My experience of ITERA 2022 as my first Adventure Race
ITERA is a 5 day kayaking, biking and trekking adventure race across 500km of the Scottish Highlands that’s part of the Adventure Race World Series. I attempted it for the first time this year, having never done any adventure or endurance races before. Here are my notes following the race:
It’s Saturday, the day after the race finished, and I’m sat in the hostel in Oban, enjoying the view over Mull, trying to take in the journey that the race took us on over the last week.
For us, it was a very successful race, and it’s a strange feeling now to have completed a goal that I’ve been training for for over a year. When I first heard about expedition adventure racing as a sport, via Eco Challenge Fiji, I wanted to find out if I was capable of completing a course like that, I now know that I can!
Getting a team of 4 to the start line was one of the big challenges, and the team we built, ACDC AR, was amazing: myself, Conrad and Alex have known each other for years and been on many trips together, we’re all new to adventure racing, but not to being out in the hills. Carin was the last addition to the team, we connected via a Facebook event group. It was immediately clear that her experience and attitude would be a huge asset and she fitted right in. Everyone had different strengths during the race, with Conrad excelling at the biking, Alex is a seasoned mountain navigator and Carin kept us moving through transitions and the pace high out on the course.
Pre-race
I was very nervous during the build up, as our official pre race photo shows, not just because I wasn’t sure if I was personally capable, but also because I was wearing the captain’s bib and was responsible for leading the team I’d formed safely through 500km of some of Scotland’s most rugged terrain.
We spent Friday afternoon and the first half of Saturday sorting kit out at the Corran Halls, trying to make decisions about food and layers. There was definitely some faff involved, but we were the first team to hand in our bike boxes and paddling kit bags, so we weren’t doing too bad.
Once the bags had been packed away on to vans, I started to relax and after the briefing where the course was revealed, then the fun began. We were handed 12 double-sided A3 sheets which contained OS 1:50k maps of the route, with the TAs and CPs marked, as well as the mandatory routes and out-of-bounds areas.
On each stage during the race, we had to visit checkpoints, or CPs, with some of them being mandatory (if you miss them you’re allowed to continue, but non competitively). The ones that aren’t mandatory carry a time penalty, so you have to decide whether you can get there in that time, and how getting that CP will affect your ability to get the mandatory CPs later on in the course. The other consideration is cut offs: at various points during the race, there was a latest time you had to get to that transition/CP, and if you failed, you were forced to skip the next section.
Looking at the map over a coffee in Oban, we saw ten stages, starting out on the Islands, paddling and trekking back to the mainland, then trekking and biking to Fort William followed by a really full on finish with a long mountain trekking stage, an epic biking leg before paddling to the finish.
We quickly decided that the main stages we wanted to hit were the paddle from Iona to Staffa, the huge Nevis trek and that above everything, we wanted to cross the finishing line at the end without falling foul of any cut offs. That final aim carried through into our race strategy and I’m really impressed with how well that worked out for us. The strategic element was new to most of us, but it didn’t take too long to accept that it would likely be worth skipping some of the early CPs and making sure we avoided the cut offs and we’re able to complete the two full last days. This strategy worked fantastically well, at no point did we have to worry about the cut off times.
The race didn’t start until 2pm on Sunday, but there was still a few hours of travel from Oban to the start line so, after banking some sleep on Saturday night, we headed to the port, catching the Craignure ferry to Mull.
A double decker coach ride and a small foot passenger ferry later, we arrived on the small island of Iona, which is more used to welcoming pilgrims to the abbey that founded Christianity in Britain than it is to welcoming adventure racers. At the captain’s briefing in the village hall before the race there was a cheer when James announced that the weather was kind enough for us to attempt option A, the paddle out to Staffa, this was a huge relief for us, given the thunderstorms we drove through on the bus. There was drizzle on the start line, and the event started quickly and on time. We quickly dropped towards the back of the pack, opting to walk, rather than run the 5km loop of Iona that preceded stage 1.
Stage 1: Paddle from Iona
The first full stage was a 35km kayak from Iona to Mull via Staffa, with 3 CPs. We took the full route here.
We made up some places with a quick transition to the double sit on top kayaks at a beautiful white sand beach and were soon heading off towards our first CP, which was located in the beautiful Fingal’s cave which we reached by walking across the basalt columns from the landing area, then heading back around to the trig pillar on the top of the island for CP 2.
Back in our boats for the paddle to the smaller island of Inch Kenneth. We nearly misidentified this island as we were heading across the sea, due to getting distracted by the pods of porpoises that were jumping and playing in the water around us. At one point they came right up to the front of the boat, almost as if they were encouraging us on. Stopping to get out for CP 3, we all got pretty chilly instantly when we stopped paddling and had to layer up & get some food in us before the final part of this stage to the mainland. It was starting to get dark as we arrived and we were pleased to see the TA lit up well to make the nav easier for the end of this section. We didn’t know it at the time, but that the last few km here was the only paddling that we would do in the dark.
This stage was definitely a highlight for me.
Stats: The initial loop of Iona was 4km and took 40 mins. We were in TA0–1 for 10 mins. The paddling stage was 32km, and took 6.75 hrs. We were in TA 1–2 for just under an hour.
Stage 2: Trek across Mull
The first trekking stage was where we first decided to play it safe — we had the option to head up and over some hills to grab a couple of optional CPs (4 & 5), but during planning we’d identified a shorter route that took in CP 6 and then the mandatory CP 7, so after a quick change out of our wet paddling kit and into our hiking kit, we headed out on the ~40km hike. We were on a road and then track for a while before heading up into the hills for our first night out. I’d got the eating plan wrong, I think largely because it’s hard to eat whilst your hands are full with kayak paddles or walking poles. At the start of one uphill section, I was feeling a little low on energy so had a gel, which I think temporarily spiked my energy levels and then caused them to crash, within about 15mins I was pale, feeling light headed, nauseous and ready to collapse. The rest of the team were great, we jumped in the bothy bag for a few minutes, I got some proper food in me (a Cliff bar) and carried on moving up the hill with a lighter pack. This was probably the low point for me and the moment when I most questioned whether I’d be able to complete it or not. But, thanks to my team, we kept moving, within an hour or so I was feeling back to normal.
The nav on this section was an incredible effort from Alex, we found the paths we needed to, set out across open ground in the dark, hitting our marks and during the night we found CP 6 out on the hill, and then descended the other side. The going here was very tough as we got lower, the ground was extremely boggy, lumpy and full of holes, making it quite treacherous under foot. Shortly after dawn, we crawled into a pine forest by the road and tucked ourselves up into our bivys for a couple of hours sleep.
The second part of the hike involved more boggy ground, following and then climbing out of a river valley and then back up to the highpoint at the trig pillar on Mainnir nam Fiadh. As we were ascending from the saddle to the summit cairn, we saw a huge herd of red deer running around. Alex counted over 70 of them. We then descended down a track/road all the way from 750m to sea-level at Duart castle. We skipped the cafe here and after refilling water, quickly headed out on the kayaks again.
This stage was mainly type 2 fun!
Stats: This trekking stage started on Sunday at 10:30pm, was 43km and took 16hrs, including 2hrs sleep (in bivy bags) at around 5am Monday. We were in TA2–3 for 45 mins.
Stage 3: Paddle across Sound of Mull
After having to pull our kayaks past a load of jellyfish floating in the sea, we had a relatively short paddle across the Sound of Mull to Lochaline. We hugged the coast of Mull, which looking at other teams’ tracks ended up probably taking us longer (I think we missed the benefit of a helpful tide), but did mean we got to see a group of seals swimming around. The main hazard on this stage was the ferries that were going back and forth, including a large one that was crossing our path to the TA. I found it pretty hard to judge distances and speeds across the sound, so we paused, rafted up and let the ferry pass in front of us. I found this section to be very refreshing after the hard work of the hike and came into the other end feeling relaxed and renewed. Not all the team felt the same: Alex was suffering some pain in his wrist from the paddling and Conrad, who is by far the tallest of the team, was not having a good time of the squashed seating position in the sit-on-tops.
Stats: This paddling stage was 13km and took us 3hrs (4.5km/h). We were in TA3–4 for 2hrs, including the walk from the beach to the hall.
