the cycle put together. | 0:37:42 | 0:37:45 | |
I'm definitely not feeling particularly brave at heart! | 0:37:46 | 0:37:50 | |
So, I've come to Loch Venachar in the Trossachs to meet up with | 0:37:51 | 0:37:54 | |
my training guru, Sean McFarlane. Hi there. How are you? | 0:37:54 | 0:37:57 | |
I'm not bad, how are you? | 0:37:57 | 0:37:59 | |
I can't explain to you enough just how worried I am about this! | 0:37:59 | 0:38:02 | |
I'm not joking. The swim is really filling me with fear. | 0:38:02 | 0:38:05 | |
What are we going to do today? | 0:38:05 | 0:38:07 | |
Well, today, we'll start off with a short swim in this area here. | 0:38:07 | 0:38:10 | |
It's quite shallow, you can see the bottom. | 0:38:10 | 0:38:12 | |
There's a few boats around, it's quite a safe area. | 0:38:12 | 0:38:14 | |
Have a look at your stroke, see how you're getting on, | 0:38:14 | 0:38:17 | |
then we'll go for a longer swim. | 0:38:17 | 0:38:19 | |
A big thing that you need to quite soon develop is an ability | 0:38:19 | 0:38:23 | |
just to swim the distance. | 0:38:23 | 0:38:25 | |
We've been swimming 500 metres or so - | 0:38:25 | 0:38:27 | |
you've got to do four times that amount. | 0:38:27 | 0:38:29 | |
Right, cold water response. | 0:38:29 | 0:38:31 | |
Aah! | 0:38:32 | 0:38:33 | |
Oh, that's quite cold! | 0:38:36 | 0:38:38 | |
Immediately, I can't breathe. | 0:38:38 | 0:38:41 | |
'I'm concerned about open water, the fact it's dark | 0:38:45 | 0:38:48 | |
'when you look down, you can't really see the bottom. | 0:38:48 | 0:38:51 | |
'My breathing is not great and when I'm not breathing properly, | 0:38:52 | 0:38:55 | |
'I tend to panic.' | 0:38:55 | 0:38:57 | |
Oh! Come back towards us. | 0:38:58 | 0:39:00 | |
'My endurance isn't great. | 0:39:01 | 0:39:03 | |
'So, when I start getting really tired, it affects my breathing. | 0:39:03 | 0:39:07 | |
'If it affects my breathing, I panic. | 0:39:07 | 0:39:09 | |
'So, panic is my biggest problem.' | 0:39:09 | 0:39:12 | |
How are you feeling? | 0:39:12 | 0:39:13 | |
Fine. | 0:39:13 | 0:39:15 | |
In that temperature... Hold on. | 0:39:15 | 0:39:17 | |
Ohh! Actually, not fine. | 0:39:18 | 0:39:21 | |
Not fine at all! | 0:39:22 | 0:39:24 | |
That temperature is... Quite fresh! | 0:39:24 | 0:39:27 | |
Well, but Loch Linnhe is going to be at least that cool. Yeah. OK? | 0:39:27 | 0:39:33 | |
We'll get this done, we'll get this done... Yeah, yeah. | 0:39:33 | 0:39:35 | |
There's obviously work to be done. Uh-huh. OK? | 0:39:35 | 0:39:38 | |
Right, Dougie, let's keep you in shallow water, | 0:39:38 | 0:39:41 | |
so you can see the bottom, so let's swim round here, | 0:39:41 | 0:39:45 | |
nice and comfortable, you can see the bottom, and then come back, OK? | 0:39:45 | 0:39:50 | |
'In terms of managing the swim, | 0:39:50 | 0:39:52 | |
'psychologically it's a big challenge,' | 0:39:52 | 0:39:53 | |
there's going to be lots of ups and downs. | 0:39:53 | 0:39:56 | |
I've had swims before when my goggles have come off, been snapped | 0:39:56 | 0:39:59 | |
off in the first 50 metres, and that could happen, hopefully not. | 0:39:59 | 0:40:02 | |
So, there is a whole load of things that could happen, and it's all | 0:40:02 | 0:40:04 | |
about coping with those and getting through the swim efficiently. | 0:40:04 | 0:40:07 | |
How are you feeling? | 0:40:07 | 0:40:09 | |
HE COUGHS Terrible! OK. | 0:40:09 | 0:40:11 | |
Cold. | 0:40:11 | 0:40:12 | |
Not breathing properly. | 0:40:12 | 0:40:14 | |
Just the usual! | 0:40:15 | 0:40:17 | |
