Lakeland 50

I raced the Lakeland 50 mile race at the weekend. I was pleased to get a faster time than last year (my finishing time of 8h39m was 7 minutes faster than last year). I came 4th in the race. This was partly due to John Morgan and Andy James running incredibly quickly! My 4th place has earnt me about 900 points for the runfurther series. This score really doesn't cut the mustard as a long score for the series and so I'm now committed to running the Round Rotherham race.

Race conditions were pretty perfect. It was cold and drizzly for most of the race. These conditions are so much better for me than hot and sunny conditions (though I think I am getting better at those). I had to put on my rain jacket a couple of times, but I generally adopted my mate Tom's mantra: if you're getting cold, then run faster.

I ran with Martin Indge until Haweswater and then was pretty much running on my own. I caught third placed Marcus Scotney at Ambleside and stayed ahead of him until Langdale. The physios at Ambleside must have done a good job on his legs as after Langdale, he just shot of (doing 5 minute miles on the final downhill into Coniston!). I kept looking over my shoulder (which I always say to myself I shouldn't do) to see if Mark Hartell was about to catch me up: he usually does. It was different this time and I finished ahead of him for the first time in a UK ultra race. I was pleased with this. I must race Mark more often when he has a chest infection!

The one thing I was pretty annoyed about was going the wrong way in the valley out of Howtown. I knew deep inside that I shouldn't be running up to the farm in the valley, but I did this anyway. When I got to the farm, there were people having a picnic and laze about by the farm. We said "hi" to each other and then they told me that I shouldn't be there and should not have crossed the cattle grid (500m back - and downhill to boot!). This was all fair enough, so I had to retrace my steps. This cost me a good 4 minutes and got me out of contention with the lead pack, almost getting caught by the runners behind. I also had a minute of head scratching with map in hand on the way between Kentmere and Ambleside. I was at a Y-fork in the path and couldn't decide which way to go in the clag. I eventually chose the right way, but it cost me a little time.

The Lakes 100 runners did well this year. I was passing a steady stream of them all the way to the finish, showing that the standard and number of completions has increased from last year. It has to be said that I was wondering whether I should have been on the 100 mile race instead (it probably wasn't right for me this year).

There was a good atmosphere throughout the race. The checkpoint marshalls were all very supportive and all the walkers who were out and about were cheering us on. Even the lads downing pints in Ambleside seemed to have an interest in the race. It felt great running into the event centre in Coniston at the end. I got a big cheer and it made me feel really special. The physios did an excellent job throughout the race. It was great to have a massage after the race. It has to be said though that I would have been quite happy to lay down anywhere.

The whole Lakeland 100 / Lakeland 50 event seems to be gaining momentum. There were more runners in the race than last year, the standard seems to have improved and the whole aura of the event seems to be building. I wonder how long it will be before these races reach an equivalent stature to that of the UTMB races. I'm planning on getting my entry in earlier next year: just in case.

Camping sauvage

We made it over le brevent and are now very close to the end at les houches. We were going to end up in a benightment situation in the woods and decided to camp. The campsite is flat but tenuous as the pegs are not really on for going in. We have had a nice picnic meal with two bottles of swiss fendant wine which has been carried for 2 days and 3000m ascent. It tastes all the better. We have seen a lot of ibex and dodged thunder storms. All good stuff.

The next day, we finished off the walk down to Les Houches through the woods. We took just over an hour to get down and headed straight for a cafe (to satisfy Chris's hot chocolate fetish) and then to the boulangerie. We completed the Tour du Mont Blanc in under 7 days. For the following few days of the holiday, we hung out in the Argentiere campsite, doing a few day walks. Being a glutton for punishment, one day walk was from Les Houches back over Le Brevent and Lac Blanc to Argentiere. We had great views of the Aiguilles Rouges and the Mont Blanc massif: in contrast to our cold, foggy and windy experience on the Tour du Mont Blanc itself.

Le tour

We are now in le tour. We had a long walk over fenetre d'arpette and col de balme. The refuge de balme is operated by the transylvanian alpine club. We are not members and were not welcome. We then descended to le tour where the caf hut was full. After some discussion we were allowed to camp in their donkey field. The main hut is full. To show our gratitude we have run up a bar bill. Tomorrow we will finish. Tonight it rains and the thunder roars now and again. Today vindicates the decision to bring tents.

