City to Summit - Edinburgh to Ben Nevis
Rat Race City to Summit Hits The Heights
Rob Howard / 05.06.2013
The Rat Race City to Summit was an Ironman distance triathlon with the sting in the tail being a marathon distance mountain run finishing with an ascent and descent of Ben Nevis, the highest point in the U.K.
It was organised by Rat Race, who have a background in adventure racing, and more recently obstacle racing, so a few triathletes were wondering if they could pull off such an ambitious race. Well, they did, and in some style, delivering what many said was the most challenging event they’d ever done. (Is there a tougher ironman? Xterra doesn’t compare, and even The Norseman arguably has an easier run ... more on that later.)
The plan to deliver the full ironman distance on a coast to coast crossing of Scotland was always weather dependent, and after the coldest winter and spring in the UK for many, many years it was decided to shorten the swim to 1.2km. (The water temperature was 8.9 degrees ... it averages 13 to 15 at Norseman.) There weren’t any complaints, just relief on the part of many competitors.
It was an early start for the swimmers, setting off at 6 a.m. from South Queensferry, a suburb of Edinburgh on the south side of the Firth of Forth. The start was a jetty between the iconic Forth Rail and Road bridges, a truly spectacular setting! With the rail bridge towering over them the competitors set off towards the road bridge and back, quickly spreading out. The first back was Matthew Tynham in 15.51 and he lead the way up into the bike transition.
The 112 mile cycle ride took competitors from South Queensferry to Glen Coe, yet another iconic highland location, starting with a ride across the Forth Road Bridge. The route took riders through Dunfermline, past Gleneagles and into more mountainous country as they crossed the high ground of Rannoch Moor before descending through Glencoe to the finish of the ride at Ballachulish on the west coast.
Busy roads on a fine Saturday, a few sections of rough surface, a head wind and some heavy showers made progress more difficult than it might have been as the 150 racers on the one-day ‘expert’ course were now joined by another 50 on the 2-day ‘Challenger’ course. (This did not include the swim.) One unlucky racer even had to ride into a ditch to avoid a deer leaping in front of them!
As the ride progressed the scenery grew ever grander, and if any competitors had not previously ridden across Rannoch Moor and down through Glen Coe they were in for a treat. It was on this stage that Mark Thompson took the lead with a ride time of 05.47.12 while in the women’s race there was a close battle between Christine Howard and Anna Gilmore, with Janet Grace and Claire Wheeler just minutes behind as well.
The run transition was at the Isle of Glencoe Hotel (where Rat Race’s Coast to Coast event finishes), and for the ‘Challengers’ this was day’s end and the chance to camp or head off to a B&B and rest up before Sunday’s final stage. For the ‘experts’ however the race was still on with the final marathon run to come, and for later racers this would also be a race against the fall of darkness.
The route took runners along the road, across the Ballachulish bridge and then steeply uphill to join the West Highland Way footpath into Glen Coe before heading up and down the mighty Ben Nevis. It was a route which surprised many with its severity, although the organisers had described it as a “Run/ Trek” due to the nature of the terrain” and added “This is a solid ascent of Ben Nevis from Sea Level to the Summit and back down again (almost to Sea Level again). It is a mighty foot stage and requires respect and training, plus a healthy knowledge of off-road environments as well as a level of comfort being in a mountainous environment and into darkness for some.”
Despite the stage being listed as having 2400m of climbing and the fact Ben Nevis is 1344m high some had naturally focussed on the challenge of climbing ‘The Ben’ and not mentally unprepared for the demands of the getting to the foot of the mountain in the first place! For those not so used to mountain paths the underfoot terrain was difficult too, especially the rocky path on Ben Nevis, which made for a jarring and painful descent on very weary legs.
In short it was a brutal stage, but the weather was good (especially so for Ben Nevis) with the showers stopping, modest winds and good visibility most of the time. It could have been much, much worse! Given the long winter there was still plenty of snow on the summit for the final push to the large cairn at the top and the racers had lots of company as the path was packed with tourists and lots of walkers setting off on the ‘3 Peaks Challenge’. All were astonished to hear what the racers who were passing them were undertaking! There was a lot of respect for their efforts on the Ben path that Saturday night.
At the head of the race the lead changed again on the run stage, with Thompson keeping his lead until the final descent. He held a lead of almost 4 minutes on the summit from Sean Mcfarlane and was 8 minutes ahead of Tomas Phillips ... but the descent proved decisive and that order was reversed by the time the three reached the finish line. Phillips (City of Lancaster Tri) was the winner in 11.27.42, less than a minute ahead of Mcfarlane and with a margin of 8 minutes over the tiring Thompson.
It wasn’t until dusk (around 10pm) that the leading ladies came into the finish line, set up in the car park by the visitor centre, and complete with food and a bar for the finishers. Again the run was decisive and Christine Howard pulled clear to win in 14.16.50, well ahead of Anna Gilmore and Janet Grace.
Howard was 31st overall, so at dusk there were still over 100 competitors on Ben Nevis and as darkness fell their head torches came into view along the path. As they came into the finish in turn all got a rousing reception from an enthusiastic crowd and were presented with their well-earned race medals.
The official course closure was 2 a.m. (20 hours), but the summit safety team started to move down the mountain and collect up competitors a bit ahead of this as cloud had closed in and it had started snowing. (It was very cold on top despite the good weather, the climate on the summit is sub-arctic.) And so the ‘Expert’ race closed with the arrival the group of final racers, all glad to reach the finish line safely and to have completed the race of their lives.
On Sunday morning the Challengers restarted from Ballachulish for their final run, and in this race too the final run on Ben Nevis was decisive, but this time the leader held on under pressure. Following the ride Scott Young lead by 37 minutes from Oliver Pursaill, but it was third place Claire Gordon who would threaten his lead on Ben Nevis.
Gordon is an elite fell runner but was 45 minutes behind when they set off on the final run. Despite setting the fastest time of the run time of 5 hours 10 minutes she couldn’t bridge such a big gap and Young held on for the win in a time of 11.52.36.
You can find full results on the race website at http://www.ratracecitytosummit.com/ and entries for next year will open shortly. Those who enter the second edition of this race will know the claim of Britain’s Toughest Tri is one not to be taken lightly!
Race photos can be seen on www.randrphotos.co.uk
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