We first chatted with Martin back in 2022 after he completed the Spine Race. We love the sound of GB Ultra Race Across Scotland, so we got back in touch to hear his story.
Hi I'm Martin Heggie, 34 years old from a small town in the centre of Scotland called Whitburn. I live with my girlfriend Kim, our 8 month old daughter Jessica Anne and our dog Gracie.
I first got into ULTRA Running in 2019 after stopping playing football I needed a new challenge, this plus I read Born to Run and Can't hurt me by David Noggins. This lit the fire for me wanting to try long Ultras.
My favourite race so far is the West Highland way race; it's a special Race and has a family feeling to it. It's steeped in history as well with lots of great runners having done the race, the route is magical and keeps drawing you back for more, I've completed it 4 times in the last 4 years.
I was attracted to the GB ULTRA Race Across Scotland because I wanted to do another race over 200 miles, Having completed 2 in the previous 2 years i was on the look for a fresh challenge. The Route follows the Southern Upland Way, a route I've never been on before. The excitement of covering 215 + miles of unexplored terrain really excited me.
I trained for The Race across Scotland by doing the West Highland way race in June, i then had around 14 days easy running with some low mileage weeks for added recovery. I then did 4 weeks intense training covering 70+ mile weeks with high around 8-10k elevation. Alot of my long runs were done In the Pentland hills close to where I live.
I had a time schedule plan of 60 hours, my plan was on track and I was in the lead and moving well with a Serbian runner for the first 40 miles. I then became overheated and started to struggle with GI distress. I was sick and brought everything I had consumed back up including a big bowl of pasta. I had to forget about the schedule and fix my problems. I was eating gels on the course and real food at CPs but after I was sick I decided to switch to Carb drink mix for the remainder of the day with the odd gel . It was very warm and in order to fix my heat issues I decided I would take my race vest off and sit in the river for a full 2 minutes . This was like a reset button for the core temperature of my body. It worked wonders and allowed me to make progress. I dropped places when sitting in the rivers but knew i would benefit and make them back up in day 2 &3.
The route was stunning & had a wee bit of everything. It was very runnable for the first 100km , this ment it would be easy to trash your legs early on.
Navigation can be quite tricky over a few sections; especially at night but all in all it's well sign posted. Underfoot was extremely wet and boggy in some sections, this made foot care essential ; especially as the the race progressed! After 100 miles you start the bigger climbs and more hilly sections of the route, it has the odd wee road and forest section but the majority from then on is hills and more hills.
In terms of sleep I got around 2 hours in the whole race ; 1 hour at mile 100 Cp Sandhurst and another 1 hour in the back of my crew car at St Mary's Loch around mile 150. After that i didn't sleep and my body became accustomed to the task at hand. In my previous races over 200 miles ive slept for longer. This was something I was working on and I'm glad how it worked out.
My support crew was a friend called Ross Mackey. He has completed the race twice and his experience was invaluable. Not only was he able to meet me with dry socks, fresh clothes, hot food and cold drinks... he was also able to inform me of each section and the demand it would take. His upbeat spirit was also very welcomed.
The whole route was magnificent, very remote stretches of countryside and hills, I think I enjoyed it more so because it was all new to me. In particular - "The high route" Section was my favourite, coming at around mile 130 - I approached this at 1700 hours in spectacular sunshine, feeling very upbeat and moving well.
In the end I was happy to finish in 74hours 39min and take 6th place out of 169 with 64 finishers and 105 DNFs . My uncle was at the finish line and it was amazing to share the experience with a familiar face.
I finished on the Tuesday morning after setting off at 6am on the Saturday morning, my feet were the biggest issue . Once they healed up I was able to get back out and manage my weekly buggy run with my daughter on the Sunday morning.
My biggest advice for anyone taking on the Race Across Scotland would be do lots of hill training in preparation, your feet will get wet so prepare for foot management, wear waterproof socks in the boggy sections.
Thanks for taking time to chat with us Martin. Do you have any advice for new or improving Ultra Runners?
My biggest advice for Any ultra runner is to keep enjoying it! Laugh when it gets miserable and remember this is our idea of Fun! The more you accept the misery and enjoy it , the easier it will be. It won't be long till it's all over and we go back to our normal everyday life's of work. It's All Temporary!
A wee add on = Always Help a fellow runner who needs help! In Ultras we help our competition.
Congratulations Martin, and look at that bling!!! Well worth running 74 hours for.
We look forward to following Martin's future adventures. Make sure to give him a follow @martinultraheggie
If you want to hear more from Martin you can check out our Spine Race chat with him here
Have you taken part in GB Ultra Race Across Scotland or has this inspired you to enter?
The Summit Crazy Team
Want to feature in our Journal, we want to hear from you. Get in touch with the team at info@summitcrazy.co.uk
Comments