It’s hard to believe that this is Pascal’s first Rat Race event after a 5 year break. At one point, it felt like he was a serial Rat Racer and there was no injury serious enough to deter him from signing up for another one during his post-race high. It only took a global pandemic to break the cycle. But then, his 50th birthday arrived and he felt the “need” for another challenge. So here we all are again.
The difference this time, and it’s a big one, is that this one includes cycling. As everyone knows, Pascal is a firm believer in the bike maths that says the optimum number of bikes is n+1 where n is the number you own currently. I strongly suspect that this event has been a very obvious excuse to get another +1 into his collection. Admittedly, he did sell off spare parts to pay for this and, in the process, discovered he had enough spare components to build an entire bike from scratch! He also bought it second-hand, after spending months drooling over a Ribble and fantasising about the custom paint job he would have (a cross fade from deep purple to hot pink since you’re asking). It turns out gravel bikes are pretty quick. I borrowed it and got a PB on Strava without even trying – the bike has serious momentum and feels like you’re riding a giant flywheel once it’s going!
For his training, Pascal has taken full advantage of having to kill 2 hours in Gloucestershire most Sundays and has taken his new bike on trails where other bikes fear to tread. He’s come back slashed by brambles and fell off when he didn’t spot this poachers block hidden on a woodland trail. Ouch! Of course, the rule is that you don’t truly own your bike until you’ve fallen off it – so it’s finally “his” bike.
So what’s this event all about? It’s a combination of run, bike and kayak over 100 miles to get from the east coast of Scotland to the west coast over 1 or 2 days. He’s opted for the 2 day version, which means Day 1 will feel easy-breezy for him and he’ll have the energy to do Day 2 which has the Long Run that he is dreading.
Last night, he was feeling very excited. Natch. He’s also feeling a little bit nervous – partly about the long run but partly about the risk of a potential medical emergency that started with me spending many hours in A&E two days ago and is hopefully now a distant memory.
This year, Pascal has coerced an excellent friend into being his co-driver and support crew. Steve is a flipping legend and is going to have his own fun with a set of golf clubs whilst the loon covers 100 miles in the company of other loons.
They’ve made it to the registration tent and confirmed that he’s booked in by finding his name on the finishers (slightly presumptuous!) T-shirt. Apparently he’s 541 and in the first wave. If you want to follow the action live tomorrow and Sunday, here is a link to the live tracking here: https://live.opentracking.co.uk/C2Cscotland2day24/
As part of a detailed nutritional plan, Pascal is carb loading Scottish style by drinking Tennants! Surely it can only get better from here.
Come back here for updates throughout the weekend…
Tales from Day 1
Today’s challenge:
Run – 7 miles
Road cycle – 44 miles
Off-road cycle – 8 miles
Road cycle – 1 mile
Pascal strapped up his foot to get him through the run today. (Why does he have to strap his foot? Because he permanently trashed the ligaments falling in a previous Rat Race ultra along Hadrian’s Wall. “Trashed” in this case means he has no functioning ligaments in part of his foot. But his lust for adventure outweighs his common sense every time.)
He set off at 8:30 as part of Wave 1 for the bit of the day he wanted to get out of the way. The trails looked lovely and the weather was “tropical” according to the tannoy, with the promise of “liquid sunshine” later on.
Pascal described the paths as “rocky, rooty and sandy”. He saw someone go over so opted to walk when it got particularly bad. He started the cycling around 10:30 and his first thought was to find coffee. What is it about cyclists with their cake and coffee addiction? Anyone looking to start a small business wouldn’t go far wrong by setting up a cafe along any national cycling route! He was clearly delighted to be reunited with his favourite means of transport.
Moments after sending this photo, he sent another text saying “Ah bollocks BOLLOCKS BOLLOCKS.” Not informative. Just alarming. And then we were left on tenterhooks waiting for an answer to “what happened?” and imagining the worst.
It turns out that he was happily overtaking people and enjoying a big descent when he got slammed by horrific cramp in one leg and, of course, didn’t have anything salty. Paced up and down a bit hoping that would help. Finally set off again and was overtaking some people up a hill when his other leg went! Luckily, he met some lovely Dutch entrants who sorted him out and he’s firing on most cylinders again. His legs are sore so he isn’t pushing too hard in case it makes it worse.
The views are spectacular today but there are some difficult climbs. He is expecting to use his “Lowest Gear” at some point. It’s also insanely windy so that even the descent isn’t going to feel fast. Fortunately he found a little slice of heaven just before the 5 mile of continuous steep climb and stocked up on salty treats and Scottish specialities – Irn Bru, scampi fries, fresh coffee and a bacon sandwich. Now he can face the climb!
