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Westies Win Boat Race
16th to 18th May 2008
On my 3rd attempt with team Blue Chip, things finally came good with a convincing win at the Scottish Islands Peaks Race partnered by the indefatigable David Riach, and boat skippered by Steven Garrett, ably assisted by Graham and Neil.
David & I jogged round the Oban 4-mile prologue in 5th place, then arrived at Mull 3.5 hours later neck and neck in pole position with HBT runners Donald Naylor and Dan Gay, who then attempted to blow us away on the first road section. In fact then only made 5 minutes on us, as David and I finished the stage in 4:08, and quickly caught and passed their boat Aberzen once back sailing again.
Early Saturday morning, we were 3rd boat arriving at Jura, 10 minutes behind Aberzen and Obedient, but David & I arrived first at the first Pap, Beinn a' Chaolais, and were never caught again.
Arriving later that same day at Arran at 10.30pm, there were no boats in sight behind us. David and I didn't feel too great on Goatfell after the bumpy ride round the Mull of Kintyre, and neither of us had eaten a thing in the last 10 hours since Jura. Somehow we made it up the hill and back to Lamlash by 3:10am, still with a clear lead, and finished in Troon at 8:08am, just over 3 hours ahead of 2nd placed Memec. Giving us just enough time to strip the boat, drink 2 bottles of champagne and polish off a full Scottish breakfast.
Posted by Chris Upson on Sun 18 May 2008 | 16 comments
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Comments
dt said...
well done boys great running
Sunday 18th May 2008 10.14pm
jd said...
fantastic effort guys, well done.
Sunday 18th May 2008 10.18pm
Craig D said...
Good grief,what a bonkers idea for a race.Hip hip hoorah the bold Wetsies!(sic)
Sunday 18th May 2008 11.01pm
Muffy said...
Pure dead brilliant. I'm proud of you both, well done!
Monday 19th May 2008 8.14am
cat said...
Fantastic result for you both, all that running in two days - what an achievement! Sounds almost as hard as getting the "Muffy's turning fifty, though she's still quite nifty....." song out of my head!!
Monday 19th May 2008 9.35am
Ellie said...
What a team! I knew you could do it- well done on another welcome Westie win!
Monday 19th May 2008 10.27am
Don said...
More good PR for westies. Top class effort.
Monday 19th May 2008 10.52am
Graham K said...
Treeemendous !
Was thinking on how you guys were getting on as we waited for the ferry back from Goatfell - it looked a little bouncy out at sea.
Monday 19th May 2008 1.14pm
Bill said...
Well done guys.
Monday 19th May 2008 3.55pm
Hamilton said...
Well done, Chris and David.
Monday 19th May 2008 6.02pm
Dave said...
Superb run guys and a proud moment for Westies....but it was a hell of a way to avoid singing at Muffy's birthday bash!!!! You'll be pleased to know that there were a few of us retching at 10:30 on Saturday night in sympathy ( just kidding honest)!
Monday 19th May 2008 6.12pm
Manny said...
Well done Dave & Chris, continuing Westies fine history in this event over the years.Great effort to bag it overall!
Monday 19th May 2008 6.23pm
Chrissie M said...
Brilliant you two; we're proud of you two - look forward to the phtos - if you had time to take them!
Monday 19th May 2008 6.35pm
Rob said...
Very well done both of you. Great effort.
Just think how much faster you can run Arran if you can manage to eat on the way there!
Monday 19th May 2008 9.59pm
Chris said...
Thanks for all the messages of support!
I have run the Arran stage in 3:25 with Jon Slowe in 2004, so 4:34 was ridiculously slow, and cost us the King of the Bens. But we had such a massive lead by this point, it was hard to push the pace an faster, and were both feeling completely wasted and groggy from the boat ride.
A few more pics added here
Monday 19th May 2008 10.25pm
Jason said...
Thats a great effort guys, mighty impressive and I tke it you will both be at Jura again in a week!!!
Tuesday 20th May 2008 6.55pm