The Highlander, Last One Standing - a wee practice for going loopy!
12:05pm, 12th Jul 2022 | The Highlander, Last One Standing | 6 Comments
Blog by SooWoo
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Ages ago, my running pal and I entered the Highlander, Last One Standing ultra. It’s one of those Backyard Ultra formats where you have one hour to complete the first 4.167mile loop, then be at the start line ready to go again on the hour, every hour, until there is only one runner left. We’ve done 12hour ultras but this will be a whole different mindset and we fancied giving this format a go.
We decided that with two weeks to go we really should have a trial of a few loops to see what it would feel like to finish a lap then hang around until we had to start the next lap on the next hour. It would allow us to practice eating some hot food and doing things like charging watches on the go. We planned to run five laps, my husband set up the gazebo and we had lots of kit, food and drink laid out ready for after each lap.
Lap 1
My pal’s dog joined us for the first loop, he was a good addition as he kept us a bit slower paced with his pee stops! We walked every uphill and got back to the gazebo with about 8mins to go before the next hour started.
I had a little rice pudding tub and necked some ActiveRoot as it was already very warm even though we’d started at 7am.
Lap2
No doggy this time and we got back with 11-12mins to spare. This time I made up a pasta Mugshot, ate half and saved the rest for after lap 3. I have often struggled with eating later on in ultras so I am determined to make sure I have small amounts after every lap for the Highlander event.
Lap3
Time to practice running a lap with a little battery charger strapped to my watch. I started the lap with the watch battery showing 53% and it had reached 100% before we hit 3miles.
Lap4
There’s a saying in ultras… “Beware of the Chair!!” However, we couldn’t resist a photo in the huge deckchair outside the pub that was on our route!
Lap 5
Done and dusted and a well earned ice lolly 😀
I really enjoyed our mini Backyard ultra practice. The race route will have a bit more trail and undulations than the one we used for our practice. We’ll also have to do several laps with head torches when we hit the night laps and I’m not sure if midgies will be another issue to contend with!
Who knows how it will go on 23rd July! I don’t normally like making predictions but I feel I need to set my target down in writing here for a change….
I would love to do 15 laps as that would see me beating two previous “bests”…. that is, ‘most time on feet’ (I’ve done a race that took me over 14hours) and also ‘furthest distance in a race’ (I’ve covered over 58miles in the Glenmore 12hour race)😀
We decided that with two weeks to go we really should have a trial of a few loops to see what it would feel like to finish a lap then hang around until we had to start the next lap on the next hour. It would allow us to practice eating some hot food and doing things like charging watches on the go. We planned to run five laps, my husband set up the gazebo and we had lots of kit, food and drink laid out ready for after each lap.
Lap 1
My pal’s dog joined us for the first loop, he was a good addition as he kept us a bit slower paced with his pee stops! We walked every uphill and got back to the gazebo with about 8mins to go before the next hour started.
I had a little rice pudding tub and necked some ActiveRoot as it was already very warm even though we’d started at 7am.
Lap2
No doggy this time and we got back with 11-12mins to spare. This time I made up a pasta Mugshot, ate half and saved the rest for after lap 3. I have often struggled with eating later on in ultras so I am determined to make sure I have small amounts after every lap for the Highlander event.
Lap3
Time to practice running a lap with a little battery charger strapped to my watch. I started the lap with the watch battery showing 53% and it had reached 100% before we hit 3miles.
Lap4
There’s a saying in ultras… “Beware of the Chair!!” However, we couldn’t resist a photo in the huge deckchair outside the pub that was on our route!
Lap 5
Done and dusted and a well earned ice lolly 😀
I really enjoyed our mini Backyard ultra practice. The race route will have a bit more trail and undulations than the one we used for our practice. We’ll also have to do several laps with head torches when we hit the night laps and I’m not sure if midgies will be another issue to contend with!
Who knows how it will go on 23rd July! I don’t normally like making predictions but I feel I need to set my target down in writing here for a change….
I would love to do 15 laps as that would see me beating two previous “bests”…. that is, ‘most time on feet’ (I’ve done a race that took me over 14hours) and also ‘furthest distance in a race’ (I’ve covered over 58miles in the Glenmore 12hour race)😀