COLIN MEIKLE

Colin Reigle completed the West Highland Way challenge race, running 160km in less than 35 hours. He trained for the race by gradually increasing his distances and doing back-to-back long runs. During the race, he had to manage his energy and pace himself to preserve his legs. The race included steep inclines and challenging terrain. Colin faced some discomfort and doubts along the way but pushed through. He successfully completed the race, surpassing his planned times at checkpoints. Hello and welcome to the next episode of the private members podcast within the progress project. We have a very special episode today, which is joined by Colin Reigle, who has just completed the West Highland Way challenge race this weekend. If anybody does not know what that is, it is basically running or trying to complete the full West Highland Way in less than 35 hours. To put that into perspective, it is just under 160km, over four monorails of elevation. You are pretty much going to have no sleep during that. People who go to do the West Highland Way normally go between five and seven days, and stay overnight in hotels. To try and do that in less than 35 hours is some achievement, and we are just going to chat through the fit of the race, how the race went itself, and it has been an amazing the body is really capable of. How are we feeling, Colin? This is now three days since we finished. How are we feeling? I am starting to feel more back to normal after a few days' rest, but I was not feeling too good after that. I am not going to lie. On the way up, or when we met on Saturday, I said, when are you back at work, and you said Thursday. That is quite a good three days' break, but it has definitely been needed. That was definitely a good decision, taking the three days off. 100 per cent. Just in terms of Colin's journey with regards to running, Colin joined the programme in March 2023. At that point, Colin was just preparing for a 10km race, the calendar 10km, and had not really done anything more than that prior. Since then, we have done 10km races, we have done half-marathons, we did the first marathon at Christmas time, then in February we did the first ultra-marathon. Was that 58km? 58km. 58km. That built us up to the West Endway Challenge race, which, as I said, was just over 160km, so almost three times what his furthest distance was, which is madness. In terms of the preps, for a lot of people who are interested in ultra-marathons, is there a lot more preparation and planning involved? Yes. I was doing about four runs a week and saving the longer runs for the weekend, just because of work and stuff like that. I was doing the shorter, maybe faster ones through the week, and then, as I was saying to you, pretty much every weekend there was something. Do you know what I mean? As we got closer to the race, we were trying to make it a bit more specific to the West Island way, doing back-to-back long runs and doing night-time runs and lack of sleep and stuff like that, so we did try and get as much cover as we could. Yes, definitely. I think, as well, a lot of your training runs, it was like, at the weekend, going up, running up a hill and then coming down and doing a 30km run the next day. A lot of running on fatigued legs and also just the preparation for an ultra-marathon that long. It was 31 hours and 19 minutes, was it, that we completed it all in? Yes. If you think about that time, you need to be prepared in terms of food, fuel, water, all the kit that you need, because there are obviously safety precautions there with regards to whether you need to have a sleeping bag, whether you're going to come into other things that you have, like midget nets and all those things. It's not just like grabbing your running shoes and going on a 10km run outside. There's a lot of preparation and planning involved and, frankly, your mum was there to be able to drive to the various different checkpoints. Looking at Colin's Brut, it was basically just high-five gels exploding out of the Brut. It must have been about 500 high-five gels. I don't know whether you'd really maybe gone off then for a while, I'd imagine. I could maybe mix it up a wee bit. It was all the same flavour, as well. I couldn't believe it when I saw the Brut. It was actually quite good, I thought, in terms of the checkpoints and all the stuff that they had laid out. Warm food at some of them, lots of sandwiches, fruit, salt, water, juice. One of the things I will say that I thought was funny is that at one of the checkpoints that I was at, there was a big tub of water, and it was kind of greeny. I thought it might have been apple juice or something. The guy was like, no, no, it's just water from the hills. He literally just got it up and unfiltered just water, which I didn't actually drink, but I think it was all right. It tasted fine. In terms of the race itself, it was a big build-up. It's one of those things that we said as well before. We tried as much as possible in terms of training-wise to replicate what we could, whilst obviously working at the same time. It's really hard to train for a 160km race. It's not like we can go and do that as part of your training. On the lead-up, we felt as good as we could, I think, in terms of the preparation. I don't know whether you want to chat through the start of the race, and we'll go through the race and how it all panned out. I met you at the 22.5km