strathearnharriers.myfastforum.org

Graham · Joined: 10 Oct 2007 Posts: 31

Firstly, a massive thanks to those of you who sponsored me in this event. We have raised in excess of £1500 for Mercy Corps!

Graeme, my brother-in-law, and I travelled up to Loch Tay on Friday evening to get registered and undergo a fairly rigorous kit check and pre-race navigation test (!) alongside the other 120 teams. The remainder of the evening was spent full of self-doubt as we heard news of Olympic triathletes and various Iron Man competitors in the field.

Saturday morning saw us gathered on the shores of Loch Tay for a 6am start. Never having swam a mile in open water before I was slightly apprehensive to say the least- the swimming pool training appears to have paid off however and I reached the far side of the loch in 26 mins. Graeme arrived a few minutes later and a fairly rapid transition saw us heading out onto the hillrun section in 3rd position! Conditions on the tops were incredible with the most amazing temperature inversion with only the highest peaks looming out of the cloud. The route traverses 6 of the Munros on the Lawers ridge before dropping down to the dam then up to the top of Meall Nan Tarmachan on the other side before descending to Loch Tay.

Coming off Tarmachan we were in pole position- we could scarcely believe it but I guess Olympic Triathlons and Iron Man races don't feature 15 miles of mist-shrouded Munros. The 7 mile kayak section in the sun would have been most pleasant had it not been for the fact we were in a race, an hour and a half of pain saw us through to the bike transition.

Exiting the water we were told we only had a 5 min lead over the fastest runners from the later 0700 start so once in the saddle we put the foot down. We put in a fairly solid performance on the 35 mile road bike section round the loch although I hit a real low spot in Kenmore with only 5 miles to go. A couple of Power Gels saw me through the final climb and we both rolled over the finish line absolutely spent!

Not only did we come first but we broke the previous course record by over 30 minutes! Having last actually WON a race on my school sports day about 20 years ago it's fair to say we were pretty elated! Six months of fairly intensive training seems to have paid off!

Thanks again for your sponsorship, having now met their representatives I am confident that the money will be put to good use. Thanks everyone.

Hill Fairy · Joined: 01 Oct 2007 Posts: 163

Fantastic!!!
Thats an extraordinary performance from the 2 of you. well done. Looks like you've found your event.
It sounds like a brutal day and to come first is amazing. Enjoy a well earned rest.

McStecko · Joined: 28 Sep 2007 Posts: 294 Location: Crieff

That's a quite brilliant performance Graham! A course record by 30 mins to boot.

Fantastic!!!

Tanconsult · Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 2:28 pm Post subject:

Excellent result, brilliant by both of you so many congratulations. If my eyes didn't deceive me reading the local press, the organisers could even have included tennis and you'd still have won!

Looks like our strategy for 22 August might be worth keeping even more secret now!

Colin Very Happy

digby · Joined: 09 Oct 2007 Posts: 77

Elation well earned. Enjoy it.

Gordon · Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 4:11 pm Post subject:

Graham
I've somehow missed reading this before now - congratulations to the two of you - what an impressive performance!

kaznicholl · Joined: 10 Oct 2007 Posts: 239

I agree, Gordon - totally well done - thought that at the time of reading but didn't have time to make a post and then it went clean out of my head to go back at a later date - great effort - really well done!
Kaz