Champex

We made it to champex today. We had a good long day from courmayeur via two high obscure passes with great views of the glaciers. We got to refuge elena at 8pm just as it started to hammer it down. I went ahead to order dinner which was a good job as it was last orders.
Today we went over the col ferret: a scene of previous utmb nightmares. The climb to champex also brought back grim memories. Maybe i have it sorted in my head now. I still have thoughts of utmb going through my head. The tents are pitched and we are heading for dinner and beers.

Into italy on TMB

We are now in italy on the tmb. Yesterday we walked from the auberge du truc to the refuge des mottets which thankfully had space for us as we arrived in a hail storm with thunder hitting the surrounding peaks.
The walk up to the col du bonhomme was hot but we stuck at it and made it there as the thunder clouds were building. There was a nice suprise at the refuge as dad had left us a present of a bottle of champagne when if was there a week or so ago. This was a nice suprise. We carried it all the way over the col du fours to the refuge mottets by which time it was well fizzed up and went everywhere when we opened it!
The col du fours was really snowy. Where it was not snowy there was scree that was liquified with the snow melt: not a nice combination. The route was pretty enough though and we saw a magnificent male ibex on top with huge horns.
Today we are heading for courmayeur or preferably beyond. It is downhill all the way now to the town. I am seeing bits in the daylight that i never say on the utmb race as the race crosses this bit in the dark. It is pretty scenic. I am having thoughts about whether i should be doing the race next year.

Tour du mont blanc day 1

I arrived in geneva with my brother and sister after a white knuckle ride to luton airport. We are out here to do the tour du mont blanc. I would naturally want to light pack this but this time i am team porter. This suits me as lugging a big rucsac over alpine passes is good training. I am trying to pack as much team lit in my pack as possible.
Today was the first day and we walked from les houches to auberge du truc: a very quiet little refuge above les contamines. We've had great weather and views. At the col du tricot we admired the ascent line of mont blanc that we did with my dad about 5 years ago. We have had a nice meal with the domes de miage as a backdrop. Tomorrow we will walk as far as the fancy takes my bro and sis and then i might see about ticking off a side objective before camping.

Surprised at Osmotherley

I came third at Osmotherley in my best time yet: 4h45m. This was a bit of a surprise for me.

The Osmotherley Phoenix is at a bad time of year for me. It is too close to the Three Peaks Yacht Race and the Cotswold Way Relay and (most importantly / destructively), it is at the hottest time of the year. Part of the reason for doing the Osmotherley Phoenix is to test myself in difficult hot conditions. I have to admit that the other part of the reason is that its a great race, crossing some brilliant scenery with a great atmosphere. I don't expect Osmotherley to count in my final series result, but I suspect that it will this year.

The 2010 race was run under beautiful sunny skies, but the temperature was only in the low twenties and there was a good 10mph westerly breeze. These conditions were almost perfect, especially for those who could finish before things really started to heat up in the afternoon. At the event centre. there was a graph showing the number of entrants over the years: this had been steadily increasing, to the extent that the 2010 event was a sell-out: 400 people gathered on the start line in the centre of Osmotherley. This is a testament to the increasing interest in ultra-running in the UK and the effect of the Runfurther championship (I feel).

Having not run for a week before the race, I was actually a little unsure how it would feel to put one foot in front of the other when the village church bell chimed 9 o'clock. The answer was that it didn't seem totally natural. I felt I struggled a bit for the first couple of miles, before getting into my stride. I was in something like 10th place when I saw Adam Perry go up Cringle Moor instead of taking the (legitimate) route below the moor. At this stage, he had established a lead of several minutes over the chasing pack, but he was caught by the lowlanders after his (unnecessary) descent.

I ran pretty well for the next 10 miles or so, always in contention with the leading pack, but always about 2-3 minutes behind. At least the gap wasn't increasing. I had a good run across the rougher terrain of Noon Hill / Wether Hill and was quite close to the leading pack by the time I arrived at the Wheat Bridge checkpoint (CP6).

