Because all good decisions are made while on the loo, I decided one evening while sitting on the loo that I wanted to go to Scotland to compete in the ITERA lite race. I knew that Steph was racing there in another team as she had mentioned it at the previous race and so I reached out to her. I didn’t know that she would respond so quick and before I had left the toilet, I was signed up to the team with her.
It was new to me to not be in the organising seat and to not be the team captain. That role originally fell to the team owner, but due to long term illness, he had to withdraw, and Steph took over from there. She set about finding others to fill the two empty spots. We were all set as a team. A couple of newbies and Steph and I. We had a team call, started working through gear as a team and then about 2 weeks out from the race, another injury in the team left us as a team of three. Not ideal, so Steph set out again to try and find us a fourth team member (with us even considering at one point combining with another team of three to have one team of and a team of 2). But only a week (at most) out from the race, she found us another experienced racer to join the team. Great news for us as we could all learn from each other’s experience. So, Steph, myself, an AR newbie who we had never met (except for on the team call) and an experienced AR random found just before the race. But what a great team we were!
Most of the team arrived the night before the race at the Rugby club in Selkirk and camped there while I was tucked up in a bed in Edinburgh. The morning of the race Steph sent her husband up to collect me and bring me down to join the rest of the team (thanks again so much for this). I got to the fields, and we headed over to register and get the tags for our bags and the race book.
Back to the tents to start packing our race kits, building the cardboard bike box from Craig, and reinforcing it with waterproofing (garbage bags taped all over it) - as it was Scotland and of course it would rain on us and the boxes. We got all the race bags packed, the team bags, the bike boxes and sorted out the race food. All set to wait around for the race course reveal and the briefing.
We set ourselves upon the floor with a nice backrest, taking in all the little comforts we could before the race. And then they showed us the course. It was a big map and was kinda daunting. But we got our maps and we set about drawing up a route. We had plenty of time to review the whole race, so we got it all drawn up.
While the race HQ was at the Rugby club, the start (arch and speech from council rep) was in town at one of the old textile mills. We got a speech from the council rep and then the start gun went. The teams were all off on the first 10km leg. However, we had to follow a race organiser on bike for a bit to start to get us to the actual start triangle on the maps (seems the council rep didn’t want to go down to the rugby club, and they didn’t have time to change all the maps to the new start site).
All the teams were fairly bunched up at the start of this stage as you would expect and it was only 10km, so we were able to run/jog most of the time, and we walked up the hills. No point expending all our energy on the first 10km. Steph would argue that we still went out too fast and has suggested that for the next race we should start with her on the tether to 1) slow the lead down a little and 2) conserve some of her energy on those opening runs.
Next up we got to the kayak. This was going to be a 40km kayak with some portages that were compulsory, 1 recommended, and one that was just listed as a maybe depending on water flow. We would check them all out as we went. We started preparing our kayaks, Steph had gotten seats for everyone, so she set them up, she also had foam padding for the seats. We saw a couple of teams go in before us and straight after the launch was a couple of rapids and teams were going over. So, I tied all my stuff into the kayak, and we prepared to set off. Steph and Jamie went first and went through the rapids no issue. Craig and I set off next, and promptly went over and lost right away the foam padding Steph had provided. Thankfully the sun was out (one of the last times we would get warm sun for the race), and the water temp was pleasant. We got the kayak over to the edge of the river, righted it and set off again to the next small rapid. Same thing. Still smiling, we righted the kayak again and set off. Some coaching and Craig and I were paddling along nicely and also going through most of the other rapids without going over (except that one time we ended up on top of a rock, fully out of the water, sideways). We were a bit heavy and on a couple of rapids we had more of a submarine than a kayak, which was rather unstable. But we kept it going and we ported at the first of the two recommended portages. It was a long walk to pass the rapids. Here, we decided to put our waterproofs on before it got cold and dark and possibly rained.
Off to the next portage. Nothing too much happened here, just lots of paddling, some chatting and some more rapids and submarine kayaking.
We then continued and at one point I was looking at the map, I was pretty sure I knew where we were, but with paddling it is hard because unlike the other legs of the race, I am not looking at the map all the time so I can paddle properly, and it is harder to keep an accurate point on the map. But I was pretty sure we were at the suggested portage, but the other kayak was sure that this rapid was passable and went for it. It turned out that it was fine. Some good strong paddling from Craig, a little luck with my steering and our submarine came through the other side. The sun was starting to go down and we were heading to the next point on the map of note, the rapid that was not written as a suggest portage but as it might be depending on the river. Well, we approached this set of rapids and Craig and I headed to the side where we saw other kayaks going out of the water and where a person on the side was telling people to come in. Steph and Jamie (mostly Jamie as he was steering) decided to give the rapid a go. They didn’t last long before going over. We found Steph at the side getting the kayak out of the water herself, with Jamie no where to be seen; he had gone for a swim down the rapids. We dragged/lifted the two kayaks up to the flatter ground above the river and started moving them past the rapids. It turns out the person on the side of the river was a local farmer, who when he saw all the paddlers, went down to the rapids as he knows people often have problems there. Good thing he did, as there were other teams behind us coming down in the dark and he was also there in time to throw a rope out to Jamie and get him out of the eddy he was stuck in. He had his race bag but had lost his paddle. However, he had found another paddle in the eddy he was stuck in. So, we were able to continue on. It was now fully dark but thankfully, we were now close to the transition.