Stage 4: First biking leg
After landing on the beach at Lochaline, carrying our kayaks up to the trailer and then walking the 0.5km to the village hall, we sat down and used the urn to have our first hot food of the trip — a wonderful dehydrated meal! This is where we changed into our biking clothes and shoes for the first time and built the bikes from the bike boxes they travelled in. Part of the logistical challenge was ensuring we had the right kit at the right place, since it wasn’t possible for us to have all of our bags at every TA. Here, for example, we only had our bike box, but we’d planned ahead and packed clothes and food into that.
For this stage we opted for the short course, incurring some time penalties, but quickly completing the relatively easy biking section on fairly established tracks and quiet roads. This is where the weather started to turn and torrential rain followed us along the cycle track and road sections into the TA in a field in the town of Strontian.
We arrived quite late (about 11pm), just after a heavy downpour, and had our bikes to put away. This is when we discovered how necessary it was to waterproof both what was inside our rucksacks as well as what was inside our personal and team kit bags. (For future note, those PVC style duffels are water resistant, not water proof!)
When we arrived in the marquee to sign in, we were told that there were some logistical issues getting the boats to the start of stage 6 and that we should plan on getting to TA5–6 after 8am. At this TA, there was the mandated use of our team tent for a minimum 15min rest. We took that opportunity for a longer sleep and left on the hike in the daylight.
Stats: The biking stage was 32km and took us 2.5hrs, we started on Monday at 8:15pm. We were in TA4–5 for 7.5hrs and slept for ~4hrs.
Stage 5: Rainforest hike
Again, here we opted for the short course, skipping a couple of CPs up on some mountains and instead followed an old miners trail from Strontian to Polloch which started off in a Celtic rainforest. It was lovely to walk through the ancient woodland and is definitely an area I’d like to return to. We crossed paths with team 10 for a little bit at the end and chatted to them for a while. They were on the long course and going strong (ending up in 2nd place).
The TA at the end was populated entirely by midges (with the exception of a couple of friendly volunteers) and was so remote that they had to boat the kayaks in. We stayed long enough to change into kayaking kit and head down the pontoon to our waiting boats.
Stats: This trekking stage was 13km and took 3.25 hrs. We started on Tuesday at 6:30am. We were in TA5–6 for around 30 mins.
Stage 6: Loch -> River -> Sea Loch + walk out
This was a really enjoyable paddle, starting out on Loch Shiel, visiting the remains of an old chapel on one of the islands in the loch, before continuing on to the river Shiel, through a gorge. At the end of the river, there was a mandatory portage around the outflow into the sea (which was a couple of foot drop when we were there). The paddle from here took us to an island with the remains of a castle on it (the CP was attached to the castle’s portcullis). The open sea paddle we were supposed to have to TA6–7 at Glenuig was truncated and moved inland to the road at Loch Moidart due to strong winds. As we came through the channel, we could tell how strong the winds were and were grateful for the move, even if it meant that we had to hike along the A861 from the loch to the TA (thankfully without our kayaks). We were very lucky with the timing at the take out, as the tide was going out and exposing a large mud flat. We had a couple of steps to take in the quick mud, but later teams had a much harder time of it.
Once at the TA, we all had some hot food, had to rebuild our bikes and also had a mandatory kit check from race referee Igor. He was happy with everything we were carrying, with the exception of a missing survival bag. I’d misread the rules and thought we didn’t need one, when actually it was a space blanket we didn’t need. Both him and James were very fair in their dealing with this inadvertent rule breach, allowing us to borrow a spare one from the organisers and saying they may issue a small time penalty (in the end they decided not to). We later realised that we actually had been carrying one in our sleep kit, as the SOL bivys Carin and I had would have counted!
Stats: This kayaking stage started at 10:20am Tuesday and took us about 5hrs, covering ~22km. We spent almost 3hrs in TA6–7.
Stage 7: Biking to Fort William
This biking stage was a trip that linked some remote parts of Scotland that I’d never visited before to Fort William which has been the hub for many Scotland trips, via the A830. It was all on road (except some surprise single track at the the end), and we made good time — massively undercutting the 5hrs the planning team expected us to take. We went through Lochailort, where I recognised a river I’ve kayaked a few times, and then along the main road to Glen Finnian, where there was a mandatory CP at the monument, and a view up the valley to the viaduct that the Hogwarts Express made famous. The road continued through Corpach, where my now wife and I stayed on first holiday together almost 20 years ago, and into Fort William. We were briefly on the A82 for a bit, before shifting to a shared use path and then a surprise bit of single track switch backs as we climbed up the hill to the Auction mart, which was one of our favourite TAs. There was loads of space, and each team had their own cattle pen to spend the night in, with a heated communal kitchen and a TV screen showing the same view as all the dot-watchers at home could see.