Let's swim back to this point here, same again, | 0:40:17 | 0:40:20 | |
just work on our rhythm, work on trying to relax as much as possible. | 0:40:20 | 0:40:23 | |
Stop fighting the water. | 0:40:23 | 0:40:25 | |
And you're still in the water, you've not come out yet, | 0:40:25 | 0:40:28 | |
so there is, hopefully, progress there. | 0:40:28 | 0:40:30 | |
Jeez! | 0:40:33 | 0:40:35 | |
Hard, isn't it? | 0:40:35 | 0:40:37 | |
Argh! | 0:40:37 | 0:40:38 | |
Got ice cream head. | 0:40:38 | 0:40:40 | |
Once we get going, hopefully it'll be better. | 0:40:42 | 0:40:44 | |
But I feel cold and I'm trying to, | 0:40:44 | 0:40:47 | |
because I'm not breathing well, I'm trying to avoid panicking. | 0:40:47 | 0:40:51 | |
I'll be fine. Do you want to get in the skiff, we'll go for a swim? | 0:40:51 | 0:40:54 | |
'Always the optimist, me! | 0:40:54 | 0:40:57 | |
'But now it's time to see how I cope with a much longer swim. | 0:40:57 | 0:41:00 | |
'While it's not as long as it will be in the Braveheart Triathlon, | 0:41:00 | 0:41:04 | |
'it's further than I've attempted before.' | 0:41:04 | 0:41:07 | |
There's a little bit of chop here, | 0:41:07 | 0:41:08 | |
but this could well be the conditions in Loch Linnhe. | 0:41:08 | 0:41:11 | |
I've swum in Loch Linnhe maybe ten times, at least, | 0:41:11 | 0:41:13 | |
and it's almost always like this. | 0:41:13 | 0:41:15 | |
So this is good. | 0:41:15 | 0:41:17 | |
Chop, OK. | 0:41:17 | 0:41:20 | |
It's not easy to get a breath. | 0:41:20 | 0:41:21 | |
Where are we going? | 0:41:21 | 0:41:23 | |
'Swimming is a very unique sport, | 0:41:26 | 0:41:29 | |
'in the sense that it's the one discipline where you swim | 0:41:29 | 0:41:32 | |
'with other people who are potential Olympic swimmers. | 0:41:32 | 0:41:35 | |
'He swims mainly at Stirling University swimming pool - | 0:41:35 | 0:41:38 | |
'there are people there that are going to Rio. | 0:41:38 | 0:41:40 | |
'And he tells me a lot how it's demoralising, | 0:41:40 | 0:41:42 | |
'but you mustn't compare yourself to other people like that.' | 0:41:42 | 0:41:46 | |
I've never actually swum with quite as much chop in the water, | 0:41:47 | 0:41:51 | |
and you think you get into a rhythm, | 0:41:51 | 0:41:55 | |
and then you turn - pfff! | 0:41:55 | 0:41:57 | |
Get a mouthful of water, and then you swallow it, | 0:41:57 | 0:42:00 | |
and then you inhale it. | 0:42:00 | 0:42:02 | |
Oh, dearie me! Right, off we go. | 0:42:03 | 0:42:05 | |
'When I started swimming, | 0:42:11 | 0:42:12 | |
'I was swimming and breathing every third stroke. | 0:42:12 | 0:42:14 | |
'Now I've discovered, I don't quite know why, | 0:42:14 | 0:42:16 | |
'but I'm breathing every second stroke on the left-hand side, | 0:42:16 | 0:42:19 | |
'and I'm doing OK and I'm feeling quite comfortable, | 0:42:19 | 0:42:22 | |
'but of course, in the pool, | 0:42:22 | 0:42:23 | |
'you can see the black line and you know exactly where you're going. | 0:42:23 | 0:42:26 | |
'In open water, I'm swimming like a big banana, it's horrible! | 0:42:26 | 0:42:30 | |
'And when I try and sight, when I try and look up, | 0:42:30 | 0:42:32 | |
'it affects my breathing. | 0:42:32 | 0:42:34 | |
'I know you have to look up all the time | 0:42:35 | 0:42:37 | |
'so you know you're going in the right direction. | 0:42:37 | 0:42:39 | |
'But that really worries me as well, that scares me that | 0:42:39 | 0:42:42 | |
'when I sight, I lose my rhythm and it all goes to pot.' | 0:42:42 | 0:42:46 | |
Well, how was that? | 0:42:46 | 0:42:48 | |
It was... | 0:42:48 | 0:42:49 | |
