Nik Nak Runs

  This is going to be a longer blog post as there's a lot to go through. In summary, the event is 42 miles with 6,500ft elevation. It was a big one! Before you read on, stick the kettle on, get a cuppa & cake then settle down to read on...... Introduction This event came to my attention last year while listening to the Young Hearts Run Free (YHRF) podcast where a couple of the episodes I had chose to listen to, the guests had participated. A lot of the guests on the pod have covered the whole West Highland Way along with the 2 events the highland fling (1st half) & the devil o' the highlands (DOTH - 2nd half). When I wanted to increase my distances & have bigger adventures, I'd asked a few folk who had done all 3 what they thought to do 1st. Most said DOTH purely on the basis of the scenery. Also it's a bit less distance. Then when tracking my pals Kayleigh, Donna & a work colleague who took part last year & dot watching them I decided from there ...

It's been a few weeks since I took part in this event. Originally I was teed up to run 'run the blades - the night one' last October but due to the weather it was postponed. When the new date was released, it landed on my eldest daughter's birthday completely ruling this one out for me. The event is ran by Breaking Strain who are exceptionally organised (or they seem so, behind the scenes may be chaos!) and they also provided an alternative of transferring the night place to the summer 10km event. A final alternative was to change the place to the half marathon or ultra distance. I didn't want to do the 10km again in summer having already completed this so the half or ultra were my only personal alternatives. When the decision was made, I'd made my mind up I was entering devil o the highlands, looked at the dates and this was 3 weeks before the devil. Perfect for a last training long run and another ultra under my belt before the devil. That was 2 ultra marathon...