The navigation from checkpoint 6 to checkpoint 7 is really desperate. I think it is impossible to navigate this section at speed (I tried that in 2007 and ended up wallowing through forests, blocked by 10ft high pheasant fences) - unless you've recced it. Neither Martin Indge nor Adam Perry (the leading pack) had recced this section and their navigational nightmare allowed me to finally catch them up (after shaking off a pack of "excitable" farm dogs). I saw them run off down to the river, off the route, and called them back. We then essentially ran together through the navigationally difficult section to checkpoint 7.

It has to be said that neither Martin nor Adam showed me much mercy on the final run into the finish. The Drove Road across the Hambleton Hills seems to go on forever and seems to rise forever. Maybe the heat was beginning to affect me here, or maybe I was going through a low patch, but Martin and Adam pulled away from me. I tried my best from Black Hambleton on in as Adam pulled away from Martin and Martin pulled away from me. I think that Martin was held back a little in the final couple of miles by the bursting of a painful blister (he thought he'd broken his toe - it was that painful), but Adam probably "had" the race won by that stage anyway.

The final run into Osmotherley is always great. It's always a party atmosphere as the Summer Games are on (coconut shies, win a goldfish, egg and spoon race... : all great traditional stuff). To add insult to injury. Martin and Adam were having a friendly chat at the finish while I ran into the shade, collapsed under a tree and felt both sorry for myself and pleased with myself at the same time.

Adam Perry won the race in something like 4h40m. Martin Indge was second in 4h44m. Nicky Spinks was first lady home, not long after the first men were through the finish. This "sorted out" her second place in 2009: maybe she doesn't like the heat either!

Preparing for Osmotherley

I'm not sure I've had the best preparation for the Osmotherley Phoenix. I was racing in the Three Peaks Yacht Race 10 days ago and ran 34 miles along the Cotswold Way in stinking hot weather last Saturday. Since then I have been stuck in a meeting in Dresden for 5 days. I really have no idea how I'll run in the Osmotherley Phoenix. My main concern is the heat.

The Osmotherley Phoenix race last year was very hot. I know it is hot for everyone, but some people seem to handle the heat better than others. The heat is not for me. Having said that, I had a very interesting run along the Cotswold Way in 28 degree heat last Saturday. I was running as part of the Cotswold Way relay race. After 24 miles of running (several hours before), I lined up for leg 10: the final leg. I had to rest in the shade prior to the starting gun as the heat was just stifling. On the race itself, I seemed to suffer for the first couple of miles and quite a few people overtook me (who hadn't already run the 24 miles: at least that made me feel better). By the fourth mile, I was feeling hot and a bit irritated that I was losing position. I'd been drinking isotonic drink and looking after myself reasonably well. When I decided that enough was enough and it was time to start overtaking people, I just seemed to move into another gear. When I got into that faster gear, things actually seemed easier. I was running more in my stride: it didn't seem like such a desperate effort and I started moving through the field.

I think that two things I learned were firstly the importance of drinking and looking after myself and secondly getting my attitude right. When it's hot, there are times when the running is less stressful and times when it is more stressful. When in the shade, the wind or going downhill, it seems like there is no excuse: you really have to run. These are the free miles where you can get some speed without suffering too much. I just need to be able to link these free miles with the painful hot uphill ones in between. The faster I can go uphill in the heat though, the sooner the painful miles are over. I'm hoping that I can learn something about running in the heat this weekend!

A week in a telecoms standards meeting is not the ideal preparation for an ultra-race. At least the meeting is in a decent place. Dresden is a beautiful city on the banks of the river Elbe. There are good long walks to be had along the river bank and further away is the Dresdener Heide: a large deciduous wood with trails all over it. This is an excellent place to relax and stretch ze legs. The main problem is the temptation of the biergartens by the sides of the Elbe, overlooking the Italianate skyline of Dresden, on my return from the woods. If only we had the Dresdener Heide on my doorstep in Bristol!

We love tactix

We had a good run on ben nevis and have won the three peaks yacht race. We are very happy as team eads innovation works and really happy for tactix. She is a fantastic boat. We all love her. It would be unwise to write more on this blog after the bottle of champagne i've drunk.

Corpach ahoy

Corpach is now just a couple of miles ahead. The runners are ready to go. There are two boats right behind us and we would like to hold them off to corpach as a matter of style. We are aiming for a good sensible run: try to hold off the opposition and don't make any mistakes.
We need to just prepare mentally for the run and in for it.