..uncomfortable, cold, | 0:42:52 | 0:42:56 | |
my sighting is clearly a big issue, | 0:42:56 | 0:42:58 | |
my breathing is clearly a big issue. | 0:42:58 | 0:43:01 | |
The biggest thing I want to avoid is swimming twice the length - | 0:43:01 | 0:43:05 | |
I need to, on the Braveheart, | 0:43:05 | 0:43:07 | |
and I'm worried that I'm swimming all over the place. | 0:43:07 | 0:43:11 | |
Oh, God! I need to put it all together. | 0:43:11 | 0:43:13 | |
How are you feeling about biking 56 miles | 0:43:13 | 0:43:15 | |
and running up and down Ben Nevis now? | 0:43:15 | 0:43:17 | |
When I'm out the water... | 0:43:19 | 0:43:21 | |
I'll be happy to do anything! | 0:43:21 | 0:43:22 | |
Just get out of the water! | 0:43:23 | 0:43:25 | |
Ohh! | 0:43:25 | 0:43:27 | |
'I really, really want to do this.' | 0:43:27 | 0:43:29 | |
But there's a cut-off in the swim, | 0:43:29 | 0:43:31 | |
and if I don't make that cut-off and I'm yanked out of the water, | 0:43:31 | 0:43:34 | |
put in the boat and I can't carry on, that would break my heart. | 0:43:34 | 0:43:38 | |
Welcome back to The Adventure Show. | 0:43:46 | 0:43:48 | |
We are now 80 miles up the route here in Kinlochleven. | 0:43:48 | 0:43:51 | |
It's been ten hours since the start and the first runners should be | 0:43:51 | 0:43:54 | |
coming through soon. | 0:43:54 | 0:43:56 | |
He's led since Bridge of Orchy, and James Stewart is still out in front. | 0:43:56 | 0:43:59 | |
Well done, James. Cheers! | 0:43:59 | 0:44:02 | |
It's been a tremendous effort, not just for him, | 0:44:02 | 0:44:05 | |
but for his whole support team. | 0:44:05 | 0:44:07 | |
This race has attracted some of the world's best runners, | 0:44:07 | 0:44:11 | |
and no-one, least of all his dad, underestimates the competition. | 0:44:11 | 0:44:14 | |
It is a world-class field, and to be honest, | 0:44:14 | 0:44:16 | |
we still don't know what he's capable of. | 0:44:16 | 0:44:19 | |
He's getting stretched every race he goes into now. | 0:44:19 | 0:44:21 | |
There is more and more better athletes and he's known now, | 0:44:21 | 0:44:24 | |
they know what he can do, they come out looking for him now. | 0:44:24 | 0:44:27 | |
He does have a very good German on his heels. | 0:44:27 | 0:44:30 | |
How does he cope with that? | 0:44:30 | 0:44:32 | |
James will stick to his own thing until it becomes apparent | 0:44:32 | 0:44:35 | |
that Adam's sitting on his shoulder. | 0:44:35 | 0:44:37 | |
If that becomes apparent, then he'll move out. | 0:44:37 | 0:44:40 | |
Cheers. | 0:44:40 | 0:44:42 | |
Adam is now less than six minutes behind, so the pressure is mounting. | 0:44:42 | 0:44:47 | |
It would be a tremendous achievement | 0:44:47 | 0:44:49 | |
if he could win his first off-road ultra. | 0:44:49 | 0:44:53 | |
He went so well over the Devil's Staircase, but right now, | 0:44:53 | 0:44:56 | |
he's looking really tired. | 0:44:56 | 0:44:58 | |
As he came now, he had energetic problem, | 0:44:58 | 0:45:02 | |
so he had a little too less glycogen, | 0:45:02 | 0:45:05 | |
and if he takes a gel and a cola, | 0:45:05 | 0:45:09 | |
it normally takes about five minutes | 0:45:09 | 0:45:11 | |
and everything is fine again. | 0:45:11 | 0:45:14 | |
So, would you see him wanting to do more and more adventure races | 0:45:14 | 0:45:17 | |
if he likes being out in a very wild place? | 0:45:17 | 0:45:20 | |
We will talk after the race, I don't know. | 0:45:20 | 0:45:23 | |
But it's very impressing, how close he is at the local champion. | 0:45:23 | 0:45:28 | |
