With the Lockdown comes the phenomenon of Virtual Racing. Last week all those who have never tried to run the 95 miles of the West Highland Way had the chance to (not) do it virtually over 9.5 days – making is somewhat ‘easier’ but still a wee challenge. The format allowed solos, teams of 3 and relay teams to enter.
The gist of it was that there were 3 virtual checkpoints making 3 legs to be done within a certain time limit. These were virtually from Milngavie to:
L1 Inversnaid – 36 miles completed by midnight Monday 15th June
L2 to Victoria Bridge – 27 miles, total 63 miles by midnight Thursday 18th June
L3 to Fort William – 32 miles, totalling 95 miles completed by midday Sunday 21st June
Around 20 Carnethy folk ran solo completing the route in a range of times proportional to how flat their route choices were, plus a dose of their running capabilities. Some, like Nicki Innes chose multiple Pentland Skylines to tot up her miles – hence, don’t be fooled by the times in all cases since virtual running means everyones’ routes were quite different and ascent and terrain were not accounted for. This made the winning time of 09:22:07 for 95 miles a bit weird, or he is super talented, or both. Emma Peveril completed her race as a duo – with a baby due within a month.
Identifying Carnethies in the Teams of 3 is more tricky – but I spotted 3 teams having managed to get my ‘kids’ to enter as Carnethy Hartrees. Like all races, being on start line is important and even in Virtual races folk have to retire for various running injuries, falling off bikes, being bitten by dogs, DIY accidents or being besotted by puppies. Well done all who had a go and apologies if I missed you in the tables.
Cheers
Mark Hartree
Solo: