news
Scottish Islands Peaks Race
Another year, another Boat Race. Three days of flat calm waters, watching islands getting no closer.
The running was trivial compared with the sailing. Jon Slowe and I rattled round the Oban prologue in 28 minutes, in 3rd or 4th position, before jumping aboard 'Twilight' and being instantly be-calmed in Oban harbour.
Tacking up the Sound of Mull straight into a north-westerly was choppy, and took its toll on Jon, who was sick just before disembarking at Salen. The Mull run went more or less OK until we hit the final road section, at which point unfortunately Jon's legs packed in with cramp. Slow progress back to Salen until the final mile or so, when we managed to get going again.
The sail to Jura was a joke. Time stood still. The speed over water read "0.0 kts". Hours passed. The view stayed the same. Finally at 5.20pm we were running along the road away from Craighouse. Superb evening light made the route finding perfectly simple. A steady run with 23 minutes for the final road section.
Now for Arran. 2am Sunday morning it was clear we were going nowhere. Midday arrived and we were still floundering the wrong side of the Mull of Kintyre. A determined stint of paddling got us beyond a tidal rip and we were on our way, drifting round the point towards Sanda.
Lamlash bay didn't succumb easily. Once again the wind died, and it took forever to make the last mile. Eventually ashore, we were running at 9pm Sunday night. Stunning evening light once again, this time picking out Holy Island, Goatfell and neighbours. Top of Goatfell 11pm. Then fast exciting descent down the boulders in the dark, and the long run back to Lamlash.
Under sail by 1:45am, and then trickled inch by inch back into Troon Harbour for 4:55am Monday morning, just in time to go straight to work
Leg times
(Oban Prologue 28:55)
Mull 4:31
Jura 3:53
Arran 3:25
Posted by Chris Upson on Mon 24 May 2004 | 3 comments
Category races
Subscribe
Last 10 posts
Latest posts
Latest comments
Categories
- 10k (2)
- archive material (4)
- beach and promenade novelty run (1)
- club races (57)
- club runs (36)
- cross country (67)
- duathlon (2)
- education (2)
- extreme (1)
- fun run (4)
- handicap races (62)
- hill race (156)
- hill walk (1)
- hill walk, trail walk, road walk (4)
- loch ossian (13)
- long distance (11)
- marathons (4)
- mountain marathons (12)
- news (514)
- non-running challenges (6)
- parkrun (23)
- race series (1)
- races (518)
- recce (1)
- relays (4)
- road race (53)
- road race (cycling) (1)
- short hill race (13)
- social (40)
- social run (14)
- summer league (19)
- time trial (9)
- track race (1)
- trail race (23)
- weekend (2)
- winter league (34)
Comments
Chris said...
PS. I forgot to add that fellow Westies Stef & JD were also running, as was Manny teamed with Malcolm Patterson. All had storming runs. Manny seemed especially pleased with their performance as he downed his 3rd beer of the morning, when I saw him 5am this morning at Troon Marina!
Monday 24th May 2004 1.52pm
JD said...
Yes, Steffen and I were indeed there also, on Mr.Tunnock's bonny boat "LEMARAC". This is indeed the event of the year and I have been privileged to take part in it for 5 years now. Where else will a millionaire cook you steak for your dinner at 5a.m. and then give you a lift home in his Rolls Royce with a batch of his cakes and biscuits to take home!
Memories of this year's event are of sunbathing in shorts on the boat, seeing porpoises/dolphins, stunning views from all 3 mountain runs, seeing Jane R. on Jura walking(sort of) and eating lots and lots (especially anything preceded by "Tunnocks").
Steffen and I ambled round Oban in 34m or so chatting all the way round to some pals from Fife who were running as well, thought we would let C&J get a bit of a start. Probably would have been at least 1m faster had S not got lost for a bit when the bungy cord broke! Good sail up to Mull, proper sailing with a decent wind and sea, and we arrived at Salen @5p.m. The transfer from the dinghy was a bit hairy and apparently Billy and I were pretty close to taking a swim. We had a good steady run on auto pilot for the boring road and Land Rover hour's run to the 1st checkpoint, before the start of the climb where we were passed by Manny & Malcolm as we both struggled to find our hill legs. We got a good line through the scree up to the summit of Ben More, where the views were fantastic, the Paps of Jura seemingly only a few miles away. We hit the checkpoints easily on the hill, followed by a contouring sheep trod and then the less said of the road plod at the end the better, but we got in just before dark in @5hrs well pleased with our time.
We then had a slow meander down to Jura sunning ourselves on deck in fantastic weather, a good night's sleep due to the lack of wind was a bonus. Stunning views of the Paps on the way there and even better close up's when we plodded round them at 3.15pm. Were passed off the last Pap by Manny & Malcolm who descended the mad scree slopes way faster than us. The road section seemed to fly in and we were pretty happy with our time of just under 5hrs. Apparently C&J ran an hour faster than us but only ran the 3 lesser Pips, not the Paps.
It was a long slow night round the Mull of Kintyre, frustrating for the crew but great for us as we yet again got a good night's sleep. We just managed to get a wisp of wind to help us round the Mull of Kintyre and avoid the tide change. The crew had been talking about chucking it, but persevered and we cruised into Lamlash past the Buddhist Holy Island. We started off at 6.38p.m. a few seconds ahead of Manny and Malc, who soon zoomed off into the distance. We decided not to pursue them and headed off for the long trudge up to Goatfell and back. Another gorgeous evening witha pink sunset,and we saw Chris and Jon outside Brodick as we were having a few pints before finishing in 3h50m, 10m faster than last year. Would easily have beaten C&J's "in the dark" time had we not had that 5th pint of Arran Blonde.
My 5th completion and still an absolutely fantastic event, as I'm sure Steffen will confirm. Late news says that Manny & Malcolm may have won the King of the Bens title for fastest overall running time!!! Well done.
Monday 24th May 2004 11.56pm
Chris said...
Results here
Tuesday 25th May 2004 3.10pm