I planned to eat there tonight and the place was rammed, barely room to stand, so reluctantly went elsewhere, looked good though. Might try their sister bar in Ft Bill for lunch tomorrow.
My plan to go to the Black Isle bar in Ft William for lunch has been scuppered, it doesnāt open until 2pm and I canāt hold out for that long.
Weather here is showery but not too bad
Thatās rubbish luck. On the way back for sure
Local forecast guru is saying itāll be an unsettled week in the west but rain improving as you head north. Looking at the satellites pictures once you hit Achnashellach it should improve significantly. Fingers crossed
I wonāt get a chance on the way back, race coach gets me back to Inverness at 11ish, my flight is at 3.
Strange thing was the website had said it opens at 12, I popped my head in and asked when it opened.
Iām registered, briefed and fed, now to try to relax
It has been on and off showers all day, looks the same for tomorrow
So you arenāt in your tents now Doug, I assume that starts from tomorrow night?
Tents from tomorrow, got 4 solid walls and a roof for tonight.
Remember, your mission is to finish each day while the food is still hot
And find the missing pensioner.
He was mentioned at the race briefing, day 5 will go through the area he went missing.
Had a good night sleep now to fuel up, and then head up to pick up the tracker and dump my last bag, walk down to the ferry and I am off in the first wave at 11am.
I will try to give brief updates from the camps when I can but signal is limited.
Good luck Doug. As someone that was entered for Dragonās Back and bailed due to work, Iāll be interested in your thoughts on the whole set up (after youāve recovered from the week of course!).
One of my Monday running mates, who has done DB and Lakeland100 was pretty scathing of the DB set up and said he just could not fathom where the value vs the entry was.
for the weather gods for you mate.
Thanks.
So far the organisation has been spot on, registration was smooth and I have never had such a thorough kit check. Iāll let you know how the camps work. It is not a cheap race so vfm will depend on your perspective.
Bon chance!
Day one done, 4.09 took it nice and easy.
Starts with 10k down the road then turns up a farm track for another 10k, then a fairly steep but not too long climb the decent however was boggy but once you have wet feet there is no point in pussyfooting around.
Only downer was the final bridge that would take you to camp is out, so you finish at the bridge then have a couple of km back up to the previous bridge for a shuttle bus to camp. At least you get to cheer/be cheered by the others
Tomorrow is a bit longer and more interesting terrain
Well done Doug
I did a local trail race yesterday and had to console myself that I could get the VET category win whilst racing the youngsters.
Turns out the organiser decided to class 55+ as vets, when asked she said the 40+ all too fast so they can get lumped in with the seniors the oldies have got to get a chance at winning something.
Editā¦ I did win a Thorntonās choc trophy and a case of ale though.
Day 2 was hard, underfoot it was mostly bog, perhaps a snorkel would have been useful. I felt drained at the finish.
Day 3 was a long one with a lot of vert but a lot more runnable, felt surprisingly good at the end.
Today is a short one but it is going to be wet and more bog expected