Kerry and Rhian on the Highland Fling

On April 28, Kerry and Rhian took on the Highland Fling. This is the first 53 (!) miles of the West Highland Way, from Milngavie to Tyndrum. Here's Kerry's account of the day:

Rhian and I headed off to Glasgow on Friday night ready for an early start in a taxi to Milngavie.

On the Saturday morning, we arrived at Milngavie train station just after 0500 and the next hour flew by as we got registered and ready to start at 0600.

Everyone had advised us to start slow and we did but this felt hard when so many people were passing us. We arrived in Drymen in 305/307th place in a time of 2.10. Our mantra at this point was to run our own race and ignore everyone passing us.

Drymen to Balmaha was good and Conic Hill didn't give us any problems.

We probably wasted a bit too much time at the check point retrieving our drop bags decorated with pink feather boas and chatting to Jeff, who only just made it in time.

On to the next section which felt much longer than it really was. We were still feeling happy and comfortable. We got into Rowardennan in 280/281 place and time of 5.29. We didn't know it then but obviously we were slowly moving back past people who had set off faster. Jeff told us Susan would be waiting for us at Inversnaid so off we went!

Rhian led all the way along here with me trying hard to follow her footsteps and basically just do what she did. I was beginning to crave crisps and I knew that there were none in this drop bag so spend quite a bit of time hoping Susan would have some for me. Sure enough, when we arrived she did! We again spend a while in the checkpoint refuelling and Rhian washing her face and fixing her hair for the cameras.

Onwards to Beinglas where we thought we had no support. By this time we had some quiet periods(yes we did stop talking for a wee bit). We were surprised to see 2 blue Harriers jerseys as we approached Beinglas and were delighted to see Liz and Phil cheering us on. I had had a hot spot for a few miles so checked that out and restocked my waist belt then Rhian and I ditched everything we thought we could do without. We were now in 233/234 place and at a time of 9.06.

By this point we told ourselves it was only Comrie and back, so barring any major injury we were finishing this. The next 4 miles were our target as we were going to have some support there, a bit earlier than we thought. Jeff, Sav and Levi had ran out so they ran with us for a short while and we then saw Liz and Phil again briefly this time. After leaving the others and beginning to climb a hill we had to pass cows(with a calf or 2). This really unnerved me and spoiled the section for me. Thankfully Rhian is a big brave girl and she made me pass them. We were starting to flag a bit now when Karen P appeared and joined us up another hill - it was good to have a wee chat and lift our spirits. By now we only had the equivalent of the Crieff 10k to go. We thought we could just possibly get under 12 hours now if we kept working hard.

As we crossed the road and realised that we only had about 3 miles or so to go I just wanted to push on and get it done.

As we were nearing the finish a few men passed and were chatting away, everyone had different views of how far to go and that was a bit annoying. The next person we saw was Levi sitting on a bench waiting to run in with us. As he joined us and we headed in we could hear the piper and then all our fantastic Harriers support cheering us on to the finish in 11 hours and 55 minutes and in 209/10th place.

IT WAS FANTASTIC!!!!