Race Date: Saturday/Sunday 14th/15th September 2024
This is a Rat Race event – so in theory, it’s not a race – it’s a well-supported endurance event. The chosen charity was to raise funds for Children with Cancer UK.
Since Chris (mate stupid enough to sign up with me) and myself retired from rugby, I needed something to get fit for, so I signed up for the Coast to Coast. I’d not particularly ran before and never took on a challenge as large as this. I started training in December 2023, making slow gains running in the wind and rain of winter. One of my friends is a Strider and suggested I come fell running (Feb 2024), this was a game changer! The group are superb, and I saw big gains in fitness needed for the event.
The Coast to Coast involves a 11k run starting at Nairn just East of Inverness, 130km riding from Cawdor Castle to Fort William on the West coast then a 26km trail run from Fort William to Loch Leven before Kayaking across the Loch to Ballachulish. We chose the two-day event, 250 people chose the one day, which on the day due to weather conditions had an 80% failure rate!
Getting up to Inverness is not a quick process – we road tripped in one hit taking just over 8.5 hours with a night’s sleep to give us chance to rest prior to the event. As this was our first ever multi-sport endurance event, we hoped for good weather, but the forecast was horrific, raining. A lot. And strong head winds throughout.
The usual pre-race shenanigans were observed, which included mandatory kit checks before racking the bikes into transition at Cawdor Castle the night before the event. For fuel I’d opted for Kendal Mint Co’s new range of gels and hydration packs, superfood flapjack and the original Kendal Mint Cake.
Up at 5:30am for the short drive to start at Nairn (race started at 8:30, in rain), the obligatory touching of the sea happened, before joining the start line and the event got going. The first run went well – apart from an American stopping straight in front of me which caused me to roll my ankle slightly on the uneven surface (fell running had trained me well for this though!).
We got to Cawdor Castle to pick up the damp bikes – in expectation of cycling stages that were roughly 2/3 road riding, 1/3 fire roads and gravel, we’d taken gravel bikes – in an effort to reduce the size of rucksack we’d stacked food, tools and other support aids into our bike packs.
We’ve been training generally around the Peak District – I’m reasonably fast and can keep on going up hills – as it turned out this was needed as the headwinds were huge and slowed progress massively! (As mentioned earlier 80% of the one dayers had pulled out due to being held back by the conditions!)
The majority of the elevation on the route was in the first half, tarmac roads in the rolling hills before dropping into Fort Augustus and following the Great Glen – there were some great descents, some gritty ascents – and great camaraderie between the various people we rode with throughout this section.
At Fort Augustus, the terrain became more fire track and gravel focussed. Similar to generally flying past people on mountain bikes on the road section, people on straight road bikes had an interesting time of the off-road sections – it was possible, but it didn’t look fun.
It was getting late now, finally reaching camp for a well-earned fuel stop and sleep. Dragging my Aldi pop up tent out of the bag was eventful as it blew straight down the camp site! After a refuel it was sleep time, wishing I’d listened to my wife about a ground sheet, I hadn’t, and it was freezing!
The second day saw better conditions although still raining, the winds had slowed somewhat for the ride to Fort William, some fast off-road tracks here before finally reaching the town. The bike to run transition was the time to change socks and refuel. The realisation had set in that we were about to run around the edge of a mountain, this again is where the fell training paid off.
Moving is a better description than effectively running – it was a combination of walking and running, depending on the terrain. The views were spectacular – running along the road that leads to the Ben Nevis car park (and eventually the Steall Waterfall), before peeling off up right and heading up hill.
We’d reached that point where gels, flapjacks and sweets weren’t quite enough, so out came the Kendal Mint Cake which provided an instant boost and got us moving again. This run section felt longer than it was -a combination of the weather chasing us up the valleys, hills and a lack of sleep were telling – but the terrain was spectacular. One last big climb after wading through knee deep water was needed before we crested over the final hill into a steep, slippery grassy downhill (which caused some people more issues than the uphill), and we descended into the beautiful view of Loch Leven, with the Isles of Glencoe Hotel (finish line) visible on the other side of the Loch. All we had to do was get down and kayak across and be done!
When we reached the kayaks, a coach was waiting with runners sat in the warm. After speaking to the officials, it was apparent the weather had moved in across the loch and the Kayak was an option, the words, “go now or the weather will be too poor, or catch the coach” were said, we opted for the go now option!
At first the loch was kind, towards the middle things rapidly changed. We were buffeted out of the kayak and into the loch before being rescued by a speedboat rib, not the easiest to pull yourself out of a loch, with a backpack and life vest, but we did it.
Finally – out of the speedboat to reach the dulcet sounds of Rat Race’s MC commentating on the finishers, a group of supporters cheered as we Usain Bolted it to the end and slapped the finish line like two drowned rats.
Finish line and Timings:
The winner of the male 2 day race was Robert Neville in 10.54.58. The female winner of the 2 dayer was Jenny Lee in 12.07.59
There was soup and a beer or three, and then discussions on what we’d just completed whilst drying out by the fire. That was tiring – but a brilliant well organised event to complete. A point-to-point event, particularly going Coast to Coast, feels a little more special than a more normal loop or trail event. The scenery was spectacular, the route varied, the other people foolish enough to do it friendly. I’d heartily recommend to others giving it a try.
After this event I now have the bug and signing up for two ultra marathons back-to-back in Scotland again for 2025.
Thanks to all of the Striders who’ve assisted with the training and for all who sponsored me. I raised £1,600 for Children with Cancer UK.
Striders results
