One.Tel Hebridean Challenge 2003 - Day 1

Day 1 Route Map

Teams gathering for a final briefing before the parade through Stornoway.

We gathered at South Beach for a publicity parade through town (but did anyone notice?). We walked through the town centre to the Porter's Lodge before a final jog passed Lews Castle to Cuddy Point.

Gavin taking revenge for the "Team" photo in the Stornoway Gazette!

The race proper started with a paddle from Cuddy Point to the mouth of the River Creed. Here the route separated into two legs. Murdie made for the Braighe where he had a short portage over into Broadbay. He then made for Coll where he provided safety cover for Donald's swim along the length of Coll beach. Meanwhile, I had to race over Gallow's hill back to Cuddy Point, jump on the road bike and cycle to Willowglen. Here, Helen took over for a quick visit to the One-Tel offices in Stornoway before heading on up to Back.

Murdy preparing for the off at Cuddy Point, Stornoway.

Before Donald went back to Coll for his swim he dropped Jim and I off at a Back peat road for our run over Muirneag to Borve. Unfortunately we drove just beyond where Helen was expecting to find us and when she failed to see us at the arranged changeover point she turned back to look for us. Ten minutes or so later we finally met up (as it turned out this was our one and only changeover mistake in the entire race!). In retrospect, I think I got this section of the route wrong. My route was best only if we mountain biked up a long peat road to cut the bog slog down to a minimum. Jim was reluctant to bike it so we ended up running two to three miles up a perfectly good cycle track! If we were going to run the track, Helen should have cycled a few more miles up the main road and we could have had a shorter bog slog to Muirneag from there. I should also have arranged for mountain bikes to be dropped out the peat road at the end of the leg to speed up the finish. Hindsight is a wonderful thing! Despite the mist, Jim and I made good time over Muirneag and I was quite satisfied with our time of 2 hours 45 minutes. Particularly pleasing was the fact that we had caught and passed the "In The Buff" team who were our rivals for the Veteran's prize this year. We had also picked up our first 20 bonus points (awarded for doubling up certain legs of the race). The race rules stated that we had to accumulate a number of bonus points over the five days or incur time penalties. Trouble is, even at this late stage, we still did not know how many we had to collect or exactly where they would be on offer!

Murdy acting as safety for Donald's swim at Coll Beach

Meanwhile Donald had returned to Coll beach in time to meet Murdie finishing his paddle across Broadbay. His wetsuit just about kept the cold at bay during his long swim along the surf. But he had no time to lie on the beach recovering - he had to drive to Borve to meet Jim and I then continue on to the Butt of Lewis for the start of the Road Bike Time Trial. In previous years we would have doubled up this leg rather than the bog slog to get the bonus points. However, this year the organisers were deeming the Time Trial to be more important than the team race and had banned doubling up on the leg. Worse than that was the fact that they were going to multiply all times by 102% to increase the time differential and make road biking more influential on the race results. You'll gather from this that I do not approve! I believe the winning team should be the team who cover the course in the fastest time - pure and simple.

Donald leaving Ness for his cycle to Carloway

Donald now had to reap the reward for all those hard lonely training rides round Ness he had put in before the race. He had to cycle the 30 miles to Carloway Pier. Despite a very strong headwind he managed to average over 19 mph - a magnificent effort. On the way he tagged Jim and Helen who were earning the easiest 10 bonus points of the race by running from Dalbeg to Na Gearrannan Black House village. Helen finished her day with a short sprint on the road bike to Doune Braes Hotel and the finish.

Donald passing Loch Raoinabhat near Shawbost

Meanwhile, Murdie was all at sea again! His shiny new lightweight boat did not have a rudder and with a strong crosswind he had huge problems keeping it going in the right direction! But was Murdie put out by this? No! He reached Breasclete and refused to go back to his old boat for the rest of the race - he felt that over the whole race the lighter boat would still be better. We will never know!

We then had a very poor meal at Doune Braes Hotel - strange because they have an excellent restaurant which has never failed to produce a great meal for me in the past. Later we were disappointed to hear that we were in 12th place - despite the fact that we felt we had had quite a strong day! The opposition was obviously VERY good!

Our day was not yet done, a chaotic briefing was followed by a walk to Doune Carloway Broch at 1.00am for the start of the only two night legs of the race. From there, Donald had a 15 mile time trial on his road bike round the Pentland Road loop. This was a potential damaging leg - its hard enough avoiding potholes and sheep during the day but at night with relatively poor lights! Luckily, noone reported any serious damage. Apart from one competitor who was suffering from acute earache! Stephanie Seargent went over the top at him because he had ridden round without lights - even although he had ridden beside a friend from another team who had a perfectly good set! This problem would not have arisen if teams had been told about the need for lights earlier - some teams had already left home when the email telling them about it was sent out.

At the same time, Jim, Helen and myself ran a night orienteering course. This was one innovation which I think was generally well received - we certainly enjoyed it. For me the hardest part was trying to get a look at the map - Helen had commandeered it at the start of the course and was not for giving it up! Not that there was any problem with her navigation - we found every checkpoint as we jogged our way round the course in around half an hour.

Time for bed! We had met Stuart (?) of 1 Borrowston, Carloway earlier in the day at Carloway Pier. He later joined us for a beer at Doune Braes and offered us beds and floors for the night! Nice one Stuart!