It’s been a very tough couple of years for everyone due to the pandemic but some positives have come out of it for me and my family.

During a Saturday night in February this year my oldest son Alasdair came through to where Lynn and myself were watching tv and said he planned to do a cycle on his mountain bike round Farr wind farm to which Lynn said that’s too dangerous to do on your own Dad will do it with you. Now I’d not been on a bike properly since 2012 when I rode London to Paris but agreed that yes it would be too dangerous to do it himself.
I phoned my brother Kenny and asked if our demo gravel bike from our cycle shop was booked out for the next day which it wasn’t and he said take demo bike for Aly and you take my gravel bike.
On the Sunday morning Aly and myself picked up the two bikes and headed out into the hills. It turned out it was dangerous as I ended up enjoying it that much I bought my own one and haven’t missed a weekend since.

I can honestly say I didn’t think I’d say I’d enjoy riding my bike again but every time I go out I end up smiling the whole way round.
I’ve also managed to get our youngest Findlay out with us a few times which he has enjoyed a lot also and it’s great family time doing something we all enjoy.

Findlay tonight signs his Scottish Football Association contract to play in goals for Balloan City in the Moray Firth League which is a Junior version of the Highland League which Alasdair is currently playing in whilst on loan.

Since the start of the pandemic as I’ve mentioned in a previous blog Alasdair took up road cycling to keep his fitness up for his football and it certainly made a difference because when football resumed he got picked for the Inverness Caledonian Thistle squad for a Scottish cup game against Buckie Thistle, although he didn’t get on it was a great experience for someone who had just turned 17.

A few weeks later on 10th June he signed a 2 year professional contract with Inverness Caledonian Thistle and was put out on Ioan until January. Going to watch him play doesn’t half play havoc with my blood glucose levels due to adrenaline but I can’t take extra insulin onboard to cover the high blood glucose level because as soon as the game finishes and the adrenaline reduces I’d end up going low and having a hypo so I have to ride the waves during the match.

Can’t leave it there without saying how proud we all are of our Isla, after many interviews at school to become a prefect she successfully achieved this and has also taken a roll at Inverness Caledonian Thistle helping coaching younger girls general skills which she absolutely loves doing. I’ve literally just found out that she has got a part time job in Tesco just down the road from us after having a interview on Saturday.

To say myself and Lynn are proud of our Bairns is a understatement.

Take care everyone and stay safe. Xx

It’s been to long since I’ve done a blog so here goes.

It’s been a crazy and strange last few months due to the pandemic as you all will be fully aware.
When the initial lockdown started I decided to put running on the back burner as there was so many families out in the paths in the countryside getting their daily permitted exercise and I felt it was getting bad press someone coming up behind them all sweaty, heavy breathing and snotty so I started marching in the countryside. I was doing an average of 12km’s a day at a average of 6-5km’s a hour which was still giving me a decent workout. A few times I would take one of our children and they really enjoyed it as where I would go is out beside the farm Balnafroig which is where I was brought up and the views are stunning and are different every day depending on the weather.
This stopped when I went back to work on the 1st of June so what I did was substitute my marching in the countryside to marching to work and back which was still giving me 12km’s a day and at weekends I’d go back to going back out in the countryside.
At the start of November I didn’t feel great, upset stomach so got lazy and started taking the car to work, weather and dark nights didn’t help with my motivation. I continued to go marching at the weekends and more recently I’ve not being seeing the same volume of people out getting their daily exercise so made the decision to start running again which I’m really enjoying and it brings back memories of my childhood being brought up on the farm.

What pluses can I take out of the pandemic?
Well for the first few months we as a family would do a quiz every night which is something that never happened before.
My oldest boy Alasdair (16) turned round to me on the 4th April and asked if he could borrow my road bike, he didn’t miss a day and did 5000km’s until he went back to school after the summer holidays getting into the top ten overall for segment’s on Strava so when he went back to Inverness Caledonian Thistle under 18’s football training he went back very fit. One strange thing was he developed travel sickness for a few weeks due him not been in a car for months and not having the air and control he had while out cycling.

I was asked by Ypsomed who make my insulin pump during last year if I could do a Zoom PowerPoint presentation about my life which I did but it was really weird because it was the first time I’d done a PowerPoint presentation and I was the only person in the room.

With the rollout of the COVID 19 vacation started hopefully it won’t be to long before we can get back to some form of normality.

Stay safe through these strange times everyone, there is now some light at the end of the tunnel.

It’s been too long since I’ve done a blog so I felt it was about time I’ve got more active again on my website, hopefully you enjoy.

Well what a last few months it’s been for me and my diabetes technology, 12 months ago I was lucky enough to have been made an ambassador for Dexcom and they made me a Dexcom Warrior which means I get gifted to use Dexcom G6 Continuous Glucose Monitoring System. The system allows me to see my blood glucose levels via an app on my phone which via Bluetooth speaks to a tiny sensor attached to my stomach, having G6 has eliminated me having to do any finger prick blood glucose testing due to its real time blood glucose readings. It has allowed me to really control my levels. Another great feature is the hypo alarm which even wakes me up during the night and I’m pretty deaf. You can also share with up to 5 family and friends who could be anywhere that has an internet signal and see what my blood glucose is via the app, this is particularly useful for families who have children going on school trips etc, it definitely eliminates a lot of fear for loved ones when on trips.