He sent me this photo of his Garmin which I thought was just for today and was alarmed by the abominable climb and descent on the right. Having looked again at the map and profile at the top of this page, I’ve realised that the abominable bit is all part of his 14 mile run tomorrow. In the words of Sam Beckett, “Oh boy”.
At around 4pm, he had a brief stop to look for Nessie and is now heading off-road for the final 13km of the day. I have to say that I think this off-road section looks pretty relaxing. I’ve read reviews for this race that made the off-road sections sound like a mountain bike endurance challenge but maybe they’re saving all of that for tomorrow.
It’s approaching 5pm and the rain is coming down in “bucketfuls”. I hope he manages to get his kit dry again for tomorrow. I can’t really see the rain in his photos so have to trust his scientific description. Only 6k to go!
A final off road stretch which is getting wetter and wetter by the minute. It’s incredibly slippery and, based on a call with Steve just now, many cyclists are modelling an elegant brown stripe from bum to head.
Almost 9 hours on the dot to complete Day 1. Last night he thought he’d finish between 2 and 3 but no-one anticipated terrible conditions like this. Pascal said 60mph should have been nearly attainable for the descent of one hill but, due to the fierce head wind, he had to pedal hard even to reach 15mph. It was even trying to blow him off his bike! At this point, he is very clear that there is No Way he could do this in a day under these conditions. He’s finished though. Intact. And caked in Scottish countryside.
Day 1 Wrap-Up
Pascal completed the day on a high with Fish and Chips in the excellent company of Steve, all washed down with beer. Shout out to Lundie View B&B, where they were staying last night. The owner is a saint for washing and drying all his filthy gear overnight. What a superstar! He’ll be clean and fresh for day 2 which is a treat.
I keep coming back to his original plan to do the one day event and couldn’t help noticing the high numbers of retired competitors, given the conditions. To give a sense of how tough it was yesterday, about 40% of the one day event people didn’t finish. Full respect for getting as far as they did, however far that was, in the heavy rain and gusting 40mph winds!
Tales from Day 2
Today’s challenge:
Road cycle – 1 mile
Off road cycle – 11 miles
On-road cycle – 14 miles
Mountain trek/run – 14 mile
Kayak to the finish – 1 mile
Pascal was up at 6:45 this morning to shovel in porridge and get to the start. His knees are sore and his bike is making odd noises. Unusually, he was looking forward to getting the bike bit over, so that his “bike can have a well-earned rest”. I’m not sure bikes work like that. Luckily, Rat Race anticipated this and had a special bike fettler available at the start.
He was hoping the day would be less windy since the forecast showed 25mph gusts at worst but, now that he’s at the start, the wind is up to match yesterday. Grim. On day 1, he was part of a timed wave. For day 2, you just rock up whenever you’re ready. I can see that some keen people left at 6:45 so perhaps they’re trying to get ahead of the pack to avoid riding in churned up trails. There were people falling in the mud yesterday and at one point near the end there was a “particularly technical” gravel section with an event marshall telling people to either walk or go very very slowly. Needless to say, our protagonist decided hell for leather was a more fun option and he happily made it down, passing lots of bike pushers on the way.
The first part has been incredibly steep. Lots of people are deploying their Lowest Gear and he described it as a Lung Burster. Obviously he’s feeling pretty smug that he’s still pedalling – for now.
The scenery is beautiful but photos rarely give a good impression of the extreme gradients, especially when taken by someone on that gradient. Here are a few of his bike journey.
At about 9am, Pascal decided to walk for a stretch. It was too steep and too slippery even for him. Shortly after that he sent this photo of a rainbow. I’ve just looked up the symbolism of rainbows (although not on the website that promised 38 different meanings – who needs that many?). So I’m taking two meanings for the rainbow today. One is “hope” that he makes it through the day in a reasonable time (because that’s important to him) and without any new injuries (because that’s important to me). The other is “good luck” because anyone brave and stupid enough to take on this challenge needs a bit of luck to get them to the finish.
At about 11am, he started the “walk” – notice that he’s not even calling it a run anymore. He’s tired. He managed to grab some “guilty filth” towards the end of the ride – aka a Sausage McMuffin – so that he doesn’t repeat yesterday’s cramp problem. He’s got a hot cup of tea in his collapsible cup and he’s off. The weather is still very four seasons – he says “it might be autumn at the moment” and he feels very slow with lots of people running past as he plods slowly upwards.
At 1pm, he sent this beautiful view but says he’s really tired and being overtaken a lot. He’s a bit depressed by how long this is taking. Pascal has a travel philosophy that is very bike-centric. Any journey I plan, he’ll say “Can I go on my bike?” which, this summer, stretched to me driving up to the Peak District for a camping holiday and him planning “an exciting off-road route” to cycle up there. Admittedly, he didn’t cycle the whole way and took a train for the middle “boring” section. But he still rode 80 miles that day and it was pretty hilly. Excellent training for the Coast to Coast was his logic. He genuinely feels that he’s travelling faster when on his bike. Car journeys feel slow and running anywhere is achingly dull. So I’m not at all surprised that he is finding this frustrating and that he feels he’s not getting anywhere. He’s tired and bikeless and that’ll do it every time.
