1. Training. If your gonna race, you gotta train. I've knocked f*** out of myself since last November, starting from a pretty reasonable level. However training advice for a race involving 5/6 12-15 hour days over totally hardcore terrain is thin on the ground. the advice I found was mainly aimed at club stage racers. Still 5-7 hour rides on road and mountainbike at full gas should hone my endurance and stamina to a level plenty capable of the aforementioned? Yes and no. The problem I had was that the 'easy' pace I rode off at on day 1 wasn't easy enough. Overtaking the entire field should have been a clue.... Also I did tons of hill climbing but this just meant I stomped up the first 5 climbs of the route far too fast, whilst thinking I was cruising. Plus by the Sunday lunchtime my carefully toned quads just ended up being so much dead weight... See point 2. What I missed was lots of long 12-15 hour rides to learn a good easy pace that would last the distance.
2. Pace. Don't overtake the whole field on the first climb, including all of the race favourites. Even if I was capable of maintaining this pace for the whole event (ha!) its still a bad idea. In my defense my pace felt like a nice steady tempo which I would use on every climb and I didn't know who anybody was so didn't know I'd blasted past Phil Simcock on the climb out of Loch tulla until we got to Fort Augustus (98 miles in 10 hours) and he told me I'd lead the race for 40 miles. Gulp..... If I'd stopped for some proper food (see point 3) at KLL it would have made all the difference. In any event backing off would have meant I'd have finished in 6 days rather than binned after 2
3. Food. You don't need to carry 4 days of food in Scotland. There will always be a shop open, or a pub / hotel or something. I was paranoid about missing open shops on the northern loop, hence the 4 days of grub. If it looks like your gonna miss something you alter your pace so you don't. I reckon 1 full days food, some extra odds and ends and maybe emergency rations (gels) for say 1 more day which you top up if you use them. Also a constant diet of cereal bars, porridge oat bars, chocolate and horrible fecking gels don't work for more than 5 hours. I had a constant upset stomach from about Saturday lunchtime onwards until I got some decent scran in Contin which made me feel immediately better. For next year(HA!!!) I'm going to really look into what food to take and eat.
4. Gear. I got this spot on. Fook bivvy bags and race kit, this is Scotland. I had all the right kit for surviving the miserable drookit day Sunday turned into (15 hours of rain, 130 miles) and was able to don full waterproofs and gaitors to keep me dry and to keep the resulting mud and filth out of my kit. Plus having a tent meant I could have got out of the rain and midges and still operated well the next day, had I not blown my legs up on day 1. On my feet I had goretex boots, seal skin socks and merino wool inner socks. Despite numerous dunkings on the flooded track over to Contin past Orrin Res my feet were warm and dry
5. Bike. Anything goes as long as your comfortable on it. It doesn't have to be bling as long as it all works. Its going to be totally wrecked by the end so don't worry about renewing everything before the race. My Kramp was nigh on perfect despite weighing in at 30lbs less kit. Where I went wrong was several changes to grips / bar ends etc. prior to the day. I should have spent much more time on this over long distances and probably just stuck with my extra thick super star grips. Instead I ended up with a pair of ergo grips which were utterly horrible. After day one they felt like 2 ill shaped blocks of wood and my hands were in agony. My left pinky is still numb. One thing I didn't have with me was spare brake pads. After I'd bailed and got back home I discovered the horrible noises coming from my front brake were due to the pads being down to the metal, despite being only a quarter worn before the start. 130 miles of gritty water will do that..
6. Attitude. However good you think you might be, its always worth taking it canny on your first race so you can prove how good you are (or not as the case may be). If things are going well you can always up the pace later on - you have 5-7 days to do this.... That said I'm glad I quit when I did as if I'd have pushed on I would have had a truly miserable experience which might have seriously affected my desire to try this again or in fact go anywhere near a bike again.
7. Planning. I thought I'd planned this thing to death but I got it completely wrong and in such a totally obvious way - I underestimated how long it would take (durr!) sections I thought would be easy - Strathglass to Contin being the worst case of this - took ages and knackered me mentally and physically as a result. I think you should work out a schedule then add a day to it as with point 6, if things go well you can up the pace later on in the race.
8. Why? Dunno really - I was looking for a challenge and this fitted the bill. Plus I would bag a large number of trails that have been on my to do list for several years. I like the low key organisation and the whole informal format. My plan was to do it once only and then look to other things but having failed dismally I'm very likely to try again next year as what I learned in the 210 miles of the route I did should immediately mean I'm better prepared already. We'll see, what I'm really looking forward to this summer is just doing some normal bikepacking and touring where I set my own route, pace and schedule with no need to stick to anything prescribed. I fully intend to do the northern bit and the Fisherfield and torridon sections this summer, midges or not.
9. Etiquette. Work out what the favourites look like before the race and don't burn past them on the first climb....
This was taken in ullapool on Monday morning after I'd jacked it. A minute later, eventual winner Phil Simcock rolled into town having done the whole northern loop in less than a day. His eventual finish time was 4 days, 1 hr 45mins. Bloody hell....
Once I was happy I tightened 'em down.
