Charles: Day 23/365 - nearly 7 miles of the West Highland Way

Day 23 and begging for the wife's permission ;)

Well folks, where do I begin??

After checking into the fantastic Crianlarich Hotel on the Sunday night, I checked with the receptionist what runs were available and where did the WHW route start?, How far? Where's the finish?

To my ecstatic delight she told me it started just across the road from the train station, was about 7 miles long and the section finished in Tyndrum near to the Big Green Welly Shop. You could imagine my smile and my pleading with the wife "Please, please, please can I go for a run on Monday morning and you can pick me up in Tyndrum, pleaaassssseee. I'll do anything thing you want". She agreed because she didn't want to see a grown man cry if she had said no (or perhaps she was on a promise, ding dong lol)

Well I had a hearty, but light, cooked breakfast in the morning and set off on my run at about 11.30am. I had no intention of winning any prizes by trying to run the route as quickly as possible. I wanted to take my time and relish in the scenery and take photos.

The run itself was in the pouring rain and had massive big hills that even I sometimes gave up trying to run. There was massive big puddles, flooded trail paths alongside river banks and slippy, slippy rocks underfoot and mud everywhere. Did I complain? Not once and loved every single step of the run because the scenery was breathtaking :)

I'm so glad and grateful for my Asics Gel Trail Lahar Goretex trainers but even they couldn't keep my feet dry. They were extremely grippy in the mud and hard trails and protected the feet and ankles from the rocky surfaces.

The only down side to the run, if any, was that I had a cold and was a bit wheezy going up the really steep hills and I got cramp early on in my left calf muscle with running down some of the steep down hill sections. I managed to run through it though.

The details of my WHW (Day 23) run can be found at Day 23/365 challenge