GK Runderings

Rain, pain, and the final finish line Distance: 47.76km (final total 1519.16km) Total climb: 381m (final total 25,945m) Steps: 55,806 (final total 1,798,352) This was it - the final day of five long weeks. It was the shortest day of the week as well - a mere 47km. The route had changed from the map above since I set these up before the event - we were now heading for the coast, up the coast road and then the final section would be along the edge of the cliffs to the Duncansby Head lighthouse before turning west along the coast to John O'Groats, thus making sure we were getting the extra 3km of the UK that we'd have missed if we'd gone straight to the finish line. The start of the day was fun. Greg the slightly mad Aussie had made a point of enjoying a few different transport options during his trip across the UK - these had included bumming a lift on a canal boat, riding the Harry Potter train, and taking a boat out onto Loch Ness to look for Nessie - so it was appropriate ...

Trains, blisters and rainbows Distance: 56.14km (total so far 1415.26km) Total climb: 548m (total so far 25,564m) Steps: 64,774 (total so far 1,742,546) Also: Number of railway stations: 2 Number of trains per day at those railway stations: probably not much more than 1 Number of functioning toes: 9 We were aware that we were coming towards the end of our adventure, but didn't have much time to think about it. As far as today was concerned, it was another early start, and another long day. We were really in the wilds of Scotland now, and this was probably the emptiest day of them all. The first village we encountered was late in the afternoon, and before then all we had was the occasional individual house. The first part of the route was back onto the road - a very unused single-track road once again labelled as an A road. We had Loch an Ruathair on our left, but I was feeling a bit over-loched by now, and didn't give it too much attention. One thing that was a constant presenc...

The Bog Day! Distance: 61.46km (total so far 1415.26km) Total climb: 544m (total so far 25,016m) Steps: 71,318 (total so far 1,677,772) Also: Number of shoe changes: 2 Number of times taped feet: 2 Number of times fell over: 1 We'd been warned about today - today was the bog day. From previous experience of Rat Race events, I rather assumed that Scotland was all bog once you got north of Glasgow, but actually we'd had very little on our route so far - some small patches on Exmoor and the Lakes, but nothing in Scotland itself. Apparently, today was going to correct that. It was exactly what we needed in the middle of another 60km day! And anyone whose read the account of my trip through the Outer Hebrides will be very aware that bogs are not one of my favourite things. However, the first stage was to get that far. The first 21km of the day were road, heading north out of Lairg initially alongside Loch Shin and then further inland. It wasn't the most interesting bit of road, ...

The lonely glen Distance: 61.29km (total so far 1353.8km) Total climb: 678m (total so far 24,472m) Steps: 67,265 (total so far 1,606,454) Our first job was to return to the layby in the middle of nowhere where we had finished the previous day - a still slightly surreal place to start the day. We were given several pieces of information to set off with, none of them particularly reassuring. The first was that this was another 60km day - the first of two in this week. The second was that due to the total lack of roads in this part of the Highlands, we would need to complete 22km before the first ("elevenses") feedstation. And the final gem, which our leaders only found out about the previous evening, showed once again that the road system across the rest of the country which we take for granted simply doesn't exist up here in the Highlands. The road that led from Lairg where we finished to the location of our accommodation that night was closing at 7pm for all-night resurfa...