mark. That first almost half-marathon went pretty well, to be honest. I think I got in half an hour before our planned time, and I was feeling good, feeling strong. It's just so important to manage how you're running, knowing when to lock up pills, and then knowing when to run the flats and the downhill, really. Yeah. We did see a few times that there were guys running nut pills, but they weren't gaining any distance on us. Yeah. I found that to be really important to preserve the energy in your legs. I think I met you with regards to this length of a race. You talk about trying to pace yourself for a half-marathon and things like that, and making sure you don't go out too fast. This is a different level. This is almost three and a half marathons, basically. You try to pace yourself and just be aware. At the start, on that first checkpoint at 22.5km, you probably felt pretty good. You probably felt like you could have run faster. If you wanted to, you probably could have run up some of the hills, but it's just like, no, let's not do this. My legs have got to cope for another three and a half marathons. I need to just make sure that I'm being cautious here. Like you say, we see people running. Because of the incline and the hills, you're better just walking faster. They weren't even getting that much further, and the impact of what they're doing to their body, you'd probably find that you overtook a lot of them as the time went on. Just to put it in perspective, what we're running on, on that first half-marathon that Colin said, I think it was maybe just over two hours and 15 minutes or something like that, but that's 650m of elevation over rocks and stones. It's not just running on the road. It was like two-thirds of them in a row climbed during that. That just shows you that it's not just about going out and running on the road. It's very, very challenging. I met Colin at 22.5km on that first checkpoint, and I always say, for my end, you looked a bit strong, mate. You got some good fuel. We didn't wait too long at that checkpoint, and then we got going again. On that second checkpoint, my first was 18km, I think. That was steep. That was almost a Munro, I think, just with that one checkpoint. The climb out of Kinloch Leven was tough. I've walked the West Highlands way four times, and usually we come south to north, and you usually come down that section. Going up at this time, it was tough going, and it just felt never-ending, didn't it? Obviously, we run the West Highlands, which we do. There's a lot of running, but there's also a lot of walking. If I could show you the incline, it would be literally impossible to run. There's really, really steep inclines. It's tough going on the legs. It's like doing box step-ups all the way up a mountain. It's so, so steep. All that is so taxing on the legs. The first one was Kinloch Leven to Glencoe, wasn't it? That was the first one. The first one I did was your second. It was very, very steep, but we got through that. When we got to Glencoe, I'll probably say, mate, that would have been about 40km for you, so almost a marathon. 40km in about 1,500m, I think, I climbed. A Munro and a half climb, 40km in. It just shows you the perspective. You've just about ticked off a marathon, and you don't even feel like you've started yet, which is crazy. I felt at that checkpoint, we were maybe feeling a wee bit, not 100%. Yeah, I don't know if I was cramping up, but I was starting to feel it in the legs, especially after the climbing that we'd done there under the T-shirt sleeve line. I was starting to chafe and stuff like that. That's never happened to me before, so a wee bit of pain and things like that. I didn't feel 100% at that point, but I knew that I'd come out the other side of it. I think it's maybe that point where there's a lot of thoughts in your head, because you've just actually done an awful lot. You've almost done a marathon and a Munro and a half, and you're maybe not feeling 100%, which is normal, because you're going to be tired at that point, but then I think maybe in your head you're thinking, if I'm not feeling that great at this point, how am I going to get down? So maybe at that point there's a wee bit of doubt, because that was the highest elevation checkpoint. So maybe at that point I thought, maybe there's a wee bit of doubt in the mind and stuff, just thinking, how am I going to get through all this? But you got some good fuel, and then we got going again. That was from Glencoe to—what was the next one again, mate? Glencoe to Bridge of Orskish. Bridge of Orskish, yeah. The next checkpoint. We did quite well, mate. We managed to get quite a decent bit of running in it. At that first checkpoint, we didn't get much running due to how steep it was, but we got quite a lot of good running, and we got in there again ahead of the planned times that we'd set. You got a nice bowl of chilli and everything like that, which was good. But yeah, I think at Bridge of Orkish you probably felt better at that point than you did at Glencoe. Yeah, definitely. I think that was my first change of clothes there as well. So I just felt fresher, and a new pair of trainers on and stuff like that. Just wee things really helped. And as I say, getting some decent food on as well, out with my gels or whatever I was taking while we were moving. And then it was from Bridge of Orkish to where you were leaving me at Tindram. Yeah, so I