Recently I came across Thinglink via the ever interesting The Next Web, and it caught my eye with the easy way of embedding of rich content within an image, so I have been looking forward to having a play around with it.

Having taken a picture of the kit that I carried for the Scottish Coast to Coast, I thought it’d be a good opportunity to test out Thinglink.

Hover over the image below to find out about the kit I carried or wore (links take you to other websites for more info/purchase), with some  thoughts on the Coast to Coast kit, what was good, what wasn’t so good, and what I can learn from it further below:

Basically: I was carrying too much stuff, clothes & food.

Food & Drink:

The fact that I have tons of bars and sweets and such like leftover means I either carried too much or didn’t eat enough, probably a bit of both. Soreen is fantastic food for eating on the go, I throw a cut up couple of slices & cover in jam just for added gooey goodness.

I swear by Nuun for replacing salts & nutrients on the go, I find it particularly good in hot weather (not an issue last weekend) and I was pretty reliant on it (along with food & stretching) in dealing with the cramp I started getting early on. I also carried a couple of bottles of sports drink, and had water in a bottle on the bike and in the bladder for the run stages.

Other stuff is a mix of flapjacks, snickers, cereal bars, ShotBloks, a gel I didn’t use (not used to them, so this was to be a last resort) and the old favourite mini bags of Haribo. I think in longer races it is important to try and eat as much ‘proper’ food as possible, stuff that isn’t purely fuelling you on sugar, as much as for your teeth as for your body!

I made up some sweet (peanut butter & jam) and savoury (cheese & bacon) bagels which were cut in half and wrapped in foil for easy access & eating and the final food hit came from these Power Potatoes which went down a treat, providing a salty carb heavy boost.

Initially I planned to force myself to drink every 20 minutes and eat every 30 minutes, whether I needed it or not. I find drinking easier to do and look after while racing, eating is sometimes forgotten about. During the first cycle I stuck to this well, eating more at the start as I needed it after the run. During the second cycle eating wasn’t as frequent, as the offroad nature meant that it was sometimes forgotten about as cycling had to be concentrated on.

Kit:

Not going to go over everything, but here are the key things:

Gore Oxygen III SO Windstopper

I was very glad I wore my new Gore Windstopper on the cycle, as I hadn’t intended to!

I was a bit too warm on a couple of the climbs but it kept out the occasional shower and the wind on the descents really well (and spashing on the paddle). I could have probably got away with wearing my waterproof, or another layer under my light pertex windproofs, but given I didn’t have to carry it on the run, the comfort was worthwhile. This is going to get a lot of use this Winter.

Waterproof Socks

I love SealSkinz, they are fantastic to have, particularly with winter around the corner. I ended up wearing the thinner cycling targetted ones all day over a pair of Bridgedale ones (super comfy). This worked brilliantly, I had dry, comfortable feet after over 150km splashing through puddles on the bike and crossing streams and puddles on foot. The only problem came in the final 5km, when we had to cross a deeper river and lower legs were completely submerged. Not a lot waterproof socks can do about that, but it did mean I had two soaked pairs of socks on my feet which were sliding forward in my shoes making for a long painful descent and sore toes.

OMM Adventure Light rucsack

A really comfy (running or cycling) waterproof sack, with useful pockets at the waist for easy access to food, and a couple of bottle or jacket holding pockets on the side.

Norrøna Bitihorn Dri1 Jacket

I didn’t even use this, but it is worth mentioning as it is a nice bit of kit. Bought on a whim in a sale early in the summer (to replace my much used Haglofs goretex jacket which is starting to lose it’s waterproof/breathability benefits), it has decent reviews, is super light at 280g and packs down nicely, I’m sure I’ll get a proper chance to test it out soon!

Bike bits

Not a lot to say here, my trusty Kona Jake, complete with brand new wheel following my summer smash with a pedestrian. This was perfect for the race, a MTB was total overkill.

New tyres (Specialized Borough CX Armadillo Elite) which worked pretty well offroad, aside from a lack of purchase on muddy climbs which I was fully expecting.

