I am slightly surprised and perhaps a little worried about the comments regarding devaluing the brand. I don't really understand that. ..... I hadn't considered how adding this bike would somehow lessen or cancel out all the other stuff we do. Maybe because your area of professional expertise is we...

Really enjoyed reading this. Still living off the memories.

[quote][/You know that gate after Erchless Castle? There's a lock on the chain, but the other end of the chain is on a hook, so you just undo it... No lifting required!quote]

And there was me feeling smug about my intricate knowledge of the route ....

Hey Haywire, thanks for raising this topic - if you hadn't I'd wouldn't have seen some quite realistic comments about the Alpkit I was buying. They were fine with refund and I ordered the cumulus one Stuart recommended. Cheers!

Added to my must read list ...
Ps not sure if she's posting on here but go to the adventure syndicate and read Lee Craigies first two chapters. Totally ace stuff.

Thanks everyone, seem like I might have to go with the cumulus and cancel the Alpkit. Really don't want any reliability issues with kit.

Stuart's Achilles is recovering slowly and I haven't yet ridden more than an hour in one ride since finishing the HT. But it's a great event and looking there could be a good scrap. Good luck to all.

Oh dear. Nothing here reassures me about the order I have just placed. Where can the cumulus 150 be bought from and how much? I've just paid £70 for the Alpkit but not despatched yet.

I've just pre-ordered the Alpkit quilt today. Not clear on temp spec but I'm hoping will go to around +5c with silk liner and me wearing merino leggings and l/s top inside. Wishful thinking? I guess I'll soon find out.

Hi Alpinium From the Tuesday before I picked up a bad cold that hadn't shifted when I started Staurday - and was made worse by racing for 15-17hrs per day. So this put extra stress on my body on top of the race. Hence the reason I'm still a bit broken. However, I've just seen the Capital Trail looks...

Don't mind admitting I'm still wrecked. Can commute to work on bike in week if I do little riding on weekends. No capacity for any effort. Swollen right Achilles went down after 2 weeks. In my mind I dug in so deep I can't face anything remotely resembling pain right now on a bike, just enjoying lif...

Horton in Ribblesdale railway station after 200km on the yd300 last year. No real shelter, not much sleep. Suffered the next day.

Early evening towards the end of Glen Affric I felt really tired and I was making excuses to take longer little stops. Probably the previous night sleeping at the gates of the Postman path in company of midges didn't help much. Did the climb after Tomich and was planning to get some food and rest a...

[quote][Fantastic read, Philip! We all first 5 finishers somehow wanted to go non stop through the last night but we all had to stop at some point./quote] Hi Javi glad you liked it. Where did you stop on the final night and for how long? If you are ever heading up North East England or Scotland let ...

Thanks very brotherhuw. Glad you liked it.

Blimey!

Humbling...

I take my hat off to you sir. Beautifully recorded account of a true epic.

Si

Thanks Very Much Si.
I guess there weren't many emotional stones that I left unturned!!!!!

Very well written piece, Phil

Thanks Ian. Your video footage of the HT was a big inspiration!

Thanks Gian and great to meet you too.

Thanks to all for the positive comments. Yes Scotroutes I was on a bit of a mission in Ullapool Tesco. I seem to remember you say, "hurry up or you,Lloyd get beaten by a girl" and my reply was, "Lee is one girl I wouldn't mind being beaten by!" Great memories and very good fish a...

Thanks very much Rich!

I was in survival mode very soon after! Just read all your write up IanF - you did a monster last day. And seemed to eat more than me too. Not many people do that!

Ha ha. I also had a pee too!

As promised Ian, yours was the first I read once I got writing my own out of the way. Superb stuff, well done in both riding and writing.

"I had no idea where I was in the race: I assumed that, as Liam was ahead of me at Fort Augustus, he was still ahead of me now and then I began to think of Javi and Lee too – maybe that massive push out of Glen Affric hadn’t been enough to distance them after all and they had passed by as I sno...

Well now the battle with the kilometres is over, the one with the keyboard starts .... I've had to get myself a wordpress account and I'm typing away at the moment. Getting near the end of day 2 on my account of the HT. Lee is correct - the race is life-changing. And the more your life basically rev...