It was at the Glen Finnian monument that the long course teams headed north and picked up a couple of optional CPs with a long hike-a-bike section in the middle. We opted to continue along the road, take the penalty points but arrive in time to get some sleep before the final couple of days. We knew that after here, the short course options weren’t appealing and we wanted to make sure we had the time and energy to complete the full course ahead of the cut offs. We also knew we were ahead of where we needed to be, but we didn’t realise how far ahead we were. We were one of the first teams into the TA and, as per the rules, couldn’t leave until the first long course team left. When we went to sleep, we thought the first long course team would come in around 2am and leave an hour or so later. That estimation was off by about 5 hours, and so we had a much longer wait that we expected. However, we were waiting in the dry and warm so come 8am, we were ready for two long days.
In hind-sight we’d have been better off heading up to the optional CP18, and then taking the road back to Fort William — we’d have missed a 6hr penalty (which perhaps should have been the clue that that was the right way to go) and it wouldn’t have affected how much we slept, given how much longer than expected the long course teams took between 18 and 19. That’s very much a hind-sight thing, though — given the info we had at the time and the knowledge we went into it with, playing it conservative ahead of the final stages wasn’t a bad call.
Stats: This biking stage took 3.5hrs and covered ~60km. It started at 6pm on Tuesday. We spent 10 hrs in TA 7–8, and slept for 3 hours.
Stage 8: Up and over Nevis
At the TA during the wee hours we were able to do a bit of dot watching (seeing the lead swap as SWECO turned around and took the long route to CP19), but more importantly for us, we took the opportunity to talk to Tom Gibbs (the course planner) about the route across the mountains the next day. We were still very apprehensive about the route up Nevis, the CMD arete to CP23 and the descent to CP24, with the climb back up to CP25. It was a long route, lots of up and down and was very exposed. The information we got, and a weather forecast we overheard some of the volunteers talking about, reassured us that it was worth giving a go. We had back up routes planned to Kinlochleven if the main route didn’t work out, and we had a few go/no go decision points planned.
Given the delay with the long course teams, there were many short course teams ready to set off at the same time, and this bunching of the teams was actually really nice. During some of the previous stages we’d been out on our own for bits, but having the teams closer together helped us feel more part of an event and gave us more reassurance about where we were in the pack. Given the difficulty of the route, we’d always planned to attack Nevis during the daylight, but having a mass start at 8am wasn’t something we expected. We didn’t keep pace with all of the teams who left at the same time, but could see teams ahead and behind us for the whole walk, with us overtaking some and some overtaking us during the day. The sun was out and the walk up to the CIC hut was warm. The views were great, and getting better with altitude. The course from the CIC Hut up the ledges was very well sign-posted and the addition of some paid mountain guides at key points on the scramble again provided reassurance that we were being well supported by the race directors during this leg. The guides were camping out at various spots and had tents dotted along the routes as they were planning on keeping it open until 3am the next morning. I’m glad we could enjoy the views as we went up — especially when the mist lifted and we could see the summit of Nevis above us and all the surrounding peaks.
Once we topped out on the ledges we joined the tourist path to head towards the summit, and we unanimously decided to continue on the long course from here. The summit was full of tourists, who gave us strange looks given all the kit we had with us, especially the cycle helmets that were mandatory for the scramble. One little girl asked us which way we’d come up and when we told her, turned to her daddy to ask why they hadn’t come up that route too!