Also threw a new chain & cassette onto the bike a few weeks before the race along with the new pedals, which are spd/flats – perfect for my daily use of the bike.

The shoes are Spiuk ones I bought on Stodge’s recommendation and were great on the bike, and not so bad off it, think my problems running in them down to the kayak in Fort Augustus was more down to my legs than the shoes! Lots of grip pushing up those muddy climbs!

You can read about my Scottish Coast to Coast fun here.

On Saturday after a week of watching the weather I woke up freezing cold, to the sound of rain, so dragging myself out of the house into the dark, cold, wet weather wasn’t great, especially after a lousy sleep and waking up with a headache.

Dropped my big bag off to be transported to finish, had a jog down to the beach to dip my shoes in the sea, then headed up to the start with just a few minutes to spare.

Nairn > Cawdor
11.4km, +84m – 64:10

Set off steady and soon realised that running & staying with Ross until Fort Augustus wasn’t going to happen, even halfway down the field in the first few kms I was getting frustrated with the pace (or lack of) of those around and knew the opportunities to overtake were only going to decrease, so set off on overtaking intervals wherever I got the opportunity.

There was a lot of people who had set off too quickly and slowed, and these bursts of overtaking had the adverse effect of raising my HR higher than liked, peaking when I had to go on a sprint after ages stuck at the back of a long slow train. Kept picking off folk though all the way to transition, and saw Dan & Rowena setting off on the bike as I arrived.

Had planned to do this in <60, and probably would have done comfortably without the crowds, but that is my own fault for not doing my own thing at the start and going off alone nearer the front. Looking at the times of others I should really have been targetting around 55 to be properly in the mix.

Transition: 7:22

Faffy. This should have been in, chuck kit in bag & food in waist pockets, throw a bagel down throat, change shoes, and out. But wasn’t quite so slick.

Cawdor > Fort Augustus
70.8km, +510m – 2:44:33

• 1st hour: 25.9km
• 2nd hour: 27km
• Remaining: 17.9km (23.6kmph)

Lovely cycle this, though steadily uphill for the first hour under the A9 at Daviot, then more steady climbing and a bit of undulation for the next hour, then the slog up to the top of the pass before dropping down to Fort Augustus.

It started off badly getting twinges of cramp in right calf in the first 20 minutes, so ate a lot of my savoury stuff and proper food early on, and my back was hurting after a little over half an hour, so lots of attempted stretching on the bike.

Thanks to my slow transition and slightly slower than planned run, I was constantly flying past people in the first hour, and was slightly concerned I had gone off too hard, but the legs were turning over nicely and I was very glad to be on my crosser!

Second hour and the final climb and descent into Fort Augustus saw much fewer folk, but I was still breezing past people despite considering trying to share some work for a while. Was pretty comfortable on the big climb, and caught a number of other riders on it, and managed to beast the descent too (hitting 62 65.5kmph according to cycle computer) – very glad it was dry!

Had estimated 3 hours for this section, so was glad to come in ahead of that, and not sure I could have been too much quicker on the day.

Fort Augustus: Run/Kayak/Run/Transition
3.1km, +20m – 26:22

Was hobbling a bit off the bike on the run to kayak, combination of the bike shoes and a few hours on the bike. Cramped up almost instantly in the kayak, and getting up a steep bank at the end of the paddle kayak killed the legs completely and I had to walk and eat for 5 minutes before getting the legs moving and hobbling back to transition.

Another faffy transition but better, and time well spent. Bottles filled, salty food eaten, more food dug out for the next section, and off we go.

Fort Augustus > Fort William
54km, +420m – 2:42:38

• 33.5km +320m: towpath/singletrack/forest tracks – 1:54:42, 17.5kmph
• 20.5km +100m: road – 47:55, 25.8kmph

First hour of this was probably the darkest hour of the race, was feeling slow on the first section along the towpath, then two steep muddy singletrack climbs up off the road had to be walked. Rest of the singletrack was muddy fun, and although a bit sketchy I did enjoy it, but it was hard going. Only person to pass me on the bike the entire day was at the end of the singletrack, and he was one of the top 3 in the expert class. A couple of 1.5km long, 70-80m climbs on forest tracks followed, but after the second I got back into a decent rhythm and picked up the pace, and was soon flying past people labouring on MTBs again.