think that's another 12km or something like that beyond there. I'll just touch back on the checkpoint there, getting a bit of hot food. It's crazy how much that can just perk up the spirits and stuff. All you're eating is gels and liquids, and then you manage to get nice warm food. It just makes some difference. On these canals, there were seven checkpoints, is what they're calling them. It's important to get a wee bit of a breather, get a change of clothes, refresh. It's a completely different race to running a half marathon or a marathon where you just don't stop. It's important to rest, recharge, do things that are going to give you that boost again. I think it was maybe 16km to the next checkpoint, which was Octotire, but I was leaving you just a few km before that at Tindram. At that point, I could sense that you were pretty tired, mate. I could sense coming out of Bridge of Orchard a bit, but how I could sense that you were like, I'm feeling it a wee bit here. I had to just try and be conscious because I know that I was 23km behind you. I still felt okay, but I was like, I'm 23km behind Colin here, so I had to bear that in mind. We did get a good bit of running going. Obviously, we stopped a good few times just whenever there was an incline. We just did that approach. Whenever there was an incline, stopped, walked, then got running again any time it was flat. Probably for the last 2km or 3km before leaving me, I feel that you were really perked up, mate. You were going through a good high spell. We were running 6km at that point, and then we were really flying. I think you were feeling pretty good then. Yeah, I was feeling— That's what I was meaning. You know you're going to come through the bad spells, and I definitely felt like I came through the other side. Then we got down to Tindram, and my mum was waiting on us there. I didn't want to stop too long there because I was feeling good and wanted to continue. Then I think I had another 5km to go once you had left to the official checkpoint at Ofster Tyre. Yeah, I think we need to, as well as getting through the lows, I think it's trying to make the most of the high points. It's a rollercoaster, these long endurance events. There's going to be lots of times where you're feeling really low, like, I don't know if I can do this, I feel horrible, this is terrible, or maybe your gels haven't digested right, and you're just like, this is not good. Then there's other points where you feel like you're flying. You get a buzz, you feel a bit of an adrenaline boost, you're running, you're like, this is amazing. It's just that constant up and down. I think it's important, assuming you are feeling the ups, to make the most of it. That's what you were like. I heard you saying to your mum, I don't want to stop too long here, I'm feeling good, I really need to make the most of this. You said, going into Octatire, that I had to alleviate that point. It was good to alleviate a high point for me leaving. I was just like, okay, Colin's feeling good. We're actually on target for what we've been setting, and you were flying well into Octatire. Then the next one was Octatire to Benglass, and we'd actually done that in training. We'd ran and done that route, so did that make a difference with it being a familiar route that we'd only done a couple of months ago? Yeah, it definitely helped knowing what was ahead of me for that stage. That was about 16km from Octatire to Benglass. Again, I felt really strong on that section. I was overtaking a couple of people and stuff like that. I'm still feeling really good at that point. What time was this when we got to Benglass? Maybe around 9.30am or something like that? I think that was the first checkpoint that we were maybe slightly off the target, but we were still under overall. Yeah, overall. We were making the 24 hours, so I wasn't too worried. The fact that we'd gained time in the first two checkpoints probably balanced itself out. Yeah, and it was just at this point that you had to get a sleeping bag and stuff like that, because you were then going into the 19km stretch. At this point, it was a lovely day. It was probably a Saturday, a full turn of day. I got the best part by far. The sun was shining through Glencoe, amazing routes. When I was driving home, all of a sudden, these dark clouds came over and started raining. I was just like, oh, no. That's when you were starting the dark point. This was Benglass to River Denon, wasn't it? How far was that, mate? That was 22.5km. 22.5km. This is you by yourself in the dark, so just go into this one in detail, because this is where things got really tough. We got into Benglass Farm, feeling strong, and then we had to swap the bags from the running pack over to the night-time bag, which had spare head torches, spare batteries, a bivvy bag and a sleeping bag, because that's the section along Loch Lomond, and it's the hardest section for help to arrive if anything happens. The rain had started at that point, and the niddies were out in force as well. It's the toughest section on the whole of West Highland Bay. It's just full of rocks, boulders, tree trunks, and you're up and down, and it's really not runnable at all. It doesn't help that, through the sleep deprivation at that point, I was full on asleep as I was walking. Because of the terrain, the legs were really hurting because of the distance I'd already covered. Feet were starting