Hebridean Challenge 2004

Hi

I am on the search for an elite level hill runner to join a team of five competing in the Hebridean Challenge, a five day adventure race, along the Outer Hebridean archipeligo, in July 2004.

The race comprises of extensive hill running, mountain biking, road cycling, sea kayaking, and sea swimming, but as the race follows a roughly relay format, then each discipline needs its own 'expert'.

We are a young team, all under 25, but last year our runner was 50 and showed most of us a clean pair of heels, so we're not fussy on age, and experience is very much a benefit. In the past two races, we have been very competitive on the cycling stages, but have not had a top runner or kayaker to pull us up the rankings. This year we hope to break the top 5...hopefully!

Full race details are on www.hebrideanchallenge.com and I can be contacted on en9jdl@bath.ac.uk or 01225 830160

I hope this wets someones whistle!

Comments

  • Hi John, wets my whistle but I'm twice the age of the team and though I've done a fair amount of fell running would hardly consider myself elite. However as I'm in Bath as well as yourself there's a couple of ideas you may consider:

    Martin Cox - loosely associated with the Uni but a top (and I do mean TOP as in international) hill runner and also no slouch on the roads (winner of 2003 Snowdonia Marathon) - spends a lot of summers running up the Alps but may be interested - he is currently working behind the bar of the White Hart in Widcombe but people at the STV will no doubt be able to put you in touch.

    Failing Martin, there's various people in City of Bath AC who have a fell running background and fall more nearly in the elite category than I do - we have a weekly newsletter and I'm sure the editor would be only too happy to include a request similar to the above - contact on: ray@brigden21.freeserve.co.uk

    Or you could always join us on a Tuesday night and you too could become that fell runner!
  • Hi Andy

    You may know Richard Hooley or Ewen Malloch who were our runners last year. Richard had incredible endurance and navigation, and Ewen runs like sh*t off a teflon shovel over shorter distances. The other members of the team averaged 2nd or 3rd on all the bike stages, so we are hoping to grab a runner an kayaker or similar ability. Hopefully they'll be able to take on the likes of Brendan Bolland, and Steve Birkinshaw, or maybe keep them in sight at least!

    Coxy is an asociate of mine, although I have it on good authority he can't read a map for buttons, but more likely he will be out ripping up the Alps in July.

    I will contact you club editor on the email address, thanks for that.

    I am interested in really improving my running, and hope to do a 1:20-25 bath half this year, so tuesday night sessions would be really good. What's the score with coming along?
  • Hi John - Coxy an 'associate' - sounds well dodgy! I would imagine running up an Alp doesn't call for much in the way of navigation - rather different to the Western Isles!

    Tuesdays - we meet in the STV (downstairs by the entrance to the gym) for a 7pm start - there is a slower group and a faster one, doing perhaps 7 - 8 miles - it's as fast as you want to make it, because we regroup every 10 mins or so. Just turn up and give it a go - ask anyone to point me out and I'll make sure you feel at home. First Tuesday of each month is a measured 5k time trial (2 laps round Uni - hard!!)
  • Hi John, I was sent a copy of the message you'd posted on the Ochil Hill Runners site. I've forwarded it on to those people in the club with email as the messageboard isn't that busy, as you may have noticed!

    Much as I'd like to give the event a shot I don't fit the bill as an elite runner but there are a few people in the club who do.

    Good luck with your search.
  • Thanks for your help guys

    I look forward to hearing from your club mates, but in the event I don't hear from any of the real whippets, I will certainly comeback in your direction.

    Can you suggest anywhere else I should post my appeal, as I don't know of many running websites, due to most of my racing being on the bike.
  • Having done this race in the past with a Uni team I know the hassles of organising a proper team, I would volunteer my services but as I am now in East Anglia my hill training is severly limited but here are a few sites for you to post on, good luck either way I will check out the website during race time btw what team are you?

    http://www.cosmics.org.uk/hillbasher/
    http://www.carnethy.com/
    http://www.shr.uk.com/shr/index.asp
    http://www.ae401.dial.pipex.com/
  • Thanks mountain goat. I've done it for the past two years as captain of all over the place, and I presume we'll keep the same name, as it kinda fits now!