Very strong head! | 0:45:28 | 0:45:30 | |
WHOOPING AND CHEERING | 0:45:31 | 0:45:33 | |
These first two runners are now over an hour ahead of everyone else. | 0:45:33 | 0:45:37 | |
Back on the Devil's Staircase, American Kris Brown, | 0:45:37 | 0:45:41 | |
who was in the lead before he went the wrong way, is struggling. | 0:45:41 | 0:45:45 | |
Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong! | 0:45:45 | 0:45:48 | |
I just, uh, felt like I was really for it. | 0:45:48 | 0:45:51 | |
The views from the Devil's Staircase are amongst the best | 0:45:51 | 0:45:53 | |
in Scotland, but after 13 hours of racing, this hill is a real test. | 0:45:53 | 0:45:59 | |
It's a long one, this one! | 0:45:59 | 0:46:01 | |
Yeah, everybody's said that. Yeah. | 0:46:01 | 0:46:03 | |
Not a lot of runners, I'm guessing, up this hill. | 0:46:03 | 0:46:06 | |
It's been... It's been a great day. | 0:46:06 | 0:46:09 | |
My support crew... | 0:46:09 | 0:46:10 | |
..I owe them big time. | 0:46:12 | 0:46:13 | |
Cos they are saving me! | 0:46:13 | 0:46:15 | |
It's too hot for a boy from Ayrshire, this! | 0:46:15 | 0:46:18 | |
Feeling it now! | 0:46:18 | 0:46:19 | |
Last leg, so we're in for a few hours of hard work. | 0:46:21 | 0:46:25 | |
The man with the camera, eh? Just what you want to see! | 0:46:25 | 0:46:29 | |
Just looking my best, I'm so sure! | 0:46:29 | 0:46:32 | |
The third woman up the Staircase, Lorna McMillan, | 0:46:32 | 0:46:35 | |
is just over 20 minutes behind her nearest rival, | 0:46:35 | 0:46:38 | |
and in spite of the smile, even she is finding the going tough. | 0:46:38 | 0:46:43 | |
Beginning to feel it now. | 0:46:43 | 0:46:46 | |
Looking forward to a few hours' time, when it's all over! | 0:46:46 | 0:46:49 | |
Hopefully get a glass of wine in hand. | 0:46:49 | 0:46:51 | |
But a great day for it. | 0:46:53 | 0:46:54 | |
Yeah, the things that keep you going, eh? Glass of wine. | 0:46:54 | 0:46:57 | |
Well, yeah, it's my birthday today, so I think I deserve one. | 0:46:57 | 0:47:01 | |
Wow, what a way to spend your birthday! | 0:47:01 | 0:47:04 | |
You're not the first person to say that. | 0:47:04 | 0:47:07 | |
Right, cheers, thank you very much. | 0:47:07 | 0:47:10 | |
It's four in the afternoon. | 0:47:10 | 0:47:12 | |
Everyone's been on the go for 15 hours. | 0:47:12 | 0:47:14 | |
But most are having a great day out. | 0:47:14 | 0:47:17 | |
It's such a beautiful race, and it's the challenge of trying to | 0:47:17 | 0:47:20 | |
get the time that you want, so I'm hoping to do under 20 hours today. | 0:47:20 | 0:47:26 | |
The views are just simply stunning. But oh, boy, it's tough! | 0:47:26 | 0:47:30 | |
The terrain's relentless. | 0:47:30 | 0:47:33 | |
And today, obviously, it's particularly hot. | 0:47:33 | 0:47:37 | |
So, it's not something you can train for, typically, in Scotland. | 0:47:37 | 0:47:40 | |
It's, er, one of those tough challenges that when you do it, | 0:47:40 | 0:47:46 | |
you think, "Never again!" | 0:47:46 | 0:47:47 | |
But the day afterwards, | 0:47:47 | 0:47:50 | |
you just reflect on just how magnificent it is. | 0:47:50 | 0:47:53 | |
It's just... It's Scotland! | 0:47:53 | 0:47:56 | |
This is one of the best parts of Scotland you can go through. | 0:47:56 | 0:47:59 | |
It's always been a dream of mine to run this race. | 0:48:00 | 0:48:05 | |
And this is my first time, so I'm on cloud nine just now. | 0:48:05 | 0:48:10 | |
And I'm trying to run with a smile on my face. | 0:48:10 | 0:48:12 | |
