I’m always up for a challenge, but all too often I don’t actually follow through with them for one reason or another, usually illness or injury, and these knock plans off course.
In recent years I’ve done some decent adventure races that have pushed me quite hard. Some fun, ‘traditional’, 5-8 hour events such as Ace Races and Dynamics were good days out in the hills, while the Rat Race in Edinburgh 2009 was full on, racing head to head at the front of the field was a lot of fun and something that I’m not used to doing! The Great Wilderness Challenge a few months later was a great test of gritting teeth and getting through the final quarter of a race I hadn’t quite done enough training for, and failed to pace sensibly.
This weekend sees the first decent challenge for about 10 months, since the Dynamic Adventure Race with Ben last November. Once again in that race, my legs fell apart during the 28km run after nowhere near enough training and a far too high pace at the start, but recovered well on the cycle to give us a decent finish (top 10 & 2nd in category).
I think I’ve learnt my lessons from these events, and am now ready to take on the Scottish Coast to Coast, 105 (late change due to landslide before Loch Ness) 103 miles from Nairn to Loch Leven and Glencoe.
Starting in my home town, devised by my friend Gary T and organised by the Rat Race crew, this was always going to be a must do event. Really I should have done it last year, its inaugrual year, but in an Autumn of other events, lack of time and training ruled that out.
So this year, with my girlfriend returning home to Australia two months before the event, it was perfectly timed to fill a massive void in time and energies. Training once again hasn’t quite gone to plan, with an enforced week off at the end of July following a bike smash that left me a bit battered and in need of a new front wheel. I lost a couple of weeks of running with a foot injury, and then another couple of weeks more recently through illness, but by then it was a bit too late to get any massive training gains, and the enforced rest (although frustrating) probably did me some good.
The event itself is pretty straightforward, no navigating and no thinking needed (I usually prefer having both elements in races, but will be nice to switch off to some extent). Run, cycle, kayak, cycle, run, kayak, collapse. The first run, 11km, is a nice little warm up out along the River Nairn to Cawdor, something I’ve done most of a few times in the past, usually cutting up to my friend’s house to finish before Cawdor.
The first half of the road cycle is something I’ve not done for many many years. Not since I was about 15 in fact. Then I cycled out to Ally’s house in Daviot, and either that day or the next, we cycled out along under the A9 and along the same roads towards Loch Ness in search of the source of the River Nairn. I was completing my Standard Grade geography project on the River, so had to do some rock measurements and take some photos and such like. As was the way in our cycle trips, one of us got a puncture and then the heavens opened, leading to a very dreich cycle back to Daviot.
The rest is all rather unknown, I’ve never cycled out by Loch Ness despite always having wanted to. My Dad as a youngster once took a cycle trip from Nairn out down one side of Loch Ness and back up the other, I can’t recall if he did it in one day or two, but it is something I’ve always wanted to replicate. While not quite the same, I quite like the idea of races as a journey from one point to another, and when the scenery is as good as it will be over to and odown the Great Glen it should be fantastic.
After a short kayak near Fort Augustus, followed by another 50 odd km on the bike both on and off road, it’ll be a case of gritting teeth and getting on with it over the final run. 23km up the side of Ben Nevis then along the West Highland Way to Loch Leven. I like to think I’m quite good at the “teeth gritting” part of endurance races, and I also would like to think that despite a less than ideal preparation, I’m in a decent position to run a sensible race and keep myself moving for the entirity.
We shall see, tomorrow!
Scotland Coast to Coast – Rat Race Event from ResetFilms.co.uk on Vimeo.