"Victor Meldrew" <I.don't@want.your.spam> wrote in message
news
TTNhlBBpr1AFwG3@rainow.demon.co.uk...
> In message <469dd0l4g8bosi23iavk0kvs82a96p350u@4ax.com>,
> Judith <no.spam.for.goofif.please@aol.com> writes
> >On Sun, 20 Jun 2004 23:58:24 +0100, Victor Meldrew
> ><I.don't@want.your.spam> wrote:
> >
> >>Anyone know what was happening on the WHW yesterday?
> >
> >Apparently it was the West Highland Way race.
> >
> >This taken from
http://www.westhighlandwayrace.org/
> >
> >"Essentially the object is simple, you start at Milngavie
> >Railway Station (7miles north of Glasgow) at 1am on 19 th
> >June & run/jog/walk to Fort William Leisure Centre by
> >noon on the 20th June, 35 hours to cover 153km (95 miles)
> >including 3543m (11624ft) of ascent. Along the way you
> >pass through checkpoints within time limits. In order to
> >participate you must have your own motorised backup,
> >consisting of at least two people, one of which must be
> >capable of covering the last two sections with you (or
> >find you) if assistance is required or during the hours
> >of darkness."
> >
> I think it must have been the other way around this year.
> They were all heading south. Most were near Kingshouse,
> with marshalls crossing them over the A82 towards the ski
> run, but we saw a few determined souls on the approach to
> Tyndrum.
>
> However I didn't see anyone doing anything other than
> walking at a leisurely pace.
> --
The walkers heading south were participating in the West
Highland Way Challenge, which is a fairly recent "corporate
team building" / team fundraising event. The West Highland
Way race, an official athletic event which has been running
since the mid 80's, was heading north having started at
Milngavie at 1am that morning. For reasons best known
perhaps to themselves, the WHW "challenge" insist on
travelling south on the same day the race runs north. I was
part of the support team for one of the entrants to the WHW
race on Saturday supporting my runner by accompanying him
across Rannoch Moor, and it was distressing to see him have
to get out of the way of some of the most unbelievably
ignorant people I have ever had the occassion to come across
in a setting of this type, as they marched 5 or 6 abreast
blocking the route. You can imagine how you might feel
having ran 65 miles in 18 hours to have to go round these
ignorant people. It would have cost them nothing to have
stepped aside, or at least singled up, in a mark of respect
for an achievement which far outstrips theirs. I am also at
a loss to explain why they need a comfort station every ten
miles, why there are marquees everywhere, why they stop at
the head of Loch Lomond rather than finishing the dam route,
and what the &#@!! the army have to do with it. I certainly
believe it is overkill to have an army helicopter shuttling
up and down the route all day. If you go up to the Bridge of
Orchy hotel taday and take the road to Victoria Bridge, you
will see that the verges to the north of the bridge are
destroyed. Perhaps the West Highland Way Challenge
organisers can explain why they allowed participants support
vehicles to park *on the single track road* thus blocking
access to other road users, and causing the challenge
support teams, the race support teams and the handful of
bewildered tourists to drive around them onto the verges.
Whilst I will always support those with a keenness to get
into the outdoors, the West Highland Way Race organisers
have a real "challenge" on their hands - how do they prevent
their carefully marshalled minimum impact event from being
linked (by the kind of uninformed guess work this thread
demostrates) with the west highland way challenge, an event
which clearly doesn't give a toss for the impact it has on
the route.
D
West Highland Way yesterday? 
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