ITERA Expedition Race

The Last Legs - Surviving to the Finish

Rob Howard / 19.08.2022

By Friday the teams remaining on the ITERA course were being directed to the short course, and pretty much the shortest route, to the finish line. The orienteering stage at the Inverawe Country Park was closed at 3am (it had been manned by volunteers from the local club) and after that teams had to take a direct route back to Oban, following the picturesque country road through Glen Lonan. Then it was a downhill ride to finish by the sea in Oban.

The weather for the end of the race continued to be challenging with persistent and very heavy rain, though by now the teams didn't really notice, they were so far into the pain cave, and so focussed on the next crank of the pedals and getting to the finish, that nothing else mattered at all.

When leaving the country park the teams rode down past the cafe for the Inverawe Smokery, and like all of those who encounter the race, the staff there were in awe of the teams. They were looking at the tracker and the Facebook posts and realised how much the teams had done already before arriving. It was as though beings from another world had come to visit them in the night, from a world with no limits. They were visitors outside the realm of their everyday experience, both crazy and inspiring. "Some of them were in such a state," said one of the owners shaking her head, "but they were all so friendly and positive and not giving up. Not all teams stopped but most did, and we stayed open until nearly midnight, finding what we could in the kitchen. One team said they'd pay anything for a bacon sandwich!"

"Some were very switched on and wanted to move quickly, others rested and came inside from the rain.  The Polish team were super organised, they ordered their bacon butties and coffee in advance, went off to do the orienteering for 45 minutes, then came back, picked up the food and were eating and drinking as they set off again!"

One team who did stop for the craic were the Irish team KART Attack who were talking to the local Gillie and having their photo taken by the owners before leaving. "We slept up the hill for a while," said John Nyhan, "and now we just want to get to the end."

The team said, they'd stopped at a house near the start of the ride to ask for water and were huddled out of the wind cooking when they saw a team behind them knock at the same house, and get taken in.  Aine Gallagher said, "They must have asked be taken in and were probably having tea and toast while we out in the cold!"  She added she was wearing a bin liner as all her clothes were soaked!

The team had raced to get the 3am deadline.  "We thought we could do it," she said, "so we raced and pushed, but then 3am was gone and it was suddenly 5am and we were still racing. We had no chance really."  By this stage of the race, in that other world, all sense of time is lost, and the hours pass both quickly and slowly at the same time.

The French team Life Experience passed through Inverawe quickly, no bacon for them, and dropped down to the Awe River to cross the suspension bridge there. The narrow bridge track is high above the water and very narrow, just wide enough for the handlebars. Many riders pushed across, but the French team did well to ride, keeping their balance all the way over. The RAF team followed soon after, with less success.  They said their race had been "up and down", and were still disappointed to have missed the cut off to go up Ledge Route and onto the Ben Nevis trek. They'd been trying to stay on the full course.

The last team through were still on the full course. UK Adventurers have had to suffer and fight hard to make it so far. Helen Chapman still has a very swollen knee but said her eye infections were the main problem on the ride. Her face is so puffy she must be finding it hard to see. And to add to their woes Kevin Stephens dislocated his shoulder. "We thought it was race over," he said, "but a Polish walker came by and put it back in for me."  

They are holding on the end and it's a straight road to the finish, which is a good thing judging by their actions at Inverawe. They ignored the cafe and signed path on arrival and went the wrong way, then came back and stood in the pouring rain in front of a mapboard showing the trail and bridge for 5 minutes while looking at their own maps. Through the pain, fatigue and lack of sleep, it was clear making any decision was hard. They tried to set off the wrong way again, before being told by the cafe staff that everyone else had gone down the main path.

They turned around again, and were soon on the Glen Lonan road to Oban and the finish line.