The CMD arete was in some ways harder than the ledges — with our path down to it shrouded in mist at that point (Igor the referee caught us up and passed us on this point, reminding us not to break any rules as he strode off down the loose rock between the summit and start of the arete). When the mist lifted (or we dropped below it), the arete was a fantastic route to travel, with great views in either direction. This might be the section of the whole race that I enjoyed the most. I’d managed to get my layering and nutrition right for this stage and was able to move quickly along the rocks so I wasn’t at the back of the team, as I more often was during the uphill sections. Alex’s wrist was still giving him trouble, and we stopped at one point to strap it up, but this didn’t affect his navigation — we were spot on the whole way, and even ended up helping a long course team just in front of us at CP24 who were hunting around for the checkpoint. They only located it when we strode straight up to it and then continued on. They very soon overtook us again, though.
Climbing up to the summits of the Mamores was tiring, but the travel along them was pretty quick going. Everyone was shattered by the time we started to descend, with me taking over on the nav until I too faded as it got dark. We saw the lights of Kinlochleven below, but they disappeared and a bog appeared instead. We nicknamed this part of the hike the valley of despair which tells you how we were thinking about this 3hr hike from the summits to the TA in a midge infested hall at Kinlochleven. We arrived at midnight, but still decided that we should do the via ferrata (named Trouser Filler on the pre-event paperwork) before going to sleep so that we could wake up refreshed and ready for the long bike ride. It was here that we learnt that the final kayak stage might be replaced by even more biking. Being quite happy with kayaking this wasn’t what we wanted to hear, and definitely made us more nervous about the biking the next day.
The via ferrata was really good to do, but felt a little sketchy in places. We made a plan to buddy check each other as we were going, but the nature of the course didn’t really allow that. It was my first VF and I’d definitely give it another go. I love Go Ape, and via ferrata is basically the same but on rock and metal rather than trees, although there did feel like there was a higher risk factor here. Maybe that was just because I was on the verge of falling asleep as I did it, or because it was pitch black and lit only by our head torches.
When we made it back to TA around 3:30am, and we quickly went to sleep for 4 hours in the tent we pitched before starting the VF. We didn’t know it, but this was the last time we’d sleep during the race.
Stats: This trekking stage took 16 hours, starting at 8am on Wednesday and covered 46km, with 2,500m of ascent. We arrived at TA8–9 just before midnight. We spent 9.75 hrs in TA (inc. ~1.5hrs doing the via ferrata), and slept for 4hrs.
Stage 9 & 10: Biking it back to Oban
We had a relatively slow start after waking up, for various reasons. Conrad was up earlier than the rest of us and did a great job putting bikes together and taking the team tent down, while the rest of us were trying to find dry clothes and trying to force down yet another dehydrated meal for breakfast. Today’s section was due to be one of the highlights but also one of the hardest. The largest biking section for us, with no short course options, and through some of my favourite places in the world. So emotions were mixed and I struggled to get my head in the right place for the first part. The views helped somewhat — we climbed sharply out of Kinlochleven along the West Highland Way, passing droves of hikers who’d had a much earlier start than us. I’d call the first section a hike-a-bike most of the way up and over the old military road to the Devil’s Staircase, which, for the right rider, on the right day would have been a much more rideable descent than I found it. I rode some technical bits, but scooted and pushed large parts — I think largely as I was apprehensive about the amount of riding still to come that day.
We were very tempted to pop into the Kings House for some food, but given our slow progress and concerns over the nav in the dark towards the end of this ride, we pushed on. The path climbed again as we approached and passed the Glen Coe ski area, and our thoughts were focused by the sight of another team having the unenviable task of having to walk out after one of their members injured themselves falling off. After stopping to check they were ok and offer assistance, we continued on cautiously on the descent through the edge of Rannoch Moor to Loch Tulla and into Glen Kinglass to Loch Etive. This is where my mood lifted, through some combination of food, scenery and epic gravity assisted riding.
The path started off very boggy, with us riding through several streams and getting stuck in muddy ruts, but soon improved and became technical in places with huge slabs of bedrock making for some great riding but tricky path finding (hard rock shows tyre tracks far less easily than muddy bogs).
The weather broke again as we were heading towards the shores of the loch and we were treated to significant deluges which lifted just as we arrived in the Inverawe Country Park where the orienteering stage was to take place. Alex and I had been considerably slower that the other two and were concerned that we’d been on the bikes for 10 hours and still had over half of the cycle left to do — especially as we’d just found out that the kayaking stage had definitely been cancelled and we’d be biking all the way to Oban.
