Half a glee outing

Yesterday I joined the glee club run from Drymen to Rowardennan. I was only going to do the 1st half and the plan was for Thomas to pick me up at Rowardennan. Well, I was a bit nervous as this was going to be my 1st outing with them "on my own", but Thomas reassured me that I would "easily" be able to keep up with their pace! Well, little did he know! So we gathered in Drymen, about 10 or even 12 of us, I only knew Ellen, Pauline and Fiona and Ian King. Thomas was meeting Marco to run to Balmaha and back for a speedier session and a slightly diverted route and then drive the car to Rowardennan. I was a bit concerned about my right knee but that was holding up, but needs a rest today so no Renfrewshire Road Race for me.
After a picture we set off. Well, setting off?! Speeding off into the distance was more like it. There were 2 girls at the front (I had not met either of them before) who were setting a pace that left me gasping for breath. I was talking to Ellen, or rather she was talking to me and asking me about Nepal, but all I could do was give short answers and hiss the question: Is this your usual pace? After the 1st gate I just had to let them go and fell back until I met Fiona who was also finding it a bit too fast. So I settled into a much more relaxed pace and we chatted. In fact our chat would last nearly 4 hours until we got to Rowardennan with photo stops and a toilet break in Balmaha. In Balmaha Ellen, Pauline, Janet and Don were waiting on us, apparently they had also slowed down and had only waited a few minutes? We had met Thomas and Marco coming up Conic Hill again and stopped for a quick photo.

Fiona is obviously a very experienced WHW Runner so I got a few tips and tasted Ginger Crystals and Rice Crispy Squares that I will test out myself next time. I had gels and fruit pastilles but started to eat them a bit late (90min into the run) so I really have to stick to my orders of eating a gel every 30min or so. But I drank regularly.

Thomas met us about 3K out from Rowardennan and ran back with us, telling us that Ellen & Co were only a few min ahead but that the other half of the group had been there for at least 25min! We arrived and the bar was full of runners! To our surprise Karen and George and their running friends were there having run from Beinglas to Rowardennan and stocking up on food and drinks. They are all training for the Fling. I got changed and was pleased with my 4 hour run. We then headed to Glasgow to buy new (old) Trabuccos. I was keen to get my old model (Trabucco 12) but all they had was the new Goretex version in a pink that was too hard to bear. Luckily she offered to order the non Goretex version in purple - Perfect. And we met some more WHW Family members, Tim Downie, Muriel and their daughter were shopping for new running gear. Good luck to Muriel in her 1st HM in Bath!