We got out of the water and had a 1 km walk or so down to the next transition. I happily ate my sandwich I had made and left in the kayak bag for this short walk and we got into the transition and started preparing for the long bike leg.
The MTB let was in the race book as 175km, and even though we short-coursed this and didn’t get all the checkpoints my watch still recorded 187km. We started off alright and were cycling through the night without real issue. Happy with the choices we made and seemingly making ground on some of the teams in front of us. Then just as the dawn was breaking, we made a mistake on the navigation. We got 2 farms on the map mixed up and we spent a little time and energy walking around looking for a checkpoint in the wrong location. We finally worked it out having lost a fair amount of time, but less time than the penalty for just skipping the checkpoint. Once we worked out exactly where we were we walked up the hill to the checkpoint and then back to the bikes. Here Steph took her gloves off and in hindsight she thinks this is where she lost her checkpoint control tag.
We now had a fairly steep hike-a-bike up onto the ridgeline that separates Scotland from England. Annoyingly (for me as the Nav making the mistake and for the others having to walk) we missed the turning just before the top of the hill and we ended up walking to the top of the hill before turning back to ride down a little to get onto the path we were originally looking for. On the way down I looked back and noticed Steph was a fair way back. I stopped and waited and as she came in, she was looking a little shaken and asked me to look over her helmet, as she had taken a fall on the way down. She hid her wounds and pain well and there was no sign of damage to the helmet. On we went across the Pennine Way on the border. Up here it was very exposed, it was cold, it was wet, and it was windy. Not really the most fun riding conditions. The trail was also more suited for walking than cycling as it was a trail of stones that when your wheel went off, was just muddy boggy ground underneath. We got through and found the last checkpoint up in the high places and started to head down. We now had a choice of hiking up a road skirting the military live fire site or going through some trails. We decided on the road, which although steeper would be easier riding down and also easier for the pushing up than some of the boggy trails. We got a little more sun at this point.
We came now to the forest drive and the sun was actually beating down. We all took the last of our wet weather gear off and we headed off down the wide dusty tourist road through the forest. It was along here that Jamie started to not feel well. We thought at first that he was just bonking and so got some sugars into him, and Steph and Craig took turns carrying his bag (I was already too slow on the bike to be of much help with the bag). It was a long slog with us all going through the motions to get to the end of the road. Jamie had a section here where he needed to walk and so Craig and Steph at this point were taking his bag and pushing the extra bike. He recovered a bit and we headed for the first special stage at a reasonable speed (even passing Steph’s husband, who had popped up on the course to give us encouragement as he happened to be in the area).
We got to the special stage 15 minutes too late to be able to do it. And now it also meant we were officially on the short course. Unfortunately, from this point on the bike, there was not really any way to make the course short to get to the next TA. We did what we could to shorten it by skipping a couple of checkpoints, but it didn’t make it much shorter. We decided we could afford a 20-minute nap at the sports building they were using for the special stage and Jamie was first to sleep and I was not far behind. We left the special stage and went to a café/shop we had seen on our way to the special stage, and we got cokes, coffee, ice-creams and some fruit, an enjoyable stop for all.
Next, we were heading up to the second special stage. We were always going to be pushing it to get there as it was a long slog with plenty of ups and downs but nothing much else to remember, but Jamie was now not feeling well and needed another rest on the hike-a-bike section. As soon as he lay down, I decided to do the same. There was a light drizzle and nowhere to lie except in the shrubs, but it didn’t stop me getting a few precious z’s in before another long night on the bike.
We got to the disused railway viaduct 30 minutes too late to do the special stage and saw 4 bikes there but no team, they must have been having a nap somewhere out of sight. We continued down the disused railway as far as we could and then came out into a field. A short hike-a-bike up through the cows in the field and we were back on roads for a little bit.
