The Hebrides Triathlon 2021 (Iain)

When you turn up at a race and accidentally pose for a picture dressed as a traffic light!

Someways, I do a race and think “wow, that was great. It felt really easy. I could have carried on all day”

Other days I think “Please God make this stop. I hate every second of this”

The Hebrides triathlon was a “make this stop” day. It was entirely my own fault that I felt like this!

Swim (36min 46 sec)

The swim is usually in a Loch but due to the presence of Blue-Green algae the organisers wisely moved it to the sea instead.

Normally I love swimming in the sea. The clear water is much more enjoyable than a peaty dark loch. Unfortunately. I made a mistake when choosing my swim googles. I wore tinted lenses. It was an overcast day and the tinted lenses made it seem even more overcast. I could barely see my nose let alone the course markers.

My sighting was so poor I swam 1800m instad of 1500m!

Even worse than that – Andrew beat me.

I should have brought the correct googles.

Bike (1hr 22 min)

The bike course is an out and back route to the Callanish Stones. It was an undulating route with a strong head wind on parts of it.

Andrew is a better cyclist than me so I knew I wouldn’t catch him on this section. I hadn’t ridden my TT bike in a year. I struggled to get comfortable on the bars. It wasn’t an enjoyable ride.

I should have done some test rides before the race.

Run (1hr 03min 02 sec)

I injured my foot a couple of weeks before the race. I debated whether to start the run or not. I wasn’t sure my foot could handle the race.

I decided that I didn’t want a DNF against my name so I decided to start but walk whenever my foot felt like it might be sore. I quickly realized it was ok on flat sections of the course but sore on up or downhill parts.

There wasn’t many flat sections!

I should have walked all of it so that my foot wasn’t sore

Overall. (3hr 10min 12s)

I was happy to finish!

It is a great, friendly race with a great selection of food available at the end. I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to combine a trip to the Hebrides with a scenic challenging race.

The World’s Highest Bridge Bungee Jump – Part 2 (Andrew)

Find Part 1 here

I will start by saying that I had no intention of jumping off the world’s highest bungee bridge. We were driving across South Africa blissfully unaware that such a thing as the world’s highest bridge bungee existed when we drove round a corner, saw a bridge across a deep gorge, saw a sign offering the chance to jump of it and we thought “fek that, I’m not jmping off that!” and drove on…

Only to turn around 10 minutes later on the basis that “when will we ever be here again? Never, that’s when, so we should just do it!”

So, we did, even though I hate heights, hate flying and hate the very thought of bungee jumping.

We were lucky, or unlucky, as it was mid-week and they could let us jump straight away. I say jump but, as you’ll see from the video below, I didn’t jump. In fact, I can reveal now that this was less a bungee jump and more a case of attempted murder. I was pushed off the bridge! I didn’t volunteer, I was shoved in the back and made to fly against my will!

My wife on the other hand practically ran up and jumped it faster than an Olympic long jumper.

“Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee,” she screamed in excitement.

“WWWWWWWWwwwwwwwwwhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaattttttt ttttttttthhhheeeee ffffffffffuuuuuuuuucccccccccc……” I screamed.

And screamed again when the bungee reached it’s limit and pulled me back up like a human yo-yo.

Which it did again and again as I never realised that because the cord is elastic you keep bouncing back and forth and dropping again and again, each time worse than the last because each time you know is the time you will die. You were just lucky the first time that the cord didn’t snap. But can you be lucky twice? Three times? You can’t be lucky four times, this time you’re going to die?

“WWWWWWWWwwwwwwwwwhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaattttttt ttttttttthhhheeeee ffffffffffuuuuuuuuucccccccccc……” I scream again.

Until, finally, the bouncing stops and I’m left staring at the rocks below and with a new found belief in the Lord Almighty, who must have surely heard my cries even as far away as Heaven.

I hated every single second of it and I will never do it again.But if this sounds like something you want to do then, when the world opens up, here everything you need to know about it: https://www.faceadrenalin.com

But don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Rugged Run – Buachaille Etive Mòr (Iain)

Buachaille Etive Mòr is one of Scotland’s most photographed mountains as one of Scotland’s busiest tourist routes passes right by it. The A82 – the main road connecting Glasgow and the Highlands via Fort William.

I hate the A82. I know it’s supposed to be one of Scotland’s most scenic drives but it is horrifically slow to drive with limited places to overtake. Every tourist who slows down to check out the photographic face of Buachaille Etive Mòr causes a tailback that stretches all the way back to Glasgow.

I jest but I did once spend two hours on the A82, due to tailbacks caused by cars trying to go to Glencoe’s ski resort, butI only travelled 2 miles. I was heading to climb Buachaille Etive Mòr but I gave in and returned home. Unfortunately I felt unwell. I spent a miserable 3 hours driving home whilst stopping every 30 minutes to throw up.

I try to drive the A82 as little as possible. But due to a combination of amazing weather and a vacation day I decided to face the beast road and climb Buachaille Etive Mòr.

I was surprised at how few people were on the hill. Even in bad weather I’ve never been up without at least half a dozen other groups present. I think the hot weather had put people off.

I spoke to one man who was doing it too and he that he was on holiday in Glencoe and he thought he’d be out every day but due to the heat he was only managing to get out every second day. On his days off he was sitting a garden drinking beer.

That sounds like a good holiday!

MAPS

https://www.strava.com/routes/2855454549173274876

Review

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Amazing weather and views.

Parking

Rating: 3 out of 5.

There is a car park next to the start but it can fill up quickly especially at weekends.

Facilities

Rating: 1 out of 5.

