Nervously getting prepped for the biggest ride I have ever done! Weather looks good so hoping to slim down my kit after Alan Goldsmith smirked at the weight  of my bike when he picked it up outside the Hawkshead Brewery on Saturday. Not sorted a Spot yet as the first one I borrowed was bust 🙁 and unable to get the day off work on Friday. Hoping for cooler weather as i ride like poo in heat

Rich

I think it is Rich. Here’s the trackleaders page -> Highland Trail 2018 <- linky.

I hope it’s not as bad as last year – the first day was really hot but also humid and I felt really nauseous and thought of quitting after 80km, fortunately it started to rain and cool things down a bit. The fast riders are soon out of sight so you can sit back and ride at your own pace.

Don’t fall victim to Alan’s mind games 🙂 he was raising eyebrows and smirking at my rigid setup last year.

See you Saturday in Tyndrum.

Good luck guys. Thats one hell of an undertaking.

You have sorted out a SPOT you just do not trust me do you Rich 😉

David I trust you!!! 🙂 just need a midge report so I can loose the tent!

Midge aren’t a problem if you keep moving. …

Rainfall for the region is well below average for the year and we’ve a wee heatwave arriving. Looks like it’ll be a doddle.

You don’t *need* a tent Rich, there’s plenty of dry 😉 bivy spots. I didn’t even use the midge net last year though was tempted on the morning of the fourth day when packing the bike at Oykel Bridge.

Doddle? Hmm, I reserve the right to challenge that view!

Just a bump to keep this nearer the top so there aren’t multiple threads 🙂

The weather’s still looking very settled and not too hot until at least the middle of next week. Low river levels, well there’s only really the one in Fisherfield to worry about unless things have been really wet, looks good 🙂 The bogs to get to Benalder Cottage will still be bad.

I’m not sure if Neil Beltchenko’s time of 3d10hr22 will be broken but there’s at least four riders capable of a sub four day ride. There’s two who I think are pretty evenly matched so if they get in to a head to head in the same way that Chris Hope matched Neil for the first two days last year then a fast time is on the cards. If you click the replay button on this link then you can see just how far the front riders go in a day – simply stunning.

We’re packed and ready to go.

This is mine pretty well ready to go …

And they’re off!!

Might take a daunder tomorrow to catch some passing through, maybe take a few snaps.

Good luck to all participating, hope it stays dry but not to warm. Anyone got a link for following the dots?

http://trackleaders.com/highland18

Oh no where is lee going ?

Edit just checked her full history it looks like she’s realised her mistake and about turned

Ah, that explains it. Seemed a bit weird

Does anyone know the initials of the folks from here? Rt is the only one I’ve spotted so far

You can click on the dot or look at the rider list.

RM is postierich

RM is postierich

Cheers.

BW is Bob (Whitehouse) but it looks like he’s bailed and heading for Corrour Station 🙁

PostieRich – Richard Munro is in the moorings restaurant aka: the pizza place.

Forgive my ignorance here, but can someone explain why Sarah Caylor is shown at 487 miles and the rest of the field are below 200?

She’s turned off at fort Augustus. My guess is a bail back to tyndrum for one reason or another.

Mechanical bio or otherwise possibly ? And let’s not forget that yesterday was a long hot day for them in untypically Scottish weather.

Trails will be absolutely prime.

We have trails locally I’ve never seen dry(bog) and ridable in 10 years which are hard baked. So it has potential to be a fast year.

I’m guessing an individual time trial effort of the route that started a few days ahead of the main mass start which most riders are on

Edit – ignore me, thought she may have been a yellow marker.

I’d say enthusiastic effort + heat is going to take a toll on a few. I think that was Bob’s fate.

CONFIRMED SCRATCHES 27/5/18: Stu Cowperthwaite, mechanical; Karl Booth, cow attack (!); Bob Wightman, heat; Alan Sheldon; Justin Atkinson; Shona and Rich all unknown reasons. [Scythe emoji]

Ok that’s got to be the maddest reason I’ve seen for dropping out….. But no laughing matter cow attacks can be vicious.

My uncle was a dairy farmer for years and a couple of times they made a mess off his face

Upto date scratch list:

Trackleaders lust updated now.
Tell us if you know different. pic.twitter.com/HWO9ytlRAz

— Highland Trail (@HT_550) May 27, 2018

Go Javi!

Got home a couple of hours ago. I scratched due to a mixture of heat, cramps, mechanicals and bad stomach (not heat related). I had no power in my legs from the first hour or so. I was drinking plenty of water but struggled to get food in. Going through the woods to Bridge of Gaur I just lost all speed even on the flat then climbing out from there the problems really started, periodic vomiting and ever increasing cramps. Got to Benalder Cottage and had to have a lie down inside.

