Sadly Charlie was forced to pull out of the bonkers WHW race at Beinglas. He had been running for about 8hrs (some 40 or so miles) by this point and while I haven’t spoken to him yet I imagine he was gutted to have come so far.. yet have to go home early. His wife called me at 10am to tell me the news and she thinks it had something to do with a sore throat that Charlie had been suffering the week before.

I was really disappointed for Charlie after all the amazing training that he’d put in this year. I was also (selfishly) a tad disappointed myself. I was really excited about supporting Charlie on those final 20 miles or so.

But the real bummer was that because I wasn’t heading north for the event I had to stay home and attend to domestic chores, including the gardening. Boy did I feel sorry for myself by the end of the day. I kept thinking about the allure of the hills vs the repulsiveness of the weeds.

The WHW race did not provide any record breaking runs this year. Bradley Scott won in 16hrs 11 secs (the record is held by Jez Bragg in 15:44 from 2006). While the fastest woman was Sharon Law in 19hrs 55mins (2007 saw the fastest ever lady Lucy Colquhoun in 17:16). I’ve not heard a race report but the results suggest that conditions were tough at the weekend.