I had arrived on Friday to Nairn, and spent a few hours chatting to some of the Nokia guests about the course; they were all doing the Challenger class, 160km over 2 days. A huge challenge for most people, especially when the weather was as bad as it was; wind, rain and cool temperatures.
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I got up early to watch the start on Saturday to say good luck to all my friends racing, and to check out how it would all work the next morning. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I would have liked some more sleep I think! The start was great though, seeing so many people set off, some at a fast pace, others at a rather more sedate pace, but all out there to take on the course laid out ahead.
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The rest of the day went pretty slowly. Jane, my support crew, was driving up from Kendal in my car with all my kit, so all I could do was chill out at my nice hotel and take the time to rest. After a heroic drive, Jane arrived just as I was in town carbo loading, so we sat down and chatted through the course, and what I was expecting Jane to do, in summary stuff my face with lots of food and make sure my kit was in place so I had to do as little admin as possible to save energy. Then we had to sort all my kit out... quite a lot for just one person!!I always seem to have loads of kit, and as per usual during the race I only used one set! However, if the conditions had been different I guess I'd have been covered, it just means more kit faff before and after the race. I think at this point Jane was wondering what she had let herself in for, all this... 'and if the weather is like this..' 'if I ask for this kit...' 'this stage I'll want this piece of clothing...maybe...'
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I sorted my new brand spanking new bike out, a Boardman cyclocross, and put the road wheels on. A simple task made difficult as the rear wheel wouldn’t fit, so had to just go with the front. I then decided to ride out to Cawdor Castle, to check my bike was all ok and that the set up was right (I had only got it the week before...!)It all seemed to be fine, and it was good to spin the legs out ready for a full day of racing.
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After chatting with some friends, picking up my surfski from Ant Emmet, and buying some last minute items for the big day we headed back to the hotel to find somewhere to eat (again!). Nairn is a pretty small place though, and the only Italian restaurant told us they were fully booked. Clearly all the other racers were after some pasta... So the hotel it was, and Ant Emmet, Marty Lee and Becs McPherson joined us for some food too (although we decided to limit the racing chat about the course!).
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After heading to bed, I got a message from Ed Coats looking for a floor – after walking to the South Pole you clearly can sleep anywhere! He finally arrived and we had some good banter before getting our heads down for the few hours sleep we’d get before my alarm went off at 4.45am!
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As morning came around way too soon, I got up and kitted out, and ran down to the start to warm my legs up a little. It was an odd scene seeing all the support vehicles with fast kayaks sat on top of them in the dim morning light. I knew a lot of the people racing, so was good to have some pre race banter in the cold before we lined up for a pre race briefing from Gary.
SleepMonsters