We were all soaked through and needed some food, so jumped into the bothy ate food and had a team chat. I don’t recall the full conversation in that bothy, but it was massively restorative. Fist bumps all round. I came out of that feeling sure, for the first time, that we were able to complete the race. Pulling into the Country Park I wasn’t sure if we would complete the Orienteering or skip it and continue the bike ride, but during that conversation we decided to do it, and that was absolutely the right decision. We even ran part of the course and it felt great to be doing something other than sitting in the saddle. Getting used to a 1:10k map with different map symbols took some time, but we cruised through the courses just as the sun was setting and by the time we came back, the tea room (The Store at Inverawe) had opened and was apologetically serving pizzas and chips. This couldn’t have been better timed for us all to refuel before the 80km ride we still had ahead of us. The staff there were fantastic, they clearly hadn’t planned on being open so were apologetic that the pizzas they’d picked up from the local petrol station and chips with curry sauce weren’t up to their usual standard. There was a proper party atmosphere in there as they brought out round after round of food and coffees — at one point turning the beef joint they’d been planning for their family roast into steak sandwiches they insisted we all ate. We chatted to several other teams whilst waiting for food to arrive and settle, including team 31 who we’d been leapfrogging for most of the day. The team captain Brian Gatens runs the Darkzone podcast that had been a huge inspiration and source of information for me during my training, so it was great to actually race alongside him and his team (and also encouraging to see him too in the black bib that denotes short course teams). As a team, prompted by Carin, we showed a great amount of discipline and actually left that gravity pit pretty early to get back out into the dark and cold to finish the race.
Up until this point, I had been tracking our route on my Garmin Fenix watch, but in the tiredness of the night before, I’d forgotten to charge it (in future, I’ll put the charger in my sleeping bag so it’s harder to forget), so that’s where the Strava track ends. However from here the route was largely on B roads and well maintained tracks, which made a difference to us being able to eat up the miles and make good progress. We got in to a great rhythm of rapidly switching to pushing the bikes up the hills when they got too steep and I think this made a big difference to us being able to continue on through the night — it acted as a break to our bodies and made use of different muscle groups to keep us moving in the right direction. Conrad’s navigation through this whole bike stage in the middle of the night and small hours was stellar and he just kept on peddling at the front, using the speed advantage he had on the rest of us as a chance to stay on top of the map while waiting for us to catch him up. Thankfully the rest of us were happy moving at the same pace as each other so no-one fell behind and we stayed together pretty closely. Not every team were as tight by this point, and we were surprised when half of another team caught and passed us, but not the other half. With the bike headlights, it’s easy to lose track of who is following you and we thought Conrad might make a break to join the faster team, instead we stuck together and soon passed the half team when they realised the bright lights behind them were us, not their teammates. We reached the final TA without any drama and looked forward to a short nap before getting back on our bikes and continuing the final 40km to the finish line. The hall had a strict (and enforced) no napping policy and the torrential rain outside dissuaded us from getting into our bivvys, so after a hot meal at 2am, we jumped back on the bikes for the final stage.
From the TA we followed the edge of Loch Melfort before heading north into the hills. This was a great route and meant that we were able to enjoy a sunrise in the hills on our final morning, before descending back on to B roads. One of the parts of the kayaking stage we’d been looking forward to was the bridge over the Atlantic, so it was lovely that they kept CP 33 on this stage and made that our final checkpoint. From there it was a short stint on a busy A road, which felt pretty sketchy as we were all so tired. I deployed some strategic Haribo and we headed into the hills south east of Oban to start our final descent into the town. The traffic didn’t seem to share the same sense of excitement as we did, and a lorry was a little over eager with an overtake near a width restriction in the town centre — thankfully Conrad was sufficiently alert to take the necessary evasive action and he led us to the finish line in one piece at exactly 7:30am.
The finish line was surreal and we didn’t quite know what to do with ourselves. Tom was there and tried to make an ACDC joke but couldn’t find one, we posed for photos, received our medals and tried to take in what we’d just done — huge grins mixing with the blank expressions that come from riding a mountain bike for 22 hours.
Stats: This biking stage was 150km, and took around 22hrs, inc. the time we spent orienteering, with around 2500m of ascent. We started on Thursday at 9:50 and finished at 7:30am on Friday around 10 hours ahead of the final cut off.