And my good friend Fiona Reilly, who runs in my club, said, | 0:48:12 | 0:48:14 | |
"Don't worry if the smile is not on your face, | 0:48:14 | 0:48:16 | |
"because it will always be in your heart." | 0:48:16 | 0:48:18 | |
So I try to keep remembering that. | 0:48:18 | 0:48:20 | |
And I've ran it with this man the whole way. | 0:48:20 | 0:48:23 | |
Never say die! | 0:48:23 | 0:48:24 | |
Aye! That's our little quote that's kept us going, "Never say die!" | 0:48:24 | 0:48:30 | |
Meanwhile, way out in front, James Stewart's race is nearly over. | 0:48:32 | 0:48:36 | |
There's just two miles to go | 0:48:36 | 0:48:38 | |
and it looks like he's heading for his first West Highland Way victory. | 0:48:38 | 0:48:42 | |
Doing amazing. How are you feeling? Hot. But it's over soon. | 0:48:42 | 0:48:46 | |
15 minutes behind him, Adam Zahoran from Germany | 0:48:47 | 0:48:50 | |
is making sure his support team is ready to greet him | 0:48:50 | 0:48:53 | |
when he completes this off-road ultra marathon. | 0:48:53 | 0:48:57 | |
Currently in the lead for the women and in third place overall, | 0:48:57 | 0:49:00 | |
Lizzie Wraith is approaching the final checkpoint. | 0:49:00 | 0:49:03 | |
It's seven miles south of Fort William | 0:49:03 | 0:49:05 | |
and from here, there's just one last hill | 0:49:05 | 0:49:08 | |
before the descent to Glen Nevis | 0:49:08 | 0:49:10 | |
And the finish in Fort Bill itself. | 0:49:10 | 0:49:13 | |
How are you doing, Lizzie? How are you doing? I'm all right. | 0:49:13 | 0:49:16 | |
You're doing all right? Excellent. You're looking great. | 0:49:16 | 0:49:19 | |
My goodness, and off she goes. | 0:49:19 | 0:49:22 | |
I don't think we'll try and chase her, because we wouldn't catch up. | 0:49:22 | 0:49:25 | |
88 miles into the race, big smiles on the face and off she goes. | 0:49:25 | 0:49:29 | |
She looks in really good form. | 0:49:29 | 0:49:31 | |
Can you consider, started at one o'clock in the morning. | 0:49:31 | 0:49:34 | |
The time now is 5:25 in the afternoon, Saturday afternoon. | 0:49:34 | 0:49:38 | |
Wow, she's looking good. | 0:49:39 | 0:49:40 | |
Fourth overall in the race is Jacob Tangey. | 0:49:40 | 0:49:44 | |
38 years old. Runs for the Dumfries Running Club. | 0:49:44 | 0:49:47 | |
Lives in Edinburgh. Australian. | 0:49:47 | 0:49:49 | |
And Jacob looks in not bad condition, either. | 0:49:49 | 0:49:53 | |
He had some real difficulties building up for this race, | 0:49:53 | 0:49:56 | |
had problems with his ankles. | 0:49:56 | 0:49:58 | |
But he's looking good just now. | 0:49:58 | 0:50:01 | |
Jacob, how are you doing? Are you feeling all right? | 0:50:01 | 0:50:03 | |
Erm... | 0:50:03 | 0:50:04 | |
..that's a yes and a no. Yeah. | 0:50:05 | 0:50:08 | |
Good to be nearly there. Yep. | 0:50:08 | 0:50:09 | |
But it's been a long day. | 0:50:09 | 0:50:12 | |
Feeling a bit sore? Mm-hm. | 0:50:12 | 0:50:14 | |
Only seven miles, though. Single figures now. | 0:50:14 | 0:50:17 | |
I think it's six. Right, OK. | 0:50:17 | 0:50:19 | |
We'll say five. That's even better. | 0:50:20 | 0:50:22 | |
Good try, Jacob. | 0:50:24 | 0:50:26 | |
Perhaps we'll settle for somewhere in between. | 0:50:26 | 0:50:28 | |
Whatever the final distance, one thing's for sure... | 0:50:28 | 0:50:32 | |
Jacob's on form today and has the experience to keep going | 0:50:32 | 0:50:35 | |
when he's desperate to give up. | 0:50:35 | 0:50:38 | |
The mind controls what the body does. | 0:50:38 | 0:50:41 | |
So if the mind gets upset that the body is hurting a lot, | 0:50:41 | 0:50:45 | |
