LAMM

We found out on Thursday that this year's LAMM (Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon) was to be in Sutherland - one of the most remote parts of Scotland in the North West region, about 1hr 45mins past Inverness...drove up on Friday night with Outi (from Finland) and her boyfriend Richard, and we met Robert, Kasia, Ed, Kate and Pete in Inverness.

After setting up camp at the Event Centre in Inchnadamph we registered and got our start time for the next day (8:40am for Ed & I, doing 'C' class). Waking up Saturday morning the weather didn't look too promising...we got taken by bus to the actual start (nobody knows until you get there where it will be!) and were given maps and 8 checkpoints - everybody finds a space and quickly plans their route and then it's all go!

The terrain was pretty rough and the weather a bit miserable - a real shame because the area was so beautiful. Poor visibility made navigating quite tough (what would I know, I let Ed do it all!). We didn't find Day 1 as 'runnable' as we would have liked - but plenty of scrambling up & down scree slopes, stumbling through heather, squelching in mud, and boulder hopping on wet slippy rocks, which gets more nerve-racking the more fatigued you become!

Here's us 'dibbing in' at a checkpoint on Saturday - a particularly nasty hike up, simply to dib before going straight back down, around the lochan and back up the other side! It cleared a little early afternoon, and the views from Stack of Glencoul were magnificent, including Britain's highest waterfall. From there was a steep downhill section and then an actual path (pure luxury) led us to the campsite :)









Ed & I; viewpoint; Britain's highest waterfall

The campsite was spectacular - right on the edge of Loch Glencoul, a great spot to clean up a little before setting up the tent and watching the remaining teams descending from all sides to the finish! We started below sea level (on the beach) early Sunday morning...the only way from there was UP!









Glencoul campsite; on the beach; cleaning up!

Day 2 we were in the chasing start behind the leaders, as 2nd mixed team and 15th overall. We started strongly and had made up good time over tha first half of the course, even overtaking the 1st mixed team up to checkpoint 4. Unfortunately we then messed about trying to find checkpoint 5 (I certainly wasn't climbing extra hills just for fun!) and wasted quite a bit of time. We ended up 18th overall, so still pretty pleased and more than anything just happy to be finished!

More pictures of the course and results are posted on the LAMM website.

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Bizarre - bikes & cats

Cycling to work earlier this week I passed an amusing group of bikers. I had my camera with me and thinking it was pretty funny I took a photo - they started shouting "Don't take a picture, join us!" Granted it was a nice day, but I wasn't about to strip off and cycle half naked through Edinburgh City Centre...









I had no coaching this morning which was really nice for a change...I was a little annoyed when I woke up at 6:30 because I'd forgotten to turn off my alarm but I got back to sleep no problem and didn't wake up until 9:30 - must have needed a bit of catching up! Checking e-mails I felt something rubbing against my leg which gave me a major fright!! A friendly cat had found it's way in through the bathroom window (our flat is 2 floors above the ground!) and had come to say hello. I'm not much of a cat person but I quite liked this one, it was really inquisitive and even wanted to see it's own picture on the screen :)

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LAMM Training

6 of us met up to do a training run for the Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon (17th/18th June) last weekend. Ed arrived in style on Friday night - turning a few heads in Braemar with his new Lotus! Saturday morning we set off in pairs (Bob & Kasia, Pete & Meredith, Ed & I) to do our respective courses...Kasia just casually brushing her teeth about to do a 40km course with 2330m of climbing (Elite class) :)









The campsite at Glen Tilt was perfect - really nice flat area next to the river...and it was a beautiful evening. After dinner (cordon bleu tomato & vegetable soup followed by mediterranean cous-cous with tuna) we created a game of rounders with a funky shaped stick (good find) and two tennis balls I'd carried, it was fun! The boys then made a good fire and we stayed up chatting and drinking hot chocolate. I've missed camping... it's so relaxing because you actually can't find anything else to do!











We all started on Sunday by toiling up this hill...it was the first of many :) Some great views though, and despite all feeling pretty shattered by the end we definitely enjoyed ourselves. Ed & I are most likely doing "C" course in the race...the best thing about the event is that all courses (Elite, A-D & Novice) all end up at the same campsite so it's quite social (although how social everyone will actually be feeling is debatable!)

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