None

Nearest cafe

Rating: 2 out of 5.

There are cafe’s in Tyndrum or Fort William

Run Surface

100% trail

Dog Friendly

Yes but its very steep in places.

Elevation

0m

Film Friday: LEJOG Relay Attempt (Andrew)

Mark Beaumont is one of the world’s best endurance cyclists. He’s twice held the record for fastest time around the world, including his current record of cycling round the world in less than 80 days.

James Lowsley-Williams is a former cycling professional and current presenter of the YouTube channel, Global Cycling Network.

Together they attempted to break the record for fastest two person relay time for cycling Lands End to John O’Groats.

You can watch their attempt below and see how different each men become as they get deeper and deeper into the race. They each ride for one hour and swap over again and again as they attempt to keep an average speed of 19 mph from one end of the UK to another. However it’s quite clear that for one man (James) it’s a very different experience from the other (Mark)…

Well worth a watch!

Rugged Run – Luskentyre Beach (Iain)

What a difference a day makes. If you look at the image from this video you wouldn’t guess that just 24 hours earlier it was cold, wet and there was zero visibility!

The most annoying thing about that was that the weather forecast for the bad day was for glorious sunshine.

The only thing you can rely on about Scottish Weather is to expect the unexpected. Never leave the house without a precautionary jacket.

Luskentyre beach is the most famous beach in Outer Hebrides and it is commonly mentioned as one of the best in the world. Although I wouldn’t even rate it amongst the top 5 beaches in the Hebrides!

Its nice but there are more spectacular ones on the island. Check out Uig or Tolsta to see much better ones.

The video shows just how much difference a day makes. It was filmed over two days. I think you might be able to tell which day was which.

MAPS

Review

Rating: 4 out of 5.

A beautiful beach

Parking

Rating: 4 out of 5.

There is a car park next to the beach but it can fill up with camper vans in summer.

Facilities

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Toilets

Nearest cafe

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Nothing nearby but there is a small shop in Tarbert.

Run Surface

100% beach

Dog Friendly

Yes

Elevation

0m

The World’s Highest Bridge Bungee Jump – Part 1 (Andrew)

While clearing the attic I found a box of homemade DVDs left by the previous owner, one of which was marked in red ink: ‘Max’s Stag’.

I’d watch ‘Max’s Stag’ if it wasn’t the case that finding old home movies in the attic is the exact plot of Sinister and, tonight, after watching it, I’ll be dragged to hell by the demon Baghuul.

Who records a stag and then burns a DVD for everyone? What kind of stag do was it?

Steve: “I brought the handcuffs.”

Michael: “I brought the blow up doll.”

Max – “Lol, very good guys, you’re just trying to make me nervous.”

Bob – “Just wait to see who we hired for the pub crawl! It’s a surprise but if you’ve ever seen the Wizard of Oz then you’ll know who we’ve got…. we got a midget dressed as a munchkin!”

Max – “You guys are the best! Now, Jamie, what did you bring?”

Jamie – “Well, I thought I’d bring my camcorder so we could record the whole event and maybe we could sit down one weekend with a cup of tea and a chocolate Club biscuit to watch it again.”

Everyone – “Yay!”

Part of me wonders if the previous owner is desperate to find this DVD. Maybe they’d left it in the attic because it was never meant to be found? Maybe they’d wanted to take it away with them because what happened on Max’s stag was meant to stay on Max’s stag, including the location of the shallow grave they dug to bury the hooker. Maybe the previous owner woke up in a cold sweat a few months after moving and thought: “FFS, did I leave the evidence in the attic!”

Or maybe that’s what Baghuul wants us to think to tempt us to watch the DVD? Maybe this is just an elaborate set up to unleash Satan? If so, perhaps it’s better to just smash it with a hammer and not bring about the apocalypse.

Also I don’t have a DVD player so there is that too.

I might as well be trying to watch Betamax than try and watch a DVD. Instead, if I want to watch an old video I need to turn to YouTube. Which, as far as I know, will not summon Beelzebub.

However, finding the DVD reminded me that I last watched a DVD 10 years ago when I uploaded a video to YouTube so that I wouldn’t lose it if something happened to the DVD itself. I wasn’t on Max’s Stag though, I was jumping from Bloukarans Bridge in South Africa. Luckily I had a bungee cord wrapped around me as otherwise I wouldn’t be able to tell you my tale next week when I share the story of what happened when I tried to jump off the highest bridge bungee in the world.

To be continued….

Rugged Run – Ceapabhal – Isle Of Harris (Iain)

One of the joys of running the hills in harris is that I rarely, if ever, meet anyone else. Harris folk invented social distancing way before it was a covid thing.

I climbed this hill and didn’t see a soul until i was 20m from the summit. Two women appeared from a different direction and we all reached the summit at the same time!

They said that their should have been four of them but their husbands had given in because it was too steep.

It was a steep climb but I was lucky enough to do it on a beutiful day. the views from the top were amazing. Check out the video to see what I mean.

I wouldn;t recommend the route I took. I only realised when I got to the top that there was actually a path. Next time, I’ll use the path instead.

MAPS

https://www.strava.com/routes/2843223413781966962

Review

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Spectacular Views on a nice day but its not a route for inexperienced runners

Parking

Rating: 4 out of 5.

There is a car park at the start of the run

Facilities

Rating: 1 out of 5.

None

Nearest cafe

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Nothing nearby but there is a small shop in Leverburgh.

Run Surface

100% moor

Dog Friendly

There are sheep in the fields at the bottom of the hill.

Elevation

437m