Farewell lismore

We are now exiting the top of lismore. The seagulls are singing to us and there is the occasional seal supporting beached on an isolated rock.
This blog post was temporarily suspended while the martins were transferred to rowing duties and we pulled a few hugies to get us into a patch of wind. In some ways we are motor sailing fired by the copham 1 cylinder or the martins 2 cylinder. There are eco engines fired by pasta and, soon, porridge. I am on porridge cooking duties once this post is over. Gary has been on the meths and the burner is now ready for us.
The absolute priority at the moment for us is to row. If the boat speed falls below our chosen minimum we row. We are learning how to motor sail eads innovation works on the copham 1 cylinder. They don't teach you how to do this at sailing school.
The next objective is porridge. After that we look to the corran narrows and the finishing straight to corpach. Martin and i then have ben nevis to think about but we are psyched.

We rowed all night

The team have rowed con night. This got us through the sound of luing before the tide turned. Two other boats made it through that tidal gate and the dockers took a great line round the outside. We are now sailing up through the top of lismore and expect to make the next tidal gate: the last one before corpach. Spirits are good on board. I woke up to the sound of singing as gary and piers were rowing above luing. Short post for coverage reasons. Out.

Nice race conditions

The conditions continue to suit us. We have been doing a combination of light winds sailing and rowing. We are watching the islands slowly transit us. At the moment we are passing the north end of gigha and the paps of jura are on our port side (they bring back memories of a long hard tick infested run in the scottish islands peaks race. We had almost no wind in that race either).
Torbellino as visible in the distance. They come in and out of relief as the visibility changes.
We think we are doing quite well at the rowing. I like rowing with piers. We seem to have a rowing rapport. Martin also seems to row stylishly. We all row from time to time. We have an unofficial target speed below which we row. At the moment we are sailing again with a wind direction 180 degrees away from where it was 15 minutes ago. We rowed into this patch of wind. We know when we have hit the wind as the boat starts to heel over. The oarsman on the leeward side then needs to feather their oars: some of us learned to do this years ago, others are learning on the job.
We have little idea when we will arrive in corpach so just keep going. At the moment the conversation centres around how to traverse the sound of luing. Gary has just got up and seems suspicious that he is destined for another night shift. This seems to be his speciality.

Into sound of jura

Since about 5am we have been rowing. The learning experience may say dividends later in the race. We rowed all the way round the mull of kintyre and now have the spinnaker up in a light wind in the sound of jura. Torbellino are just off our starboard side a a couple of miles away. We suspected some boats might catch us up. It looks like we might need to be well rested before ben nevis but may have to decide between focussing on running or on rowing at some stage. Phone coverage is poor here. Buy more base stations!
Out.

Sailing to the mulls

We have passed the mull of galloway and are now somewhere in the firth of clyde sailing towards the mull of kintyre. The wind is a bit fickle but seems to be there. We currently have all the sailors on deck as we have the spinnaker up and need to keep a sharp eye on things when the wind gets up. There are sounds of sail trimming from on deck.
Most of the sailing today has been quite chilled out in the sunshine. We think we are still reasonably ahead of the rest of the fleet but we never know when this might change and we haven't allowed ourselves to raise our hopes too much yet. Things are certainly looking better than they did when we were in the middle of the fleet tacking round bardsey.
The runners have been having a minor inquest on what happened on scafell pike. We felt like we ran well but the cycling let us down. Giving that when i sat on my iron steed at whitehaven it was the first time i had been on a bike since last year's three peaks yacht race there is clear scope for am improvement in my performance here. I need to address this. We do not know for sure wat the scafell pike result was. We know it was close.
We are thinking of our running strategy on ben nevis. Things really depend on how the sailing goes. We suspect that we could do better than last year if we really pushed it but will have to decide what the risk vs reward balance is when we get to corpach.
I am trying to sleep but am finding it hard. The best i seem to be able to do is to relax with the ipod on.