to blister. It was just pretty much every bad thing that could have happened, happened on that stage. I remember at one point, I turned my head torch off just to see how dark it was, and it was pitch black. You couldn't see a thing. I held my hand up in front of my face, and you couldn't even see it. It was that dark. It just got difficult from then on until the end of the race, really. I was surprised, because when it was so bright during the day, I thought, this is good, because even when it gets dark, it shouldn't be fully pitch black, because you'll still have that kind of sunlight, no clouds, but it was just as if it got to 8, 9 at night, and just dark clouds came firing over. That's obviously why it made it so dark. I think it was just a combination of everything. You were, at that point, about 100km on the legs. Legs agony, feet agony, midges all over the shop, pitch black, rain pouring. The worst section was just a combination. I think it must be hard as well, because you've got to be thinking, what way did I go? It must be hard when there's not a real clear path, and it's rocks and all that. Trying to make sure that you know, and you're following your Garmin GPS, and trying to do all that as well. I follow that. You're approaching just over 12 hours on your feet, 100km down. Absolutely madness at that point. That stretch, that 22km, that took how long? It was over six hours? Yes, it was about that. I think I got into Rowerdennon at quarter past four, and we were planned to be in there for about two in the morning. The tail end of that section was just so hard. The mental battles I was having with myself. I was thinking to myself, when I get to Rowerdennon, I still get about 43km to go here. I thought to myself, I can't do it. Judging by how the body is now, it's in bits, I thought, I can't do this. I basically resigned myself to the fact that I was going to have to hand my number in. I got there, and my two mates were waiting on me. They were going to do some supporting as well. I jumped into the car, and then I just burst out crying. I did a mixture of how I was feeling, and the fact that I had made peace that I was going to hand my number in. I was texting you and Raymond at the time as well. You were saying, look, you've done this far. You've got this far to go. It doesn't matter how you get there. It's just all about completing it at this point. My two mates were giving me some good advice as well. I ended up saying, let's see if I can do 5km. There was a campsite 5km down, further on. I got changed and got out of my wet gear, and I managed to get the 5km done. I thought, you could, you did get that done. Then Balmahagh was another 7km to go. I said, let's just do the same again, see if you can get there. I managed to get to Balmahagh. I got through that mental barrier. At that point, it was basically every step agony. Every single step was really, really sore. At that point as well, you're almost approaching 24 hours a week, 120km down. Just so people know as well, when Colin gets to Balmahagh, that's him just about to start Conic Hill climb. At that point, we went as a group. I went and done Conic Hill as a day out, a hill climb. Lots of people were shattered after that. It was quite a tough, quick recline. You're about to start Conic Hill, 120km in, with every single step in agony. It's just mind-boggling how you managed to get through that. There's no doubt about it, there's going to be mental blocks and hard times. I knew there was going to be a time that was going to come. I was struggling to sleep on Saturday night when I got home, because I had your wee GPS thing. I was trying to keep checking it where you were. You messaged me saying, I'm going to try and get 5km. In my head, I thought, Colin must be thinking, I'm chucking this. I thought, we've still got well over 12 to 15 hours before the cut-off of 35 hours. I was like, Colin, you could sleep for 8 hours in the car if you wanted, and then get up and try and go. I was like, don't have the number in now, it's too early. Let's see what we can do. You were like, right, I'll do the 5km. I see once you did that 5km, you went, right, I'm going to get to Balmahar. At that point, I knew you were going to do it, because I thought, he's passed that. You're always going to have this make-or-break point where you're like, turn this in. A lot of people do. I checked the results from the last couple of years, and about a third of the starters don't finish it. Whether that's an injury or not breaking through that point that Colin managed to break through, maybe they went, that's it, I'm broken, hand my number in. Once you got through that point, I thought, they're doing it. It was daylight, your mates were there, you got through that hard part, and it was just every bit then and then, you were always going to take that bit of momentum. How was Conic Hill going up that night at that point? It was horrible. I just felt so steep, and the weather was pouring. It was windy. As I say, every single step was just pain. I got up and over, and then I had the support team waiting just before drimming. We got there, and I got some food, and I got a change of clothes again, which just makes you feel so much better, like being dry and warm. It was chittering, it was that cold. What did we have from there? I think there was still a good, just under 20k from that point. Just about another half marathon to go to add