Fort Augustus

Made it to Fort Augustus, the halfway point in the adventure race.

Thankfully the weather was not nearly so bad as had been forecast. I was carrying too much kit-one of the logistical problems with this race is getting to the start without dying of hypothermia and without carrying a ton of stuff on your back. I managed the first one okay, the second not so much - thankfully the race organisers transport your tent and stuff so at least I didn't have to carry that.

The initial 7 mile run I found quite tough even though it was flat. Having done this last year (though not finishing due to Knees) I knew that there would be a massive bottleneck where the path got narrow and so legged it the first few miles. Not too surprisingly I then found the last couple of miles quite hard. I got to my bike at Cawdor and found I had to stuff my running shoes into my already rather full bag. Carrying a heavy, overstuffed bag for 50 miles on my bike was "interesting" and I know I did not go nearly so fast as last year, bit of a bummer since I was counting on the bike ride, as I'm not much of a runner.

I was rather glad that the ride has been cut a bit short due to a road closure, so less than 50 miles. The descent into Fort Augustus was thrilling, twisting down the road at 36mph with a string of other cyclists in front of me. I managed not to shout "YEEHHAAA" as I went which I think was a major achievement! I was brought down by having to queue for the kayak stage here but at least the queueing didn't count towards the final times.

Initial disappointment in my finishing time soon changed when I realised that I had got my start number confused with my finish number, d'oh.

Pitching my tent in sunshine was a novelty but as you can see, the ominous clouds soon put a stop to that sort of nonsense and it chucked down all night. Great. Ah well, who needs sleep anyway?