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Coast2Coast Scotland

Tuesday 13th September 2022

Can there be a more spectacular place to spend a day running, cycling (on and off road), run/hiking and then kayaking than coast to coast across the Scottish Highlands on a glorious sunny day in early Autumn?

Kate Hunt, Gary White and Geoff Pike, together with eight other friends embarked on this classic RatRace event. Gary White (our brilliant Team Manager) and, fingers crossed, soon to join Phoenix, friend Ian had done it twice before which, given how gruelling the course can be, is testament to its magnificence.

The day started at 6.45, after a poignant minute silence to respect the recent passing of the Queen. Two of the group raced the event, 7 of us formed a second dare I say, more social group, and Kate and Perrine formed a third group not wanting to be put off by the rest of us!

First up, we were running a more or less flat albeit, a somewhat fiddly and narrow 11k path to the first transition. Here began the real beauty of the course as the 80 mile bike leg takes you past and alongside lochs, and some of the most amazing vistas and scenery you could imagine.

You have to carry all your race stuff with you and there are occasional baggage checks to make sure you have the requisite survival gear and nutrition. Foul weather gear seemed a little incongruous on such a glorious day but we were assured things could change very quickly in these parts.

At Fort William begins the second ‘run’. It was more of a 22k hike in reality with some rocky uphill paths that meant you couldn’t admire the views properly without stopping (so we did…quite a lot!). This was followed by a very tricky, steep, boggy and rocky descent down to Glencoe to hop into a kayak for the one-mile finish across Loch Leven. The midges meant you didn’t hang around long trying to get in or out of the kayak!

The race has quite tight cut offs to make sure people don’t get stranded up Glen Nevis in the dark. It's a long day for sure and hard work. One of our group won the women's race in under 10 hours with most of us taking a slightly more leisurely 12 hours!

Elder statesperson, Kate, was particularly impressive finishing the bike leg within the cut off and completing half the run before being pulled off. As she said ‘I’m just chuffed to bits that I got as far as I did’…well done Kate! 

All that remained was to drink and eat lots, and get down to some proper socialising!

Overall, it is a demanding but achievable (certainly in good weather) event and we’d all highly recommend it…but a word of caution if the weather is bad and the prevailing wind is blowing it would be a VERY different experience!!