We awoke today feeling like champions, as we had read in the guide book last night that yesterday's stage was the toughest on the WHW—woo hoo, we did it! So, after a hearty Scottish breakfast of oatmeal porridge followed by egg, sausage, bacon, black pudding, potato scone, beans and a grilled tomato with toast, we shuffled out of the Beinglas Pub feeling stuffed, but like the true athletes that we are and we headed for the trail. We soon realized, however, that the path looked different. It was crowded with people cheering what we assumed were other hikers. So as we approached, we expected the same reception but got indifferent disregard instead. Then, as we were walking through this crowd, a couple of runners passed us and the crowd went wild. Two things became apparent as we read a large banner above the trail announcing WEST HIGHLAND WAY RACE: first, that the crowd was not there for us hikers and second, that there is actually a race the entire length of the WHW. Suddenly, walking 160 km in a week didn't seem so athletic, as more than 200 runners passed us enroute to Fort William, finishing the whole length in a time of between 14 and 35 hours. This realization took a bit of the bounce out of our step, but we pushed on, nevertheless, and reached our destination of Tyndrum
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