Hit the road section and stopped to grab food just as the leading lady left, and it took me a long time to reel her back in not long before Fort Bill where I also saw Dan & Rowena again.

Thought I was moving reasonably well on this part, but the first half had cost me quite a lot – this was at least 15 minutes down on my target time.

Transition: 42:57!

Yeah, a ridiculously long transition as it was timed out. It should have been much quicker, but in hindsight I’m glad it wasn’t, as it meant I had great company for the run stage!

Grabbed some tea, crisps, coke and my remaining bagel, and transferred more food into pockets for the run. Dumped a lot of gear with the bike, but still carried too much kit (and food) with me. Was really struggling with my back at this stage, couldn’t bend to pick stuff off the ground, and had to use fence to change shoes.

Fort William > Loch Leven
24km, +770m – 3:23:28

This was brutal, and cruel.

First section took you up the walkers path up the side of Ben Nevis, and after an easy km on the road my legs were getting into it, but they weren’t up to the rocky climb (where the only other person to pass me outwith transitions did so), so most of this was walked. And then we descended straight back down to the road by the Youth Hostel, again on a horribly rocky stepped trail that I just couldn’t run on. And then we climbed up and up and up what seemed to be switchback after switchback of forest tracks onto the West Highland Way.

I ran where possible, and walked quite a bit on this, but thankfully fell into a small group including the woman who ended up second. The pair of us ended up running away from the others and we kept each other going well over the remaining blast out of the forest and along the West Highland way. When we turned off this there was a massive slog up the trod/stream onto the top of the hill from where we could se the finish, but not before the long steep descent back down to Loch Leven and a final km on the road to the kayak.

I think I might have struggled on this section a great deal without such good company and the motivation that it brings – especially from a woman who was going really strongly right ’til the end! I had though this would take under 3 hours, but had really underestimated the climbs, so would have struggled to be much more than 10-15mins quicker on the day.

Loch Leven Kayak & Finish:
1.7km – 17:35

Sit back (or rather lie back by the end), paddle and enjoy the fantastic setting. No cramp this time until twinges when I tried to climb up the bank at the far side to run to the finish.

Further reflections

Overall I’m pretty pleased with how this all went, I could maybe have knocked off some time on the day but there are always ‘what if’s', and despite a couple of bouts of cramp my body held up well to the punishment.

Without having done a race anywhere near this length, with a mix of disciplines, for some time (closest training being 52km road bike followed by 25km trail race), it is always hard to know what an extra few minutes of effort at one point might cost you later on.

The journey was a fantastic one, and we were lucky to see Scotland at it’s very best. While it rained at the start, the rainbow over Drummossie as we cycled up along the Nairn valley was an indication of a day of reasonably good weather ahead.

There were memorable views galore, particularly along the Great Glen, and the highlight was probably leaving the forest section into blazing sunshine on the West Highland Way, seeing the valley open up ahead of us. The sight of the finish from the top of the hillside and while dropping down to Loch Leven was beautiful and welcome, while the kayak across to the end was equally memorable.

I’d heartily recommend anyone to do this race, in either its one or two day formats. I love the fact that it can provide a good day long challenge to the very top athletes, while also being manageable by those at lesser levels of athleticism, and as a way to see some fantastic bits of Scotland it cannot be bettered.

I’m sure I’ll have a crack at it again some day, the 10 hour target remains, and those additional 54 minutes and 6 seconds may sound a lot, but removing them is tantalisingly achievable.

Find out more about the event on the Scotland Coast to Coast website and see the results here.

Not normally my sort of area: flat, fast and vague features to hit, but I actually enjoyed it despite dying badly in the final few kms.

93:16 for 14.3km (15km run), long way (20 mins) down on the winners.