Anybody from here signed up for next month or done it before? Looking for a bit of advice on it
Cheers

Hiya Robbie, I’ll be there as the race photographer. Have raced the older Heb race and know the setup pretty well, what do you want to know?

I’m thinking of doing this. Will be on 29er carbon hardtail as I don’t have cx bike but think that would be best as seems biking part is on road and fire road from what I can tell so nothing too rough or technical.

Don’t know about the Hebridean Way section near Langas, but most will be grand on a hardtail. If you’ve got semi-slicks or something less draggy than a full knobbly you’ll be grand.

Need to think about just using trainers and not spd as youl have to cary trainers on the cycle. Also need to carry enough kit/food to last the day. I’m torn between my cyclo cross or hardtail? also i take it most of the running will be trail type through bog? and will need a rucksac or belt type running bag

Bike depends on what you’re comfortable on. The two big runs look to include a bit of bog yomping and next to nothing on trail – think open moorland. Rucksack’s a better idea than bumbag, a light 20-ish litre bag would hold mandatory kit, food and your trainers pretty easily.

I was thinking about carrying most of my stuff on the bike in my frame bag so I can run a lighter pack/bumbag for the run.

Look forward to hearing about it, as I’d be keen to do it next year.

Looking at the mandatory kit, I’d say a rucksack was a better shout, unless you’ve got a big bumbag! Even on the runs, you’ve got to have/carry headtorch, waterproofs, spare thermal, maps, first aid and survival bag as well as food and water.

Deadline for signing up extended till 28th if anyone is keen.

I’ve only raced the previous version to the previous version (known as the Western Isles Challenge back then), but have a fair amount of experience of similar events. As Pyro says, a backpack would be preferable to a bumbag given how much you’ve got to carry – I doubt you’ll see many with bumbags. Just take a small backpack. Definitely have some sort of bag on the bike (I’ve always had a seatpack) to put in bike specific stuff so you don’t have to carry it on the run – though I’d always carry running shoes in my backpack, it’s handy to have external elastics so you can just shove them in and get them out quickly without opening the main pack.

My preference is normally to use bike shoes on the bike and change to running shoes for the foot sections – doesn’t take very long to change and the running shoes won’t weigh you down that much when biking. That’s for longish legs without many changes which I presume is what you have. For shorter legs and more changes I have worn running shoes on the bike and it can work OK – if you’re doing that I recommend Powerstraps or something similar rather than flats (which most running shoes don’t work well with) or traditional toe clips.

Regarding bike choice, do you not have any sections on the machair (the bit bordering the beach on the West coast)? I’d not want a CX bike there, fat bike territory, though decently wide tyres on a 29er should be good. TBH there’s not a huge advantage to a CX bike on road sections if you know what you’re doing and can get an aero position on your MTB – I’ve fitted tri bars to my MTB before now for road sections (when I raced out there I had 2 bikes with me, a MTB and my TT bike and was switching between them, but that was a more supported race – still the reason why I have SPD pedals on my road bikes so I can switch!)

…wish I was fit enough to race – still my favourite race 🙁

Some good info there which is backing up my plans which is good. First time doing anything like this. Definitely think the cx bikes will struggle on the sand (12km on day 2) so my 29er should be perfect and I’ve ordered some tri-bars for it to help a little. First day looks predominantly on road with 1mile over beach to Vallay. I’m definitely using spd’s on bike to help distribute the fatigue! The run sections aren’t too long so I was thinking of taking running belt to put in backpack so I can leave bag along with bike to save carrying it when running. Thinking I need water,bit of food,phone and the mandatory first aid kit and map when running. Depends on weather as might need to carry extra top/jacket.

Not bad thinking, just keep an eye on what’s deemed ‘mandatory’. The current kit list states spare thermal top and headlamp as well as the bits you’ve mentioned. I’d disagree with aracer about using CX on the machair, but I know we’ve both raced up there before so it’s totally personal opinion and choice.