The final part of the extreme triathlon I took part in (it seems much longer than a week ago now), was an off road trail run which culminates with the ascent and descent of Ben Nevis; the UK's highest mountain.

As I mentioned last time, my training partner had not enjoyed his bike ride in anyway whatsoever.  He was broken and I felt reasonably fresh.  This was not normal, Colin is an excellent cyclist and drags me around most of our training rides with ease.  They are actually more of a recovery ride for him :)

A few different things led to this happening.

1.  We were both under trained for the event, life simply got in the way of our training plan.

2.  We both had a sickness bug during the week before the event.

3. Colin eats for fuel, where as I eat for pleasure.  I love food and the experience it provides, this became a crucial skill in the days before the event.

Colin didn't get his appetite back and struggled to eat when we got to Edinburgh.  I didn't feel great but Fran is an amazing cook and some of our friends had whizz up a few cakes and I couldn't resist.  I felt nauseous but was prepared to take the hit and keep eating.  

That was probably the factor that made the difference in how we felt on the ride, I was fuelled; whereas Colin was already depleted.

When we got on to the bike, I followed our plan and started eating and kept eating every 10 miles or so.  Colin still wasn't feeling 'it' and didn't take in enough fuel on the bike, thus leading to his fatigue.

Having an extra hour in transition, did give him the opportunity to fuel up and improve his hydration so by the time I got there he was feeling much better.

Steve was only a few minutes behind me on the bike, so we made the decision to wait for him before heading off on the run.  Colin and I discussed how he was feeling and came up with the plan to keep eating and 'march' the first few miles.

For the first time in my life, I turned down an ice cream.  The Team Achieve Supporters were enjoying a Magnum in the sun and offered me one.  I was roasting hot from the bike and really fancied it but I took the wise decision to avoid it.  I have a slight dairy issue and I get really mucusy and sometimes go a little deaf in my right ear.  Not something I wanted to experience as I set out for 27 miles.

Below is a picture of us all before we set off.  The next official contact point was 18 miles away over some pretty challenging terrain.

I was feeling good but I was also aware that I hadn't really ran in nearly 8 weeks due to illness.  I had completed a few mountain walks with our 3 peaks challengers but felt I was going to need to dig down deep to make it to the end.

Colin set the marching pace when Steve was ready.  At 6'7", that was a pretty good pace; we covered the first 4 miles in a little over 50 minutes.  It was flat, around the edge of a loch.

As we marched on we hit our first incline and Colin's legs stopped working again, as in literally just didn't want to go upwards.  Not promising as this was only a slight ramp compared to what was coming.  To keep time we jogged down the hills and shuffled up them.

I told Steve to go ahead as this was his first ever triathlon (major respect is due for that) and I wanted him to have the best chance possible of completing it.  The way Colin's legs were not playing made me think for the first time that we might struggle to hit the cut off time for the mountain.

We struggled on for another couple of miles.  There was a support van at the point where we needed to head up on to the trail.  I had told Colin for the past 2 miles that he'd be ok and we were doing fine.  His support team had told him they were not going to pick him up and the 'he'd be alright'.  I gave him the option to quit while there was a chance to get a lift to the end, knowing that there was no way that he would accept my offer.

At this point, something happened to his legs, they started working again and he marched up the hill.  It was a proper hill covering 1 mile and climbing over 1500ft.  To put that in terms you can understand, it was roughly 45 degrees up for an hour.  I struggled to match his pace and we caught up a couple of other competitors including Steve.  One of the guys was lying down for a rest, the hill had beat him only 2/3rds up.  Talking to him later he told us that he had completed real ironman triathlons in 14hrs but this was ridiculous at 12hrs he still had nearly 20 miles and a mountain to climb.

As we went over the top, Steve left us again, his knee had been playing up and the strategy we had for him was to sprint then walk as they didn't hurt, jogging hurt.

Colin's legs stopped working on the decline this time.  It was really rocky underfoot and not something to rush when your legs weren't really under your control.  We checked the time and it was getting close to the point where I wouldn't make the check point if I stayed with him.

He told me to go ahead as I was still bizarrely feeling pretty good.  That wasn't something I was prepared to do.  I probably broke a 'real triathlete's' rule but I wasn't prepared to leave him in the middle of nowhere.  I have read Facebook statues about breaking friends on training rides and leaving them to struggle home.  Colin has never left me during training when he must have been frustrated at our pace and I wasn't going to leave him.

There was also no guarantee that my legs were not going to give out, they felt good but I was seriously low on running miles in training.

We marched on, putting the world to rights and the next 6 miles took us to a point where an access road crossed the West Highland Way.  A race marshall told us that we had 15 minutes to make it to the next check point 5 miles away and that he insisted on us getting in the minibus.  He was calling an end to our race at 12.5 miles in to the run and about 13 hours of exercise.

He was surprised that we didn't put up a fight, apparently it's quite common through the delirium of extreme endurance events.  I was still feeling good and didn't have any of the mental issues I had experienced the previous year.  We were actually happy to get in the minibus away from the midges and with a promise of a beer and some savoury not sweet food.

We were both a little disappointed about not completing the race but sometimes sh!t happens and you have to move on.

We got back to the finish line met our support teams and had possibly the nicest pork batch with a homemade coleslaw I have ever had.

We waited on news of Steve.  Unfortunately, his one had got worse and he didn't make it to the 18 mile cut off point to be allowed to head up Ben Nevis.  I still don't think he realises how much he actually achieved, it was his first ever triathlon, not ironman triathlon but triathlon in general.

The race director thought I was crazy last year because I had only completed sprint distance races previously, Steve had no triathlon experience whatsoever.  Total inspiration for my 'you'll be alright' philosophy. 

The next day, I was up at 7 to walk the dogs with Fran and get packed up ready for the long journey home.  I was certainly powered by www.getleanwithgreens.com all the way home.  It kept me going on what tuned in to a 13 hour drive. 

Now that my stories of silly triathlons are over I'll get back to writing about general health and fitness, if you have made it this far in to this message, thank you.

If you have any subjects you would like me to cover, let me know.

Darren 'Achieve-lete not triathlete' Checkley