The West Highland Way Relay, 2004
part of
Shettleston's Centenary Celebrations

Getting up at 4.30am for a race is a bit of a struggle, I still felt sleepy on the start line in Milgavnie along with the six other leg 1 runners. Luckily everyone decided to take it easy at the start, though we slowly wound the pace up through Mugdock Park. Was still chatting away to John Mackay up to the first main road crossing at about 4 miles, and we'd managed to drop the others. Stretched it out on the nice rocky descent down to the railway then pushed on - now on my own in the lead, enjoying the sunshine and early morning cool, and the views to Ben Lomond in the distance. All went well until about a couple of miles from Drymen. Came to a road junction with an option of going straight on or right. No signs around so had to make a quick decision, so went right, knowing Drymen was somewhere to the right!! Unfortunately right was wrong, and I ended up on the main road about one mile to the east of Drymen. Somewhat dejected when I realised an error had been made. I trotted off westwards and eventually saw the leaders crossing the road about half a minute up ahead of me. Finished in 4th in 1.18. Good fun though!
Mark Johnston

There was a big gap between the front three runners and my taking over from Alan White, so I set off without any pressure. But at Tyndrum Colin and Ian 'helpfully' shouted that someone was 100 metres behind! I couldn't hold him off and the Fife lad disappeared into the distance by the time I got to The Great Bend. This was despite Colin (ever the gentleman) holding a gate open for me while letting Fife climb the stile. The sun beat down and I got hotter and hotter and wished to see Bridge of Orchy at every bend in the track. When I finally handed over to Olly I discovered that HBT had gone through in the lead and written 'HBT no. 1' on the road - a bit prematurely!
Anne Nimmo