Drumnadrochit -> Inverness (Part 2)

After downing a quick cup of coffee at the top of THAT HILL, the rest of the stage is a bit of a blur. Until the final mile and half walking through the streets of Inverness to the Aquadrome, we walked in single file - Alan, wee gap, Steven, wee gap, Scott - with each of us turning round at regular intervals to see if we were still in range.

It rained for much of the gold stage - it didnt seem to matter though, in fact it was quite refreshing. At about 64-65 mile stage my eyes started to get really heavy, the caffeine was wearing off and the wind on the moors was howling along. For reasons only known to be, I got Trevor to interview me about my Monster experiences. Yes, Trevor was indeed me talking out loud and no, I have no idea where he came from either but he did the job and it kept me going until I got to the next stage for more coffee, cake and soup.

I knew as soon as we set off for Inverness that we would make it, I just didnt know how long it would take. I mean, after going through all that, it would have taken something pretty serious to get you off that hill.

Remember when Scotland got the penalty in Euro96 against England and there was wild celebrations. By the time the celebrations stopped, not only had McAllister missed but Gazza was going up the other end to kill the game. That seem feeling of elation to dejection in a split second happened to us. We came into a checkpoint and Alan thought we had two miles to go. We hugged and high fived and then realised it said we had walked two miles since last stop (no way!) and that we had 6 miles to go. Ach well we shrugged, necked some more soup and cake, dug deep and off we went.

The last checkpoint at the bottom of the hill on the outskirts of Inverness automatically became one of my favourite places in the world. Despite the tent nearly blowing away, the volunteers still made us one last cuppa before sending us on their way. By this stage we knew that 1 mile really meant 2 and that 5 minutes away really meant 15 :-)

We walked the last few miles together, feeling absolutely brilliant, looking back on the day. We walked through the streets, three lads from Dunfermline dressed up to the nines with our walking stuff and TLDADS fitba strips. Truth be told, we looked a bit out of place. We spot a guy walking towards us, zig-zagging across the street obviously coming home from a party. I thought I looked a bit of a clown with deerstalker hat on but this boy had a pink sparkly stetson round his neck. He nodded 'alright' to us. We nodded 'alright' back and we went on our merry way...Got five minutes down the road and then erupted with laughter.

Entering the Aquadrome and walking onto the track 300metres from home was a memory that I will treasure forever. Even more so when I spotted wee girl dressed in pink with a torch tied to her, come running out onto the track to meet us. I looked up, thanked my dad and me and Robyn took the last few steps together. Meeting all the family and friends felt great, the adrenalin and excitement of it all was immense.

...An hour or so later the adrenalin/caffeine wore off and the tiredness kicked in. After the massage, the shivering started. Scott went to the Red Cross area feeling a bit dizzy and me and Alan couldnt see green cheese. I fell asleep, woke up and felt dizzy. We got put onto nice wee beds (SO comfy), got blood pressure checked out and had a few wee blasts of oxygen until we felt a bit better. Thank you Red Cross!