As we came off the road and headed into the forest Jamie was not doing so good, getting tired too easy, fast breathing, high heart rate, but I also was really starting to fade with the lack of sleep (we had been racing for 33 hours at this point and only had those two short naps) and I was worried about the navigation in the forestry plantations coming up. I persuaded the team that we should have a 45–50-minute sleep, not ideal as we would have preferred the tent at the transition we were headed for, but I was worried that I and also the team would not make it there if we didn’t stop. We found a dry spot under the pine trees and set about sleeping. I am not sure how fast everyone else got to sleep but I was out right away to get my full 50 minutes in. Steph woke us up when it was time and we all set out getting up and getting back to our bikes. In all, we were stopped for an hour but given the rest of the ride it was an hour well spent in my opinion (others in the team might disagree but didn’t voice that too loudly or too forcefully at the time ????)
Next up was the forestry plantations. It reminded me of home in South Australia. Trails and roads are all the same on the map, but some have moved, some have changed places or directions, others are overgrown and don’t deserve to have the same distinction on the map. We went across one open field on the map that was in the middle of the plantations. It was also on these forestry trails that I experienced my first “sleep monster”, a hallucination from lack of sleep. It wasn’t so much a monster but rather a panda just lying in the road, very odd to see in Scotland at night but I just kept on biking. It was late and we got a little disorientated as we walked across as the ground was very uneven and there was water, but with the use of the compass and some landmarks we didn’t really go far off our course and then we found a small overgrown road in the forest that was exactly the one we were after (just far more overgrown than we had thought it would be). Going down this overgrown path I got my second hallucination when the front light from my bike shone across all the long grass and all at once the shadows from the grass all turned to spiders (this one was a little scarier, but still, I didn’t think much of it). We got through the forest to the top of the hill, I was struggling to stay awake while pushing the bike up and was swaying all over the place, seeing more funny things that were not there like park benches that were just long grass and even a little alien head at my feet, but I knew that as soon as I had something to focus on like a difficult decent on the bike I would be fine. Soon enough we made it to the final descent, the light was also changing which also helped. We got to the bottom of the decent and were so close to the transition area, almost dry and then we had to go across a ford getting all our feet and lower legs wet.
We got into transition as the sun was coming up, plenty of teams were getting ready to leave the transition but we needed sleep. We got the tents up, some team members ate, others drank hot drinks, I just focused on getting my tent up so I could get as much sleep as possible in the 2 hours we had in transition. Jamie somehow went out before me, but I was only about 10 seconds behind him.
Steph woke us all up again; we knew we would not have long to get ready and leave the transition to be allowed to continue with the race. So, we got everything ready as fast as we could. Packed up bikes, put tents away, changed over the gear in our bags and with 2 minutes to spare, 3 of us walked out of transition with everything we needed but still needing to pack it and to look at the map and work out the short course we were forced to take for the hike for leaving the TA so late.
Unfortunately, it turned out that Jamie was just too unwell to continue. We could see he was gutted by this, but he must have already had something up without knowing and that swim on the first night must have sent his body into overdrive to which an adventure race does not agree with. A really tough decision which he took. The three of us still continuing, walked a little down the road and found a barn and set all our things out on the hay to get ourselves more organised. I still had my dinner in my hand, so I set about eating that and looking at the map. Turns out the short course for the hike was a very short course and would be pretty easy navigating as it was mostly a marked trail over the hills. Steph took the map and led us over this section to work on her map skills (and I was happy for the break from navigating for a bit). We were really feeling good when we came down to the lake on the other side and even played with the running tether that we had carried to all the other races and never used. I hardly noticed it as the puller and Steph said it offered just enough pull to save energy while not pulling her off her feet. I feel like this will be used in the future.
We got into the TA and tried to do a reasonably quick transition to the bike and headed off. There was a change to the course and were now being advised to use the road to go up the hill which was originally off limits. This was to our liking. But first we had to go to a small run-down castle and get the checkpoint at the top of it. It was a nice little castle and a decent view. Back down to the road and we cycled up, spreading out a little as we went at our own speeds. We went back up to another ridgeline with some hike-a-bike and I tried the bike tow on Steph’s bike during this time. Then there was a nice fun downhill into town and the next TA.
From the next TA there was an orienteering stage. This is just a different scale of map and more precise navigation. Steph did most of this and we had Craig running about collecting the markers, while we were close enough but not too doing nearly as much work as him. Craig is a machine. We walked quite a bit of this as it was rather hilly and there was a pleasant breeze and some sun.