it can just say, "No more." | 0:50:45 | 0:50:47 | |
But if you run through it, then your mind is mentally prepared, | 0:50:47 | 0:50:51 | |
it knows it can overcome these sort of things. | 0:50:51 | 0:50:54 | |
So you hope that it'll get better. | 0:50:54 | 0:50:57 | |
And that's the mind saying, "We know this could happen. | 0:50:57 | 0:51:00 | |
"Just keep going and you'll get more energy | 0:51:00 | 0:51:03 | |
"or the terrain will change | 0:51:03 | 0:51:05 | |
"or the sun will come out | 0:51:05 | 0:51:07 | |
"or you'll see somebody that's supporting you that you love, | 0:51:07 | 0:51:10 | |
"you'll get a hug, you'll gain encouragement." | 0:51:10 | 0:51:13 | |
And it's just like... | 0:51:13 | 0:51:15 | |
a deep breath and off you go. | 0:51:15 | 0:51:17 | |
And it's like, "OK, we're back to the grind again. Let's keep going." | 0:51:17 | 0:51:21 | |
This is Morgan Windram-Geddes from the Fife Athletic Club. | 0:51:23 | 0:51:27 | |
Really fantastic performance from her. 34 years old. | 0:51:27 | 0:51:31 | |
This is the second woman. Fifth overall in the race. | 0:51:31 | 0:51:34 | |
Having a wee walk up to the checkpoint. | 0:51:34 | 0:51:37 | |
How are we doing? Good, yeah. | 0:51:37 | 0:51:39 | |
You're looking good, huh? Thank you. | 0:51:39 | 0:51:41 | |
Not long to go now. | 0:51:43 | 0:51:44 | |
No. It was quite a climb out of Kinlochleven. | 0:51:44 | 0:51:47 | |
Was that the sore bit? Yeah. | 0:51:48 | 0:51:51 | |
Well, you can really see that that is hurting a lot. | 0:51:59 | 0:52:03 | |
Sheer will and dedication and determination | 0:52:03 | 0:52:05 | |
getting her through now. | 0:52:05 | 0:52:06 | |
When we got to Glencoe, she was really, really struggling. | 0:52:07 | 0:52:11 | |
She just said, "My knees are sore. I just want to stop." | 0:52:11 | 0:52:14 | |
And that's the time we just have to keep saying, | 0:52:14 | 0:52:16 | |
"We'll decide at the next checkpoint." | 0:52:16 | 0:52:18 | |
And then she keeps going and then she felt fresh. | 0:52:18 | 0:52:20 | |
She felt, actually, really good at the next checkpoint | 0:52:20 | 0:52:23 | |
and now she's struggling again. | 0:52:23 | 0:52:25 | |
But she's good. She'll get there. | 0:52:25 | 0:52:28 | |
As Morgan battles over the last few painful miles, | 0:52:28 | 0:52:32 | |
James Stewart's race is over. | 0:52:32 | 0:52:34 | |
15 hours, 15 minutes and 59 seconds | 0:52:34 | 0:52:37 | |
after setting off from the start line, | 0:52:37 | 0:52:40 | |
he's the first to finish today. | 0:52:40 | 0:52:42 | |
But as Deziree waits to congratulate him, | 0:52:42 | 0:52:45 | |
he's got other things on his mind... | 0:52:45 | 0:52:48 | |
I'm just going for dinner. I just wanted to say congratulations. | 0:52:48 | 0:52:51 | |
Pizza and beer. That's all I want to see. | 0:52:51 | 0:52:53 | |
Fantastic run. Thank you so much. Well done. Thank you. | 0:52:53 | 0:52:55 | |
You still look really fresh. How are you feeling? | 0:52:55 | 0:52:58 | |
I don't look anything like how I feel, if I'm being honest with you. | 0:52:58 | 0:53:01 | |
How do you feel? Erm... | 0:53:01 | 0:53:03 | |
Yeah, that was tough. | 0:53:03 | 0:53:05 | |
That last 14 miles was the toughest effort I've ever had to run. | 0:53:05 | 0:53:08 | |
Because Adam was chasing me down, four minutes behind at Kinlochleven. | 0:53:08 | 0:53:13 | |
And in old Scottish parlance, I had to put the gutty down. | 0:53:13 | 0:53:16 | |
But I did it and it's... | 0:53:16 | 0:53:19 | |
It'll take a while to sink in, but I'm absolutely over the moon. | 0:53:19 | 0:53:23 | |
