City to Summit - Edinborough, 1st/2nd June
Club member Oliver Cook competed in this event last weekend, and his account is below for your interest.
Last weekend I drove to Edinburgh to complete in an event that has been the focus of my training for the last 6 months. The event is called City to Summit. – the city – Edinburgh, the summit – Ben Nevis. The format of the event was either a triathlon or duathlon over 1 or 2 days. I opted for the 2 day Duathlon. This involved a 110 mile bike ride on day 1 from Edinburgh to Glencoe, then a 27mile off road marathon from Glencoe to Glen Nevis then the ascent of Ben Nevis to reach the summit before descending again to Glen Nevis.
The bike leg was a tough ride as we headed into the Scottish Highlands, not helped by a constant headwind and poor road surfaces. The scenery however was fantastic as we passed through Gleneagles and up and over Rannoch Moor.
We gathered for the run at 8.00 the next morning, equipped with our mandatory kit, such as whistle, first aid kit , survival blanket and all the necessary clothing. The first 6 miles was fairly easy as we ran round Loch Leven before starting the first steep climb, this was 1.5 miles before we reached the top and picked up the West Highland Way. We followed this undulating route for the next 10 miles reaching a feed station at Glen Nevis in 3 hours 10 mins. I took a few jelly beans and a banana and got ready for the ascent of ‘the Ben’. I had done this route before a few years ago as part of the 3 peaks challenge, but this time I had 110 bike miles and 18 tough run miles in my legs and I was pushing as fast I could go, - it was brutal. It took me over another 2 hours to eventually reach the top and ‘dib’ my chip timer. Then for the decent, this was almost as tough as the climb, an unremitting 5 mile assault course of snow, shale, rocks and boulders. I finally finished. According to my garmin in 6 hours 46 mins after 27.3 miles and 6700 ft of climbing.
Fantastic event, very well organised , would recommend it, but I may not be at the start line next year, more one to be ticked off. Now for the Loughborough Half with my battered legs.
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