On Friday I had my normal busy day in our cycle shop Biles of Inverness then went home to pack my food drop bags which you could collect every 10 miles into the 72 miles Ultra Marathon which had 7000 feet of climbing. I got all my safety kit and diabetes kit all packed and headed for Inverness sports centre to get the race bus to Fort William at 9.30pm for. 1am start on the Saturday morning. I had a good look during the week at my fellow 75 competitors and realised I didn’t recognise any names so I boarded the bus and looked for a friendly face to share the journey with, I made the correct choice sitting next to Scott Robb. After a good blether with Scott and getting close to Fort William we both decided that the bus journey was epic never mind running that distance plus some and climbs.

We all signed on, got our numbers and headed for the start complete with head torches for the 1am kick off. I had a look at the 2014 results and splits and thought I’d be around the 15 hours for the race so took two different spits from people who had done close to 15 hours. I got to the first checkpoint and was 8 mins up on schedule, tested blood glucose, picked up my fuel and headed on. Over the next 3 checkpoints I kept increasing on my schedule and although I was still comfortable it was concerning knowing I still had the toughest last 32 miles till the finish.

Blood glucose was behaving up till 20 miles to go, due to the severe rain my CGM sensor came off and my blood glucose monitor stopped reading my test strips with the amount of rain.

I knew I was dipping so took 2 energy gels, still felt I was dipping so took a full packet of glucose tablets and ran the last 15 miles on feel of blood levels. 5 miles from the finish I couldn’t believe it I caught Scott who I sat next to on the bus. He was struggling big time after going over his ankle and told me to push on, after a blether with him I headed on for the finish shocked to be 2 hours ahead of my schedule but even more shocked to have finished on the podium in 3rd place. I was a happy bunny