Post race:
The whole race had taken us 113 hours (add on 26.5 hours of skipped check points for our official time). We covered around 500km, ascending the height of Everest and used our kayaks, feet and bikes to have an epic self propelled journey across the Scottish Highlands alongside 32 other teams. We amazed ourselves and are proud to have done that in a competitive time having executed our plan (or a much revised version of it anyway). That led to an adrenaline rush which gave us the energy to get back on our bikes for the 500m cycle to the Corran Halls where we waited around for our kit and packed up our stuff before heading out for breakfast. We slept after breakfast and woke up to find that we had to move our kit so they could prepare the hall for the party that evening. The van was collected, and loaded and mobile phones powered up for the first time in a week to allow video calls home, then another coffee shop visit before finally we could get access to the SYHA for showers and a clean set of clothes.
I watched the award ceremony in a bit of a daze, wanting to be more awake than I was, but also surprised that I was still functioning at all and able to take part in the ceilidh. I thought they were somewhat optimistic in asking folk who had been on their feet for the previous 5 days to dance through the evening, but the dance floor was full, as was the queue for the bar and also the queue for the salad bar as folk craved real food after 5 days eating highly processed food. The closing number of the night was a cover of ACDC’s thunderstruck played on the accordion, and I like to think it was requested because of our team name! A wonderful way to round out the event.
I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the lack of aches and pains and the fact that I still function properly after the race — in my mind that shows the training I put in has paid off — I’m certainly pleased I worked with a coach to ensure I was properly prepared; Rachel from Fit4sports did a great job. Even the tiredness wasn’t debilitating as we’d slept more during the race than expected and after a good night’s sleep on Friday, were able to drive home safely on Saturday. Arriving home late Saturday meant that I could get a few hours’ sleep before waking up early on Sunday to catch the first train down to Brockenhurst to meet my family for breakfast.
Reflections:
I’m immensely proud and pleased with how well we did, as a team we nailed the navigation, we kept up a good pace throughout and strategically made sensible decisions even when tired and under pressure. The race aspect was never the aim for me (I just wanted to cross the finish line), but the fact we did so well in the event rankings (well enough, I believe, to get an official world ranking when the ARWS rankings come out at the end of the year), enhances the feelings of success that follow an awesome adventure. And what an adventure. It was exactly what I was craving, and filled the hole left when I stopped doing big white water kayaking trips. But it’s not without cost — and I’m not just talking about the cost of the event and kit. I’ve had to make sacrifices over the last year in order to fit in the training hours (up to 20hrs per week at some point), with team calls, kit prep and the ups and downs of finding and replacing team members on top of that.
Early on I knew it would mean a reduction in my Search and Rescue training and call out attendance, but I hadn’t quite realised how all consuming it would be elsewhere too — it feels like a large percentage of my thought cycles over the last year have been devoted to thinking/planning/worrying about this race. That’s been tougher on my young family than I would have liked, and they found the loss of contact during the race particularly hard. Sharon’s a very supportive wife, and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without her encouragement, but I’d need to work out how to reduce the impact on her and the kids if I was to enter another event like this. If it weren’t for that, I’d absolutely sign up again. I think ITERA was a great introduction to the world of expedition length adventure racing. The organising team did a great job of making it accessible to first-time racers. Speaking to folk, it seems that not every ARWS event runs the same way that ITERA does, and I’ll let others with more experience comment on the differences, but for me, it felt like the team couldn’t have done more before or during the race to help newbie teams, and I really appreciated that — it wouldn’t have been the same experience if there’d been any elitism or snobbery towards in-experienced teams who chose to put on the black bib during the within the first 24hrs, or didn’t know how things worked. Watching Eco Challenge Fiji in June 2021, I was curious as to whether I could get fit enough to be able to do something like that — the timings of ITERA (with their 12 month covid postponement) worked perfectly for that training, and I’m pleased they did.
There are so many highlights, but the ones that stick in my head now are the initial paddle out to the island of Staffa, with the porpoises; the rainforest hike; the whole trekking section across Nevis and the bike ride from Glen Coe through Glen Kinglass to Loch Etive.
The photos included here are a highlight, our full photo album is here.