Scafell pike

The goal on scafell pike was to get up and down quickly enough that there would still be enough water in the outer harbour to allow us to sail out, avoiding a 5 hour wait on a whitehaven harbour mudbank as we did in 2008. The small draught of eads innovation works really helped here. We have such a shallow draught of something like 1.6m that we had the first oak all to ourselves. All the other boats had to wait at least another 10 minutes for the water level to rise to provide clearance for their keels. And so is was that we were the first runners off.
We seen to have a fan club composed of members of my family. We saw my nieces and their mum and dad at various headlands along the lleyn peninsula. While we were anchored off whitehaven i got a text message from my mum saying that she was waiting for us in whitehaven. She met us as we pulled alongside and then at the marshalls' control point on the dock side. She had spent the night waiting for us in her car until 3:30am which was really sweet and showed real commitment to the cause.
The start of the run was inauspicious. The run starts with an 18 mile bike ride for which bikes are useful. We were carrying our bikes on board and with eads innovation works being so small we did not have space to fully assemble them before we set off. Assembly took longer than expected with gary frantically tending to bikes: a whirlwind of spanners and pumps. Despite his best efforts we exceeded our scrutineering time and ate into our mountain time.
The cycling itself just seemed like hard work. It just felt uphill all the way which in reality it was. We took 1h22m on the bikes: probably longer than any previous year.
Walking was pretty desperate after the biking let alone running. We did get into a post of rhythm on the uphill track to black sail youth hostel, getting there in just over 30 minutes. A stiff climb up to black sail pass on heavy legs and i run down the other side say us at wasdale head. Wasdale head was packed with minibuses of teams doing the three peaks challenge (where the same peaks are climbed but you drive between them: it doesn't take quite as long as our three peaks yacht race!). Everyone seemed to be having fun: maybe not the ones hobbling. The other three peakers helped us in the fog as their banter helped us find the route in the fog. It was a hard slog up but we were rewarded not only with the checkpoint but also sunshine above the clouds. We descended carefully getting back to wasdale head 1h50m after setting off up from there: this seemed like a reasonable run to us and bang on our prediction. More painful running over black sail pass and then some quite good running down ennerdale saw us to the youth hostel with an overall running time of 4h22m.
The bike ride back started with a vicious hill that took the wind out of us. After this it was downhill all the way. We took the same time on the way back as the way out. This was probably caused by the hill that shall not be mentioned and a puncture (that martin swiftly repaired).
The sailors met us at the dock and we moved quickly onto the boat, slipped the lines and heade for the lock. After a little wait we were in the lock. The lock dropped and we were out. I could barely watch as we chugged through the harbour. This was where elation turned into despair when we grounded in 2008. I saw the depth sounder bottom out at 0.1m: 10cm below the keel. There was relief when the depth increased and we passed through the harbour walls: we were out.
We were the only boat to make it out on the tide: although a boat called the dockers made an attempt about an hour after us. I think their attempt was doomed to failure as they had 30cm more keel than us and the tide would have receded. We are now sailing nicely at about 5 knots towards the mull of galloway. The lake district is receding into the distance. It is unlikely that any of the other boats will have left yet but we know that they will be chasing us down. We just have to sail as well as we can and ride our luck, hoping they don't catch us before corpach. We are being philosophical about our chances.

Scafell pike: short post

The pike felt like really hard work. We think our running time was 7h06m which we are happy with. The goal was to get up and down the hill in about 7h30m in order to get out of the lock on the same tide. We managed this just. We had 10cm under the keel it the outer harbour at whitehaven. We are the only boat to have got out on the same tide and so have a 5 hour head start. I suspect the other yachts will be hunting us down over the next 24 hours or so. We currently have nice wind and calm rear and are going well. Fingers crossed.
My fan club is continuing to support us. We saw my nieces in wales prior to there ascent of snowdon and mum met us at whitehaven at 3am. It is great having this support.
Coverage is about to run out...