    Which team were you in?
  • You could try the adventure race assoc website http://www.arauki.co.uk or sleepmonsters.co.uk
  • Thanks andy, I'm a regular on those forums, but not many of the top runners read them, so I'm approaching the task from a different angle!
  • John - just found your picture on sleepmonsters - now I know who to look out for (provided you wear your wetsuit on a Tuesday night!)
  • You'll probably recognise me from the shattered gormless look on my face :-)
  • No - too many of those in the STV on a Tuesday night
  • Competed in 99 I think with the Aberdeen Uni team - it was the year that 220 magazine entered a team of professionals, we ended up bunking with them in Harris and they were not pleased thata bunch of students were on their heels for the first two days. We had a catastrophic last day lots of lost time but finished in good nick to enjoy the ceilidh and free flowing beer.
    It migt be worth e-mailing Martin Stone - I am assuming he is still involved in the Heb - he may have a few decent contacts.
  • Ah, back in the western Isles Chalenge days then! There was a Dundee uni team in my first year (2001), and we were primarily based around a Bath Uni team. There's a lot to be said for getting the student union to pay for an adventure like this :-)
  • Yep they paid for everything right down to the catering sized tins of strawberry jam!,
    I think there was another uni team in 99 as well but we were a mixed team so were in a different category.
    Now I am in the corporate world I have always fancied entering a team in this race and getting the company to pay for it but no luck so far.
  • One.tel managed to enter a team last year consisting of mostly London based staff. I heard a rumour that their kayaker sat his 4* test in a swimming pool :-) They came last but they did enjoy being thrown in at the deep end...I think
  • I've just scraped together a corporate team for the Bath Half (four staff and two friends) - the thought of trying to put together a team for a five-day adventure race...... Nuff said.
  • Got three of us already. Getting a team is not a problem , but getting a good one that will be competitive is a different matter.
    In my first Heb we only got our team sorted the week before the race, wheras last year I had it sorted in November. I'm going for somewhere in between this year!
  • Have you tried posting on the site of a fell running club.

    www.carnethy.com is an edinburgh club full of people who do things like that really well.

  • Hey John,

    I'd really love to do this event, but unfortunately, I'm not quite 'elite' level... However, if you can use a 69' half-marathon runner/ 2H24 marathon then I could be your man... I'm ok on the fells, but I definitely run downhill better than I climb.
    I can also kayak some (I'm a level two kayak coach, and I'm doing my 4 stars sea kayaking in April), but I don't think that matters (the race is a relay right?). Anyway, let me know if you're interested...
  • Hi John
    Not sure I'd be able to fit your bill being female (keen though!) but noticed you were in bath and keen to bang out a 1:20-25 bath half and wondered who you run with.
    Am member of a club in bristol but keen for someone to run with in bath around 1:25 half pacing..
  • NickJ I think that fits the bill as elite in terms to me anyway! :)
  • I keep getting kicked in the bollocks at the moment... I emailed John, but he'd already found someone... That same week, I applied for 'the challenge' on the bbc, but Iw asn't even considered for the selection weekend! Oh yeah, on that very day, I went for a 1H45 long run, feeling completely knackered, then thought: "I'd better do some upper-body work, in case I'm asked to go to that selection weekend". 'went to the gym and worked out like an idiot (30mins on the rowing machine; 15mins on the handbike; 15mins on the stepper; free weights, pull-ups; chin ups, push ups... etc); 'got back home at 10:00PM, feeling I was about to pass out with exhaustion, checked my mail... and there it was: rejection message!
    Why the hell do we bother?
  • Nick, i still bother and I'm 47 and 15 mins slower than you for a half. If i could turn in 69 mins I'd bother an awful lot more. Keep at it and remember "what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger". somebody told me that when I was sacked ten months ago and never a truer word.

    Why not post an advert on the sleepmonsters site. Somebody is bound to have a use for a 'slow' runner like you who can kayak. Bet you are tasty on a bike as well.

    Best of luck.
  • Nick - don't let it get to you - there's lots of other competitions about. I applied for the Challenge as well, without the slightest hope of being accepted, so wasn't too disappointed not to hear from them. My mate Dan has just done the initial stages of the SAS challenge thingie for the Beeb - carrying a 50lb pack over the Brecon Beacons - he reackons he was about 5th out of 50 after a slight navigational cock-up so he's in with a chance.

    Are you running the Bath Half this year?

  • Thanks for the support guys... it was just a manner of speech though, I'm not about to quit just quite yet!
    Andy, yes I'm running Bath again this year. Training's been going quite well over the last two weeks, so I guess I'll be trying for a pb again this year.
    After the FLM though, I have no plans yet as to what I'll be doing -it always feel like there's no life after London :-(
    I do quite a lot of other stuff (kayaking, surfing, boating & -albeit very occasionally- climbing) so I think I might try to get into adventure racing.
    I've done a bit of orienteering & nav., but it's always going to be my weak point. I do fancy the idea though...
    Are you guys doing the Hebridean challenge?
  • Nick

    Sorry to be part of your run of bad news, and I hope I can help cheer you up a bit. I have contacted the organiser of the Heb Challenge and he is willing to put you, and the other guys who contacted me, together as a team. Their were some cracking runners, so chances are you would be a very competitive team. I would expect you should hear from him in the next day or two.

    Good luck
    Keep smiling!

    John
  • John,

    No need to be sorry... I mean, a competitive fell runner will be much better suited to the Heb. Thanks for contacting Jon Brooke on my behalf. I've received an e-mail of him, and I might well see you there.

    Nick
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