CHEERING | 0:53:23 | 0:53:25 | |
It's his first-ever off-road ultra marathon. | 0:53:25 | 0:53:28 | |
He's never been to Scotland before. | 0:53:28 | 0:53:30 | |
He's had no chance to recce the terrain. | 0:53:30 | 0:53:32 | |
But just 16 and a half minutes later, | 0:53:32 | 0:53:35 | |
Adam Zahoran crosses the finish line to take second place. | 0:53:35 | 0:53:38 | |
What an achievement. | 0:53:38 | 0:53:40 | |
It was a better placement. | 0:53:40 | 0:53:42 | |
I'm absolutely satisfied and delighted | 0:53:42 | 0:53:45 | |
that I could be the second on there. | 0:53:45 | 0:53:49 | |
First real trial of my life. | 0:53:51 | 0:53:54 | |
Seven, or for the more optimistic, six miles further back, | 0:53:54 | 0:53:58 | |
the third woman is approaching the final checkpoint. | 0:53:58 | 0:54:02 | |
This is Lorna McMillan, birthday girl. That's fantastic. | 0:54:02 | 0:54:05 | |
# ..birthday to you | 0:54:05 | 0:54:08 | |
# Happy birthday, dear Lorna | 0:54:08 | 0:54:12 | |
# Happy birthday to you. # | 0:54:12 | 0:54:16 | |
CHEERING | 0:54:16 | 0:54:18 | |
Hi again. How are you doing? Good, thanks. | 0:54:18 | 0:54:20 | |
Hello. How are you doing? right? I'm all right. | 0:54:20 | 0:54:22 | |
You're looking great. Thank you. I'm feeling fantastic. | 0:54:22 | 0:54:25 | |
Are you really? Well, kind of. It's only six miles to go. | 0:54:25 | 0:54:27 | |
Exactly. You're looking really strong. | 0:54:27 | 0:54:30 | |
Thank you very much. It's home straight. | 0:54:30 | 0:54:32 | |
Have you been smiling for the last 17 hours, though? No. | 0:54:32 | 0:54:35 | |
Yes, you have! I've been happier than I was last year. | 0:54:35 | 0:54:38 | |
I ran it last year and had a pretty terrible time. | 0:54:38 | 0:54:41 | |
Have they got a cake at the finish for you? I hope so. | 0:54:41 | 0:54:44 | |
We've got champagne. | 0:54:44 | 0:54:47 | |
Right, I'm going to head. | 0:54:47 | 0:54:49 | |
Have fun. We'll see you at the end. | 0:54:49 | 0:54:52 | |
Oh, thank you. | 0:54:52 | 0:54:53 | |
Have fun. Good on you. Good effort. | 0:54:53 | 0:54:56 | |
Well done, Lorna. | 0:54:56 | 0:54:57 | |
It's quite extraordinary, | 0:54:57 | 0:54:59 | |
when you see different people going through this checkpoint, | 0:54:59 | 0:55:01 | |
where their mind-set is after 89 or so miles. | 0:55:01 | 0:55:05 | |
Quite amazing. | 0:55:05 | 0:55:06 | |
Lorna clearly very happy to be going onto the home straight here. | 0:55:06 | 0:55:09 | |
Others, hm... | 0:55:09 | 0:55:11 | |
They're worried about this last bit of running | 0:55:11 | 0:55:13 | |
and they're trying to put their mind into the place | 0:55:13 | 0:55:16 | |
to get them over the line. | 0:55:16 | 0:55:17 | |
But Lorna, happy birthday. She's happy. She's great. And strong. | 0:55:17 | 0:55:20 | |
Amazing. | 0:55:20 | 0:55:21 | |
And what a great run Jacob Tangey is having. | 0:55:22 | 0:55:25 | |
He's overtaken Lizzie Wraith | 0:55:25 | 0:55:27 | |
and is now racing down Glen Nevis to the finish. | 0:55:27 | 0:55:30 | |
17 hours and 37 minutes after setting off this morning, | 0:55:30 | 0:55:34 | |
Jacob's race is nearly over. | 0:55:34 | 0:55:37 | |
Just the last few steps to the finish line... | 0:55:37 | 0:55:40 | |
That's it. | 0:55:40 | 0:55:41 | |
He's had a tremendous day and finishes in third. | 0:55:41 | 0:55:45 | |
Fantastic achievement. You must be thrilled. Yeah. Yeah. | 0:55:45 | 0:55:48 | |
It was tough, but I was able to run most of the way, | 0:55:48 | 0:55:52 | |
except up the hills. | 0:55:52 | 0:55:53 | |