At half one, he’s in the middle of the pack but he’s feeling very back of the pack right now. It looks as though most of the people around him are walkers, not runners and they’re soggy. He can’t wait for a bath. I bet Steve will be grateful for him to have a bath too. As he watched competitors come back from their finish yesterday, Steve was wondering how Pascal was going to get in his car without covering it in filth.
At this point, he has about 14k to go and some people have only just left Fort William so he’s making great time. He’s got another 6k of following contours along the West Highland Way, then he’ll turn off across a river and climb steeply up 250m over a kilometre or two. After that, it’s a fairly flat section and a steep drop to the loch where he should hopefully be able to see the finish. He’s wondering which mountain he has to climb over but I’m pretty sure this photo he sent is of the saddle he’ll peak at today.
I have so much respect for anyone who takes on this kind of distance. Pascal is just over 10k from the finish. No matter how tired he is, at this point, he knows he can finish the distance. There are people with the tail walker now who have only recently left Fort William, which he cleared over 2 hours ago. They kept going for over 11 hours yesterday to reach the finish and genuinely may not make the cut off today. There is no guarantee that they’ll complete it but they’re trying anyway and they haven’t given up.
So many people compare event times and individual pace but it’s the same distance for everyone whether you run, walk or crawl. Of course it is hard for the elite athletes but I think the challenge at the back becomes a mental one – of battling physical exhaustion whilst feeling like everyone is ahead of you and not knowing that you’ll make it. It is really tough. They’ve trained hard and are just as excited and nervous as everyone else, but they don’t have the same speed. So if you’re at an event and you see the trailing competitors, please give them a massive cheer because they bloody deserve it.
Anyway, back to Pascal.
It’s 4pm and there’s been a 2 hour pause whilst he’s been out of signal – even his GPS wasn’t moving – but I’ve just received a flood of photos and updates.
The good news is that he can finally see the finish. Here’s the traditional “Spot the finish” photo.
Going over the saddle has been hard work on account of the fact that it has been less of a path and more of a Bear Grylls style march through a boggy stream.
Yet again, it has been hammering down relentlessly and, despite being soaked, he is craving a bath. I suppose the difference being that he’s cold and he hopes the bath will be hot.
It’s nearly 5pm and I thought he’d be at the loch by now. Looking at the map, the gradient is crazy. He’s descending 500m over a 2km section – that’s 1 in 4! Given that his knees are knackered normally and he’s done a lot of running and cycling, plus the aforementioned ligament-less foot – yes I think he is taking it very slowly because it would be hideous to get this far and literally fall at the last hurdle. He wants to enjoy the kayak. The 1 day event diverted yesterday so they missed out but this takes the strain off his ankles and knees for the home straight so has to be good. Plus, who doesn’t love to kayak?
Apparently there are queues for the kayaks. 😞 That would be a real pain – standing around when you’re cold and wet getting colder is not the ideal way to finish. He’s reached the road so it’s a flat section until he gets there, but look what he’s been walking in.
It’s half 5, he’s reached the kayak start. Just needs to get in a kayak. I’ve got no intel on the queue but I’m reliably informed by Steve that it’s quite warm and sunny now. That’s definitely good news while they dry out a little bit before the final watery mile.
5 minutes later and he seems to be on the water. I’m assuming he’s in a kayak and not still walking. Here is a picture of him with his kayak buddy, Inyang, and one of the amazing marshalls just before they set off.
Our man on the ground, Steve, grabbed a couple off action shots but the resolution was very low so enjoy his shot of two complete strangers attempting the same thing.
And shortly after that, Pascal made it to the finish! 9 hours yesterday and 10.5 hours today. That’s 19.5 hours in total this weekend. Amazing!!
Post Race Thoughts
Pascal is unsurprisingly very please that he did this event although he said he won’t do it again. I’ve asked him not to look at the Rat Race website for at least a month (Is that long enough for the high to be over?)
He borrowed my walking poles and taped around his ankle and he said both of those made a huge difference. He saw lots of people falling over on the slippery paths, especially the descents. He nearly fell several times but the poles worked and his ankle strapping worked, for which he’s immensely grateful. And of course, his knees are even more sore than they were this morning.
All of this proves that age is just a number. If he can do this at 50 and his mum can cycle LEJOG unsupported at 82 then the rest of us can join in with our own challenges and giving each other unlimited support. Talking of support, a final shout out and huge thanks to Steve who has shared the driving, the rain and the beers with Pascal and the suspense with me.