UKC

I am looking for a bit of advice from anybody that has previously competed in the Hoka Highland Fling. I'm scheduled to participate at the end of April. This will be my first ultra, but I've completed quite a few marathons and training is going well. Excited but nervous probably captures my state of mind at the moment. It's the logistics of such a long run that feel like such new territory. Any advice on the following would be really helpful...

1: How much food and fluid to carry ?
2: Do the organisers provide food / fluid stations or do you need to arrange your own caches?
3: if so, any thoughts on the best spots to be met by friends with food and fluid?
4: Is the trail pretty obvious or is navigation going to be an issue?

Any other hints or suggestions from experienced Hoka/Ultra runners would be really welcome.

Thanks

In reply to alastairmac:
Have you not looked at the website ?

There are 4 checkpoints where they supply water and you can use dropbags for your own drinks and food and spare kit etc, so you need to carry enough food and water to keep you going between the CPs.
(1) Balmaha (after 19.8 miles) NS 420 909
(2) Rowardennan (after 27.2 miles) NS 359 986
(3) Inversnaid (after 34.3 miles) NN 336 088
(4) Bein Glas Farm (after 40.9 miles) NN 321 186

Water is also available at 12.6 miles (Drymen)

The WHW is well signposted, you shouldn't have any nav problems

ps I've not run the full Fling, but done a couple of relay legs.

In reply to steelbru:

Thanks very much. That's really helpful.

In reply to alastairmac:

Ran it last year and signed up for this year too.

Its an awesome run and so well organised so i wouldn't worry about the logistics.

Just turn up at the start with your drop bags that you have prepared with all the food you need (labelled correctly), chuck them in the vans they provide and forget about it. They're all transferred to the correct drop points for you. Water is also provided at the drop points and the marshals will bend over backward to help you, even clearing up any mess you create, really can't emphasise how good they are.

Liquid- I read somewhere that a litre an hour was recommended so took a 2 ltr bladder, it was a pain to fill at each station so will prob go with bottles for this year. I struggled to reach the ltr/per h figure any way.

I used around 7000 calories on last years event so just make sure you can top up what you use. One thing that i got tired of was all the sweet stuff i consumed. Saw a girl with a few packs of salted hula hoops so that'll be my choice to take away the sweet taste this year.

The trail is good, waymarked so just familiarise yourself with the symbol for the WHW and you'll be fine. Unless your running at the front just follow the guys/gals. I copied the route from the Hoka website and pasted them to A4 paper then just put them inside the drop bags for the legs ahead, seamed to work ok.

Awesome event, just awesome. A killer though so get ready

In reply to alastairmac:

I pulled out due to injury at Bein Glas last year (but had run the missing bit in a training run, so know the whole course).
As trail ultras go it's very straight forward, but the fact that it's very runnable (especially the first bit) makes it quite tough in my opinion. It really beats you up, as you can really push it. Most trail ultras I had done before are much more technical and therefore slower and easier on the legs.
Coming from european style mountain ultras I found the whole drop bag thing a bit over the top. I am used to carry my stuff with me and loads of compulsory kit. Next I time I will definitely use handheld bottles and make use of drop bags for food.
The race is very well organised a probably a good choice for a first ultra. There were plenty of support crews around, which got on my nerves a bit, so if self-sufficiency and a quiet experience is what you are looking for you are in the wrong race.

In reply to alastairmac:

1: How much food and fluid to carry ?
2: Do the organisers provide food / fluid stations or do you need to arrange your own caches?
3: if so, any thoughts on the best spots to be met by friends with food and fluid?
4: Is the trail pretty obvious or is navigation going to be an issue?

Go off fairly hard, not stupidly but let the early miles count. Certainly 1 min - 90 seconds for me, probably 1 min off marathon pace, maybe even a tad less. 6:30-6:45 along the pipe line. Its a much tougher second half with some long drags so your feet do take a battering. If its wet go with trail shoes with grip. If dry I'd go with road shoes.

1. 500 mils in fluid. Food, its short and fairly quick, so just standard flapjackm rice pud, sweets, gels, but mainly bananas. Then coke and lucozade.

2. used to be nothing, I think just water but not ran since 09

3. Thats all set, read the breifings, it changes slightly year to year but every 7-10 miles or so. But you do have a long stretch at the back of the loch.

4. fairly, you can get lost but its hard to, any junction is posted, but especially through mugdock you can, and people do, go wrong but so many know it now that it should not be an issue

In reply to Run_Ross_Run:
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Wooah.. be careful 1l / hour is shed loads.

There are no hard and fast rules but half of that is normally recomended as a rough rule. The Dr suggested something around that on the WHW site article re hypnotraemia.

But most rules, there's one which is connected to mls/kg weight, which comes out around 400-500mls/hour.

Do not try and reach a figure. If you dont feel you need it dont drink.

In reply to IainRUK:

Yep, I think i was closer to half per hour last year. It was fairly cool so will be interested to see what its like this year. Topped it up with a bit of Lucozade sport at the stations.


Year before last , i think, it was like a mini heatwave.

In reply to alastairmac: Thanks again everybody. Lots of really good and helpful advice.

In reply to alastairmac:

Oh, one last thing.

Try not to break your big toe 7 weeks before the event like I did, yesterday.

In reply to Run_Ross_Run:

Bad one. Which one? I broke my little toe recently and stupidly kept training. If you can just bike for a month and you could be OK.. depends how bad and which toe.

In reply to IainRUK:

Big toe on left foot. Quite a clean break they said. Swollen to hell. Had to walk about 5k on it to get picked up.

In reply to Run_Ross_Run:

bad one, i was amazed how much you use your little toe, the big toe even more so, but the blood supply maybe better so it may heal quicker. Mine was just a fracture.. 2 weeks of very poor running before finally had an x ray, then 2 weeks of biking, then back running.