Heading up the singletrack I dinged a rim on one of the water bars and the tyre flatted. I couldn’t pump it up properly (or at all really) as if I was too vigorous I’d throw up again 🙁 Put in an inner tube (I’d picked up a 27.5 rather than a 29 by mistake) then five minutes later I caught another water bar and that blew. Just thought “ride over” and figured out how to get back to the start. This was walk to the first Bealach then over peat bogs down into the next glen to pick up what was marked on the map as a path. It was but a rough footpath that I’d have struggled to ride even if the bike was in order.

Got to within a mile or so of Loch Ossian youth hostel when I heard a bike behind me – it just happened to be someone I know! He fixed me up with an inner tube and I got to Corrour station where someone stopping in the B&B there saw me setting up a bivy in the waiting room and offered me the spare room they weren’t using complete with shower and paid for breakfast!

The next train was 1230 today (Sunday) and there were at least four other HT550 scratches on board (including Sara – the heat had got to her).

Disappointed but not upset.

For the remainder of this edition I shall be dot watching.

Terrible luck Whitestone, but an epic self-extraction story all the same. Often thought of giving this a go, but then thought of what it would be like to be in a post-24 hour race state, but in the middle of nowhere, in the dark, and the rain, trying to setup a bivi. I don’t know how you do it.

Looks like Lee is running at No 2 at the moment. Awesome.

That’s tough whitestone. There’s always next year… 🙂

9am scratch update.

9am scratch update. It’s been eventful but everyone accounted for. pic.twitter.com/W3FOsz4brd

— Highland Trail (@HT_550) May 28, 2018

It’s worth noting Javier Simon is on a singlespeed and is well in the lead.

Derailleurs suck. 🙂

Surprised to see Huw and Scott on that list. Currently at 25% scratch rate.

@dazh – rain would have been nice TBH. I suspect In my case there were a couple of underlying problems and the heat just exacerbated things. Three hours in and I was losing 25-50% timewise compared to last year.

There were four of us on the train and heat was a major contributing factor for all of us.

whitestone

…There were four of us on the train and heat was a major contributing factor for all of us.

I am sceptical of some of the advice I have seen given for combatting heat. I spent 30+ years in the tropics and would often be out running for a couple of hours or cycling all day in temps of 30ºC or higher.

It seems to me that drinks and additives intended for athletic purposes in this country contain way too much salt. I never took drinks with electrolytes in them and I just drank water. Your body maintains your salt levels automatically so it won’t excrete salt in your sweat if you are drinking enough to maintain the isotonic levels.

It’s only when you allow yourself to dehydrate that your sweat contains a lot of salt and then you need to add it when rehydrating.

I don’t know if this was the case for you, but it helped me in endurance rides in very high temps.

I’m not sure if it was purely down to the heat, just that it tipped things over the edge for me. I think there were also a couple of underlying problems, one long term, one short.

Warning! Bodily functions discussed ahead 😐

The long term problem is possibly long term fatigue, the last couple of years I’ve done six or seven ITTs per year and it’s probably caught up with me. Since about October last year I’ve struggled to get the enthusiasm to do training of any kind or even commute on the bike – I’ve probably averaged less than a day a week.

The short term problem was that I think I ate something at breakfast that didn’t agree with me. I started feeling queasy about three to four hours after breakfast which is about the usual timescale for this to appear (I vaguely remember 3-6hrs being one thing, 6-12hrs being another cause, 12-24hrs a third class). My stomach was in knots and I was mostly retching and dry vomiting. The last bout of vomiting brought up the last of the breakfast and I was fine after that and could take fluid and foods on board but by then I’d made my decision to quit.

I know what you mean about the body maintaining its balance. I was only drinking plain water, I’ve not used electrolytes for some years now. There were very few salt stains on my clothing, I was sweating steadily but not profusely.

Losing fluid through sickness is only going one way really especially in hot weather and I’ve no regrets about scratching when I did. I knew I could get myself out, even though it might take some time and might be a bit painful due to cramp and blisters. Pride might take a knock but then, it’s only pride.

Hi Bob, gutted for you! I think you’re probably right about the fatigue – you just kept hammering on after the HT550 last year, while I just collapsed in a heap and stopped the long rides after it for a while. Rest up for a while!

I’m just starting to ramp up the training for torino-nice – fancy that one?!

Had thought about the T-N but have signed up for the French Divide (yes, yet another long ride), one of the organisers is out on the HT at the moment.

One of my jobs for this week is to get the dent out of the wheel rim, the rest of the time will be chilling and doing a bit of gardening.

@trail_rat – having hike-a-biked across the bogs to get to Benalder cottage plus having gone AWOL down the glen to get to Corrour, my bike doesn’t need cleaning! It’s a bit dusty but it will just brush off. Normally after a ride like this I’ll need to get the scrubbing brush out and clean all the bags but there’s no point this time.