Back at the TA we now had to head off to the Kayak section. We had been warned that there was a fallen tree in one of the rapids and that this would be a sign, and be lit, and we should take kayaks out as it was dangerous. Also, that the weir should be ported. We got the kayaks ready, Steph with her own one and all the bags and then Craig and I in the other. Steph’s sat so high she was gliding along the river super easy and through all the rapids with no problem. All was going well and then it got dark. We went through a few rapids which were hairy, but Craig and I managed to stay upright, and we thought we would get through this stage without getting wet in the dark as we intended to port the hard rapid. We went under a bridge that I thought was a railway bridge, and while I was trying to find us on the map, we went under another and were totally on the wrong side of the river. Steph was ahead and flashing her headtorch around and found a sign that said “gnarly rapid ahead”. It didn’t really register that this was the portage point and there was no light or portage sign, that we were told to expect. We saw Steph go through with little issue and by this point it was too late, we were going through anyway. We paddled as hard as we could, but we could not miss the fallen tree in the rapids. Our kayak went over, I was pushed under the kayak and into the tree. I looked around me in the dark (I did have my head torch) and I managed to pull myself out of the fast water and into the tree. I tried calling out to Craig and I saw the kayak behind me in the tree still, out where the fast water was. Then it slipped on and at this point I heard Craig calling for assistance. It was hard work getting through the tree and undergrowth without going back into the fast water and under the tree, but I found where he was, fast losing strength in the cold water. But somehow, he had managed to catch his bag which was not tied in, his paddle and the kayak. I had to move fast to get out on the branches to his, but I also had to make sure I did not go back into the water as well, so I jammed my ankle into a fork in the tree and made sure it was jammed, then I secured my paddle in another part of the tree and fought to pull the kayak off of Craig and out of the fast water and into a little eddy in the tree, then I pulled Craig and his gear in too. We both almost slipped back in a couple of times but eventually we were able to everything back into the kayak. Now we had to get back out of the tree without being tipped back in. We pushed off from the tree as far back into the eddy as we could and then a few strong fast strokes and we were back in the main current of the stream; the tree tried to tip us back in, but we managed to stay upright and paddled down to Steph. It must have been hell for her waiting for us, not knowing what had happened, unable to call out to us due to the noise of the water and just hoping not to see our gear or us flowing past in the fast water. It was a happy reunion and not long after this we got to the second portage. Craig was very cold at this point, and it was showing on him. We got back to paddling the last bit as fast as we could and then got to transition.
Transition consisted of Craig getting some dry clothes on as he still had some, and Steph making us a lot of hot drinks to warm up. Me, I didn’t have dry clothes to put on for the final bike, but I knew that as long as we got moving soon, I would warm up as soon as we were moving, that is the type of clothing I was wearing. So, we took long enough to get dry and semi warm and just as I was starting to get cold, we headed off for the final bike leg. Craig was wearing Steph’s rain jacket at this point as he didn’t have a dry jacket to go with his dry clothes.
The final bike leg had a very long uphill section on a fun looking MTB trail that was reasonably well marked. But in our condition (I was really needing the hike - a-bike anyway to warm up) and with the rain falling again there was not really much riding on the way to top. On the way to the top, I also started losing my sense of balance. I would get this feeling that I was falling, or I could not tell if I was standing or falling. I told the others, and I was moved to the front so they could see me. Turns out this was all in my head, and I was walking ok, I just couldn’t tell. We managed to follow the compulsory trail over and then there was another long ridgeline in the dark, with mist, rain, and some wind. By this time, I was so tired I did not trust myself to ride my bike without falling over but I was so cold that we could not stop for a rest, or I would get even colder, and it could be dangerous. So, we kept walking and I suggested we play 21 questions, which turned into as many questions as it takes to get to the answer. Another team passed us just before the light began to change and asked if everything was ok and didn’t seem at all surprised when we just explained that we were walking as too tired to ride until the light changes and our bodies wake up again. Sure enough, just after this the light changed and I woke up and we were able to ride the last section all the way into the finish.
We crossed the finish line 63 hours after we had started and with time to spare on the race clock. Jamie was there cheer us over the line. He commented that dot watching was horrible and he wished he could have been with us instead, but he was still not well and had made the right decision. We all chatted about the things that had happened, I asked if there was a kebab shop or chippy open in town (6:30 or something on a Monday morning) and was disappointed there was not.
Off to the showers to get warm and clean, and this is where me staying in Edinburgh the night before the race worked against me. I had arrived in my race gear with only a jumper and trousers over my race gear, no spare underwear, no spare shoes, no towel, and no shirt. Thankfully there were some racers coming out the showers and one lent me a towel, I went commando under the trousers I had, the organisers had given everyone a t-shirt and I squeezed my feet into a fetching pair of flip flops that Steph had spare (next time I will pack post race clothes). Now off to get some sleep in the tent that Jamie had set for us for our arrival, legend.
After waking up from some sleep we were able to find more of the teams who had finished, chatted amongst ourselves as a 4, remembering the things that had happened and filling Jamie in. Getting some food, I had a couple of IrnBrus, a bacon bap and a Scottish pie. All before lunch was served. We joined in for the prize giving ceremony (not getting one ourselves) and went back to sort through all our wet gear to see who got to take what stinking mess home with them. I was then driven back to Edinburgh (thanks again Mark) and that was the end of a “fun” race weekend.