Time and tide wait for no man

Time and tide wait for no man. These words are in the front of out minds as we kill time at the entrance to whitehaven harbour waiting for enough tide to allow us to reach whitehaven's sea lock. There are 4 or 5 other boats out here too. None have been able to get into whitehaven yet.
The race will start again in whitehaven but now it is a running race. There will be maybe 5 teams starting at the same time on the scafell pike leg. This will provide a good race on the hill. Out overriding concern is to get back to whitehaven while there is still enough water in the harbour on the falling tide. Realistically this means we have 7h30m to get up and down. We are confident we can do this if we run well. We thought we had managed to pull this trick 2 years ago but we grounded in the outer harbour. This year we intend for things to be different.
We have had a good sail over from caernarfon. There has been enough wind to keep up 6 or more knots on a close reach. Eads innovation works has been sailing beautifully. She is a small boat but a real gem. Piers and gary have been doing a long stint on deck helming and pulling strings. Geoff has now taken over in the small hours. I can here the round of the anchor being prepared so we must be right by whitehaven harbour.
eads innovation works is an x99 yacht. On paper the other yachts in the leading groups should be quicker than us. We do have several advantages. We have a relatively shallow draught: we can get in and out of harbours at more states of the tide. We are light and easier to row. Maybe these attributes can keep us ahead if we are able to get out of whitehaven on the same tide and others can't. If we do manage to pull this trick we know that the rest of the fleet will hunt us down mercilessly.
We have one more hour's sleep before the fun begins!

Menai straits

We went through the menai straits without incident. We did a bit of rowing but there was a fair amount of light wind sailing to break up the hard work. One boat was not so lucky and grounded on the swellies. They were trying to get off by taking a line to the shore to heel the boat and thence hopefully get her keel off the rocks. We don't know how successful they were.
After the swellies we navigated carefully between the buoys out into the irish sea. The wind has built and we are now sailing quite nicely towards whitehaven. Anglesey is receding into the distance. The welsh mountains are poking out of the clouds in the distance.
We are going to be out of mobile coverage for a while now and the phone battery is running low. Piers is going to rewire eads innovation works so my phone will be useable in the future. The phone is really useful both for the blog and for communicating with the crew towards the end of a run. We need to wake them up at the end of a run so they will have the boat ready to set off as soon as we get back.
Next stop whitehaven in maybe 12 hours time.

Snowdon climbed

We did 3h40m on snowdon which we thought was pretty good for us. We were the 9th boat to arrive at caernarfon and the 4th to leave after the run. The time we gained is probably not important as all the boats are likely to get caught by the tide at the swellies and the race will effectively restart.
The conditions on the hill were really great. We started along the road just before dawn and started up the hill in the cool of the morning. As we were approaching the summit we saw the sun glinting off the upper slopes of the mountain's east face. On the run down we had a cloud inversion so there were blue skies above us and there was a blanket of fluffy white clouds beneath us. There are really special conditions.
The run back along the road from llanberis was a drag as ever but we showed good courage and stodged out the miles. A disappointment was that our water stash that we had preplaced on the road to caernarfon was no longer there. Our run back was thus quite thirsty.
We are now battling against the tide in the menai straits. This might take some time!

Round bardsey

We are now through bardsey sound and sailing towards caernarfon. We left the tip of the lleyn peninsula about 15m to leeward: quite close. Geoff seems to know how close he can get to land without actually shipwrecking us!
Once round the tip we have been close tacking round little headlands and into sandy bays. It was a thrill to see our fan club in one of the bays: my nieces emma, laura and kate and their mum and dad. We say them waving from the shore (really not that far away) and waved back between flinging the jib across as we tacked.
We are now in about 6th position. The run is about to set into a cloudless horizon and we need to sleep before the run which should start in the small hours of the morning.

The start

The start of the race felt pretty strange. We were pretty close to first over the line which showed a remarkable amount of forward planning for us. Indeed we seemed to have a good 20 minutes to spare before the gun went off.
There was a fair breeze at the start but this soon died off and we came to a stop in the waves created by some motor boats at the start-as did most of the rest of the fleet. We briefly had the oars out and were the first crew to get the spinnaker out but both were soon stowed as we all hit a pretty brisk force 5 northerly.
We've had a wet couple of hours sitting with our legs over the side of the boat to try to keep her upright to balance the force of the sails with the weight of the boat. We are now close to bardsey sound at the western tip of the lleyn peninsula. We are trying to work out whether we want more sail up or less as the wind is changing strength from moment to moment. Our boat seems quite happy to have the full sail up with geoff at the helm so maybe we will stick with that.
We are probably about 4 hours from caernarfon and so will probably climb snowdon in the dark. We think a lot of the boats will get caught in the tides at the swellies after the snowdon run. We are thus not overly worried about not being near the lead on the water at the moment.

