Shredded Head

Well I'm back from The Hebrides, and our two week trip to Scotland, and after one day at work in an office my head is shredded. Guiness and pasta will have me a sleep by 9pm... drinking on a school night! Eek.

Firstly, a big thank you to everyone for their support and sponsorship of my 70 Wild Miles event. It was a great day, nice course, relaxing event and a warm up for the Heb Challenge. You can still donate on-line via www.justgiving.com/joefaulkner should you wish to do so. Sadly we missed out on any evening presentation, buffet and disco as we went to see Dave Atkinson finish his West Highland Way race, so I have no results, but apparently I was 9th out of 58 solos. I wasn't able to blog after the race to limited IT facilities, and who wants to spend holiday time at a PC key board what ever the connection speed? It does make you think about life and the real world, though.

A Sunday ferry took us out to South Uist on The Hebrides for a few days rest and relaxation prior to The Hebridean Challenge. This is a five day race for pairs or teams; cycling, running, MTB, (and swiming and sea kayaking for the teams) the length of the islands - approximately 150 miles as a seagull might fly, and so probably twice that via the race route.

The Heb remains the best Adventure Race in the UK, although Scotland gave us a mixed bag of weather with quite a bit of wet and very windy stuff for several days. 'The Heb' is simply brilliant and a great adventure for everyone. Louise 'Wilko' Wilkinson paired up for a 'lightweight', fun-but-competitive trip... and it was fun, just! It was also pretty tough with 12-15 hour days, which compounded by weather and a few other issues made it a wee bit tougher than anticipated. Nevertheless, we put in strong effort, performing well as the only land based pair against the four/five person teams. I ran some long and tough mountain navigation legs, while Wilko clocked up and increasing amount of time on my road bike as well as running strongly on shorter stages and MTB'ing very well. Even on Day Five we were keeping pace with the leading teams (although they did do a bit more than us, usually a swim leg) until the final afternoon when Wilko was obliged to tacked about 30km of cliff edge MTB section. Initially this was designated a MTB leg, and the geography didn't permit us to 'tag' and relay each other. Once committed to this, and with all teams falling behind 'buffet, speeches, prizing giving and Ceildh(?) schedule' it had become apparent that the 30km wasn't at all rideable, the later teams started to run in relays rather than ride the section or even ride on the parallel road! With the goal posts changed, and no means of contacting or intervening in this increasing frustrating situation, Wilko just got on with the job, 'riding' the whole leg solo, in one 'hit', so she is probably the only rider to do so. Consequently, we finish with pride intact if not an early finish. As a 'Heb Virgin' she really deserves the title of 'Racer of the Week'. Racing with me must be a chore in it's self!

As you might have detected, the finish was a little disappointing, but no-one is to blame really; we were simply a victim of circumstance. Ironically, if I were prepared to drive backwards a forwards and throw diesel and common sense to the island winds, I may have been able to find her and relieve her of her toil, but the chances of doing that were slim, and with a greater chance of missing her at the penultimate controls, and then the situation would have been worse. It the greater scheme of things it is nothing.

Hey... no worries - no-one actually reads this .... and we went for an adventure. It certain was, and The Heb remains the best Adventure Race in the UK. Whether there is a pairs section next year remains to be seen, as it is clear that the involvement of just three pairs as opposed to 16 teams was an unproportional drain on the events resources, and once or twice logitsical issues smacked us in the face. And when they did it hurt deeply.

Whatever your ambition, put The Heb in the diary for next year .... it is a must. It's brilliant.
I'll be back, as will Wilko ... but we may be looking for team mates......

.......Or may be not?

Joe