into. Knowing that I got through that first five, and then I got through the seven, and I was up and over the hill, I was like, you just need to be breaking this down into tiny chunks, and just keep ticking them off, and they will add up, and you'll get there. At that point, I knew that I could do it, but it still felt like a mammoth task. Even if I was in single figures, it was 6k to go, and I was like, this is so difficult. It felt worse than a marathon, probably. You could see the road in front of you, and it was just a long, straight road, and it was just demoralising. Thankfully, we made it 31 hours and 19 minutes, so well under the cut-off. How did that feel finishing it? How was the body? How was that feeling? You get to what would be the official start, because we came the other way. It was like the end. At the start point, my sister and my niece had come down, and all three of my mates and their partners and kids were there. It was good to have everybody cheering then. From that point, it was still half a k to the scout hut, but it actually finished. Getting there and handing my number in for finishing, it actually didn't feel—it was just like relief that I finished. I wasn't excited or anything like that. It was like, thank God, that is done. I can imagine there are a lot of these big challenges that you get to reflect and sit. At the time, you were just like, that's done, man, I just need to get to sleep now. Did you get a wee sit-down, and was that your body cramping up? I sat down for maybe 10 minutes and had a coffee, and then I could hardly get back up. Then I went to get changed, and I was a broken man at that point. I got into the car, fell asleep as soon as I hit the seat, fell asleep the full way home, and then my mum had to almost carry me up the stairs to the flat. I just couldn't move, and then straight into my bed. That was me until the next day. Even the next day, I got up during the night to go to the toilet, and I couldn't walk. It wasn't just my legs, I had a sore neck, arms were sore, back was sore, legs, feet, the lot. It's no wonder, it's absolutely madness. As I said, I didn't really understand. I've never run the West Helmway or anything like that, I've never walked it or anything, but I knew that 150k, 160k was going to be a mammoth task, but I didn't really quite appreciate the magnitude of it until I actually went and did a couple of the sections. When I was going to drive home after 46k, it was not even a third of what you did. I did a few stretches before I got in the car, some fruit, just to make sure I was okay to drive home. I was looking when I was driving home at what you were going to have to walk through or run through, and I was just like, wow, this is a lot more challenging than you would even imagine. You imagine it is very challenging, but it's above that, it's like whatever, and I was just like, and even just thinking about that view and talking, the guy that listened back will probably be in awe and shock in terms of walking through that pitch black, yourself, midget all over you, half-sleeping, 100k in, tripping over rocks and boulders, every step being painful, you need to dig into some serious, deep parts and push your body to the limits. There's no wonder that after that point, you're just like, I need to stop here, but fair play, Colin, for really pushing through that point and getting through it. You'd imagine that the vast majority of people would be like at that point, let's get this handed in, I'm not doing it, but fair play, mate, for really pushing through and digging deep. It couldn't have been that bad, because you've already said to me before we started recording this that you want to do it again, because you've got unfinished business, so that's a quick turnaround. Maybe not next year, though, but I think I would quite like to give it another go and see if I can learn from certain things, do maybe a few things differently and see if it's a different outcome. It's one to think about. Definitely, we're still waiting for the results, but just completing it already puts you into the top two thirds of participants, because there's going to be a third that don't even complete it. Unbelievable achievement, mate. It's strange. You put your body through that, and at the time, you're like, why am I doing this? This is agony, I really need this to stop. After that, there's a strange buzz about it, and there's a real sense of pride and achievement of how far you've managed to actually push yourself and quite an amazement of what the body can actually do. Staying awake for 31 hours on itself is pretty hard most times, never mind doing all that. Absolutely tremendous effort. We'll get the next challenge penciled in at some point, so I'm sure that's what people will be asking, what's next after you've done that? We'll have a think. It's going to be a few weeks, so no major challenge or pressure, just enjoying training and stuff like that. Thanks very much for coming on and chatting about that, mate. The guys will love listening to this, mate. Anything else that you want to add off the back of it, mate? You've covered everything. Yeah, I would say so. Yeah. Brilliant, mate. Excellent. Thanks very much for doing that. If anybody had any questions about Colin or off the back of it or wants to try and take on a challenge like this, then let us know. Thanks again, Colin, mate. We'll speak to you soon. Thank you.