Strathpuffer tales ( and lessons)

For once I was at a stupid event and it wasn't my idea. Morgan invited his old da to do this 24 hour MTB race as a pair. I could easily have stuck to my guns after completing it as a quad, a pair and solo but scars can heal, only to be re-opened.

If you don't know the race its held in Contin Forest just west of Inverness and as its 24hours of lapping a 12.4km track there are 17 hours of darkness. For such an undertaking you have to have sound support ( 1st time round we did wing it) and

@Zoe Newsam

and

@Mark Brown

stepped up and actually made the weekend for us. Can't say enough thank yous.

We travelled up the day before ( morgan made a detour to the Lecht for a ski day as prep?!). Mark and I loaded the camper van and found ourselves a base camp spot. Chilled out fed and watered and we set off in the morning.

We had a plan to take laps about and then switch to doubles at 10pm to allow some naps. Chatting with the Specialised guys we changed plan and decided to do doubles as soon as it got dark. Morgan set us off piped up to a Le mans start running to the bike and 10am we were off. Big smiles at the end of lap one and off I went - more big smiles. We both had smooth laps in optimal conditions - mainly hard packed snow cover so a smidge over 2 hours and we were set.

Then the temperature rose. Conditions changed so under the snow were ice ruts so as the snow turned to slush it was almost impossible to hold the front wheel straight so the times lengthened but we were still grand. Mark had already replaced Morgans brakes andmy tyres were pronounced unsuitable so they were replaced too. Handy having an excellent mechanic in the crew. 6 laps done and dusted sitting in around 14th place. Lights on and Morgan set off on the first double. After his first lap, his main headlight was running out of charge. This is the main lesson of the day. We hired the biggest baddest Exposure lights and plan was - one of those each, a head mounted light and a back up on the bars. When we picked up the lights they said 7 hours on full beam... so we didn't mount the back ups. We gave Morgan a small headtorch as safety and off he went. All good , 8 laps done and its about 6pm so dinner time. The great thing about this style of event is that fuelling is real food - so bolognaise , burgers, home made chicken soup, tea , coffee, home baking and erm Red Bull.

We were motoring nicely and up into 11th or 12th place with less than a minute behind the guys in front who finished 7th in the end.

My first lap on the double - same as in the light no drama still good but underwheel more challenging. Lap 2 going fine then the headlight started flashing - meaning charge is low. Just before the rock garden section it went out so life becama a tad entertaining. Managed to get cable ties and had the back up on - fine for walking but not much else. So jumping onto little groups, walking and sliding, scooting and the relief at getting back was palpable but 2 hours 20 odd for the lap. Mark went off and charged lights and got a new unit so we were all good for the next set - or so we thought.

Same deal again and now the number of slide outs and falls were increasing with fatigue so after 1 lap the old guy had the good lady's words 'come home in one piece' in the head so the call 'Im not going back out there with dodgy lights'. Morgan was wakened but we decided to let him get more sleep. This was 5:30 am so we shifted to get him back out at 7:30 for two more laps.

By this stage the fire road was sheet ice with water on top so basically unrideable so at about 9 we called it a day. 16 laps which was good enough for 16th place in the pairs. Happy with that as we had no designs at all on competing after all triathletes can't ride bikes!

Not news but the key here was around prep and planning which we did do but as we were out for a jolly the attention to detail maybe could have been better but the absolute lesson was - stick to the safe plan. If we had used the back up lights then it would certainly have been even more enjoyable and we would have squeezed in a few more laps. The upside - we can both walk the day after!

It is a big gig if you keep going and we would highly recommend it as an adventure rather than a race. From the 4 events I can confirm pairs is the trickiest and quads is the best laugh, but we had a ball.

Never again ( for the 3rd time)

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