The mobile blog

I've worked out how to update the blog from my mobile phone. This means trouble!

Three Peaks Yacht Race preparations

It hardly feels like a year ago that we were last racing in the Three Peaks Yacht Race, but it's that time of year again. We have a new boat this year (one of Geoff's racing fleet!) but are proudly racing as EADS Innovation Works again.

Last year's race was something of an epic event. Sailing and running races can develop into epics when there is either too much wind or no wind at all. The windy epics are white knuckle rides with the runners gingerly watching the sailors control a racing yacht surfing down big waves with a massive spinnaker up: the sailors nervously walking the tightrope between speed and instability. The windless epics turn into cat and mouse games trying to catch little wafts of wind by luck, judgement or by the physical exertion of rowing between the wind patches. Last year's race was essentially windless. I think we won it partly by sheer determination on the rowing.

Is a bigger boat always a better boat? Usually, yes. The critical word is "usually". In light wind conditions in the Three Peaks Yacht Race, smaller boats could have an advantage. When a boat cannot achieve "hull speed", when size matters, lightness matters. Tactix is a light boat. When you have to row, the less boat you have to slug through the water, the faster you'll go. This year we've taken a punt on conditions and have chosen to race in Tactix, a light X-99 type racing yacht. Tactix is 32ft in length and will be one of the smaller yachts in the fleet.

We have been much more fastidious in preparations this year. In May, some of the sailors and runners sailed and ran the Scottish Islands Peaks Race (Mull, Jura and Arran). We got quite a few ideas from this race and ironed out some of the potential problems with both Tactix and the way we live on Tactix (it is important to be able to live well on the boat in order to preserve strength of both body and mind in an endurance race). I fell in love with Tactix on this race. She's an absolutely fantastic racing yacht.

We rowed for long distances on the Scottish Islands Peaks Race, giving us ideas about how to battle against the calm conditions that we're hoping for in order to do well on Tactix. One great idea Geoff had was to enlist Piers Copham into the crew. Piers is a great all rounder, being both a sailor, rower and runner. Piers has been busy applying himself to optimising Tactix's rowing ergonomics. As a national-standard oarsman, Piers needs a tip-top rowing set up on board and has been making visits to Tactix with saws, wood and drills in hand. With a national standard oarsman and an ex-university rower on board, we are hoping to make good rowing progress this year.

The two runners (Martins Beale and Indge) have been competing in the Runfurther UK ultra-running championships and are feeling both confident and nervous at the prospect of the running stages. Snowdon was recce-d the Sunday before the race. Scafell PIke and Ben Nevis have also been climbed recently.

Geoff, Gary and Piers are our primary sailors. Geoff owns Tactix and knows her well. I'm hoping that he has become akin to Tactix's massive new kevlar-reinforced mainsail during the Scottish Islands Peaks Race. It is unlikely that we'll be under-canvassed in this race! Gary and Geoff have been planning tactics for the race and are meeting up on Thursday night in Barmouth to make the final sailing preparations. As past winners in the race, I know they'll be keen to give things a really good shot this time.

A little story from the preparations....

I visited Tactix last week in Barmouth harbour. I needed to go and take some measurements for Piers. It was getting late in the day and the water taxi service was not operating (due to the late hour). I used my own dinghy (from my yacht, Cervisia) to get out there. It was an extremely exciting affair (in a small blow-up dinghy). A spring tide was rushing into the harbour: it looked like a fast flowing river. I aimed well upstream of Tactix and paddled like mad. As I was paddling across, I could see my upstream advantage being rapidly eroded as the tide was rushing up the estuary towards Dolgellau. I landed pretty much spot on top of Tactix, which I was most relieved about: a happy combination of brute paddling force and good judgement. I spent more than an hour on Tactix. This was both to measure up for Piers and to wait for the tide to abate. As the sun was setting, I plucked up the courage to head back to dry land. The tide was still like a maelstrom and I was getting washed towards the Barmouth railway bridge despite my paddling efforts. At the level of the last boat in the harbour, I got out of the tidal stream and felt so relieved as I calmly paddled through the calm water to the slipway and safety. I've never had quite such excitement with a tape measure before!