But there are a lot of long sections. | 0:55:53 | 0:55:57 | |
It seemed like parts weren't going to finish. | 0:55:57 | 0:55:59 | |
Lizzie Wraith is just five minutes behind Jacob. | 0:56:01 | 0:56:04 | |
She's not just the fastest woman on the course today, | 0:56:04 | 0:56:07 | |
but she's in fourth place overall. | 0:56:07 | 0:56:09 | |
What a truly amazing run she's had. | 0:56:09 | 0:56:12 | |
I know you must be exhausted, but a phenomenal achievement. | 0:56:12 | 0:56:16 | |
Thank you. Really well done. You must be absolutely thrilled. | 0:56:16 | 0:56:19 | |
Yeah, I'm really happy. That was tough. | 0:56:19 | 0:56:21 | |
And think there was a girl close behind, so it was a good race. | 0:56:21 | 0:56:25 | |
Well done. | 0:56:25 | 0:56:27 | |
Nearly there. Thank you. | 0:56:27 | 0:56:29 | |
Second to Fort William for the women is Morgan Windram-Geddes. | 0:56:29 | 0:56:32 | |
She's the fifth fastest today | 0:56:32 | 0:56:35 | |
and has been on the go for 18 hours and eight minutes. | 0:56:35 | 0:56:38 | |
Unbelievable. | 0:56:38 | 0:56:40 | |
I'm really happy that I'm here, but I'm shattered. | 0:56:40 | 0:56:43 | |
The last... | 0:56:43 | 0:56:44 | |
I didn't realise how many climbs were on the last leg, actually. | 0:56:44 | 0:56:47 | |
And the heat was quite bad. But, yeah, it was an amazing day. | 0:56:49 | 0:56:53 | |
It really was. | 0:56:53 | 0:56:55 | |
Really happy with my time. | 0:56:55 | 0:56:56 | |
And here comes the birthday girl. | 0:56:58 | 0:57:00 | |
Lorna McMillan, 41 years old today | 0:57:00 | 0:57:03 | |
and a fantastic time - 18 hours, 23 minutes and 33 seconds. | 0:57:03 | 0:57:08 | |
I think there'll be plenty of celebrations tonight. | 0:57:08 | 0:57:11 | |
I had a little hope in my mind that I could get around about 19 hours. | 0:57:11 | 0:57:16 | |
So to come in at, like, 18... | 0:57:16 | 0:57:19 | |
I think it was 18:23, yeah, I'm absolutely delighted. | 0:57:19 | 0:57:22 | |
Yes, it was a big surprise. | 0:57:22 | 0:57:24 | |
So confirmation of those final results... | 0:57:24 | 0:57:27 | |
For the men, Jacob Tangey came in third | 0:57:27 | 0:57:30 | |
in a time of 17 hours, 37 minutes and 50 seconds. | 0:57:30 | 0:57:34 | |
Second place went to Adam Zahoran | 0:57:34 | 0:57:36 | |
in 15 hours, 32:27. | 0:57:36 | 0:57:38 | |
And taking the top spot was James Stewart, | 0:57:38 | 0:57:41 | |
with his great time of 15 hours, 15 minutes and 59 seconds. | 0:57:41 | 0:57:46 | |
For the women, in third place was Lorna McMillan, | 0:57:46 | 0:57:49 | |
who completed the race in 18 hours, 23:33. | 0:57:49 | 0:57:53 | |
Second was Morgan Windram-Geddes in 18:08:20. | 0:57:53 | 0:57:58 | |
But 26 minutes ahead of her, | 0:57:58 | 0:58:00 | |
Lizzie Wraith was the fastest woman on the course today, | 0:58:00 | 0:58:03 | |
with a time of 17 hours, 42 minutes and 27 seconds. | 0:58:03 | 0:58:07 | |
Well, that's it for this month's Adventure Show. | 0:58:11 | 0:58:13 | |
Congratulations to everyone who took part, | 0:58:13 | 0:58:15 | |
the organisers and the support crews, as well. | 0:58:15 | 0:58:18 | |
Truly extraordinary. | 0:58:18 | 0:58:19 | |
Next time around, we'll be back in Fort William | 0:58:19 | 0:58:21 | |
for the Braveheart Triathlon, | 0:58:21 | 0:58:23 | |
when it's me who's going to be put through their paces. | 0:58:23 | 0:58:26 | |
Looking forward to that, I'm supposed to say. | 0:58:26 | 0:58:28 | |
Until then, from all the team, thank you so much for your company. | 0:58:28 | 0:58:30 | |
Bye for now. | 0:58:30 | 0:58:32 |