Another major change with my technology was on April I had no option but to change my insulin pump due to my Animas Vibe going out of warranty and has been stopped being produced. I was very reluctant to change so took my time choosing what I thought would tick all the boxes for me. I eventually decided on the Mylife Diabetescare Ypsomed pump. Main reason for choosing this pump was it’s size and incredibly impressive light weight body. But now I’ve been using it now for almost 3 months I have completely fallen in love with it and can’t believe I was reluctant to change. The pre filled insulin cartridges and the very easy to use cannula applicator makes doing site changes so easy and doesn’t feel like a chore anymore. The 360 degrees cannula has meant I’ve not ripped any off which used to happen while out running quite often previously. I literally can’t find a single thing I don’t like about my new pump.

Since finishing 2nd in the 350 miles Arctic 6633 Ultra Marathon in March I’ve been doing a lot of presentations, in fact I’m in school more now than when I should have been in school when I was younger doing PowerPoint presentations, assembly’s and presenting awards. The first talk was actually only 3 hours after crossing the finish line of the 6633 Ultra when I was asked by the head teacher from the primary school in the hamlet in Tuctoyaktuk if I would do a talk to the school for their health week. I’ve done a lot of talks for health care professionals also. Recently myself and Nicky Marr did a night in Eden Court Theatre where we had pictures from my cycling career, my story of been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and the crazy Ultra Marathons I’ve done since been diagnosed to a sell out audience which I’ve had some terrific feedback since.
In June I had the privilege of being asked to present gold Duke of Edinburgh awards in Holyrood Palace which was a great honour to do.
Coming up in October is the One Touch type 1 Sports Weekend in Loughborough University which is always one of the highlights of the year where I’ll be doing the Saturday pre meal motivational presentation.
Last week Dexcom the manufacturer of Dexcom G5 and G5 continuous glucose monitoring system asked me to join them as a ambassador which I’ve accepted which is also a great honour.
My heal which was in a mess with a blister which I got during the 6633 Ultra Marathon has gone from high risk of long term diabetic problems to low risk and I was signed off by the diabetes podiatrist last week which is excellent news and proves good control can only be good to reduce long term diabetic issue.
I’ve also made it into Likey’s the outdoor/sports shop who organise the 6633 Ultra Marathons Hall of Fame which is a major honour to join some pretty amazing fellow athletes.

After the disappointment of letting my family, friends and the Worldwide diabetes community down in 2016 on the 10th of March this year I was on the start line of the 350 miles 6633 Arctic Ultra Marathon better prepared than my failed attempt in 2016 but more importantly I had a lot more respect for the BEAST.
This year had almost double the amount of athletes starting with 24 from all over the World on the start line.
The biggest item I changed from 2016 was I had a 4 wheeled pulk compared to a 2 wheeled one in 2016 which was kindly left in Canada by American Frank Fumich who finished 3rd equal in 2016.
I arrived at the Arctic Circle with Greg Roadley from New Zealand in 2nd place behind last years winner the flying Romanian Tibi Useriu. A quick fill up of my flasks with hot water and myself and Greg headed of to the next unofficial stop where we arrived after doing 50 miles for the day and decided not to bivvi out but tackle the next brutal section over the mountain called Wrights pass, we reached the summit and both agreed it was time to get some sleep so we bivvied out for 2 hours before heading to the checkpoint at James Creek. We had another short sleep inside the haulage garage then set of for 45 miles to the finish of the 120 miles race in Fort McPherson. I arrived at the checkpoint with Greg and David from England who we caught up with approaching the checkpoint. Another short sleep in the village hall and myself and Greg headed of together to Tsiigehtchic which was the stretch that I had the crazy hallucinations in 2016. We were climbing up a big hill and i could see Greg was starting to struggle and told me to go on, I refused and decided to stay with him, we got to the top and he said he really needed to sleep and urged me to continue which I did. It felt like a long stage until I caught Neil from England who I did the rest of that section together. I had to defrost my back up insulin in warm water before changing my cannula and filling my insulin pump before I had another short sleep then got up and spoke to Greg to see how he was feeling, he said he felt a lot better so I decided to wait for him until he was ready to leave to Caribou Creek. On route to the checkpoint I could see Greg was feeling the pace and was struggling to keep up. When David passed like an express train I made the toughest decision of the whole race and chased after David, it was tough to have done this to Greg but it was a game changer for me, myself and David reached the checkpoint in 2nd place where David decided it was game over for him so after a short sleep I headed of on my own for the shorter section to Inuvik where my CGM system decided it didn’t like the cold so I had to go old school with blood glucose tests, taking 3 pairs of gloves off and then trying to get blood out of my fingers brought its own challenges, then my blood glucose monitor test strips wouldn’t read due to been to cold so I had to put them down my private parts to warm them up. When you get to Inuvik you get the opportunity to shower and sleep in a proper bed which I took full advantage of. The final 120 miles is on the famous ice road on the frozen Mackenzie river which when set foot on it I couldn’t stop thinking of my mother who’s maiden name was Mackenzie. I decided to do the 70 miles to Swimming Point non stop as it was too cold to even think about stopping to sleep. This turned out to be the correct move as I made a fair dent in Tibi’s lead and got a shock at the checkpoint to see he was there as I hadn’t seen him since leaving Eagle Plains 300 miles previous. Tibi left just after I arrived. I had another short sleep in the back of Josh’s trailer before heading off for the final 50 miles to the finish line in Tuctoyaktuk. With 15 miles to the finish line I could see the lights of the Tuk and did the worst possible thing I told myself I’d done it which let all my defences down and really struggled that final few miles. With 3 miles to go Martin the race director came out to tell me I was close to the finish, I felt dehydrated and was starting to have my first hallucinations of the race, the snow banks looked like people putting their hands out begging and their was a massive hole just behind me in the road which if I was to slow down I’d fall in. After loosing 6 hours in 2016 with hallucinations I decided to listen to my body and got my flasks out and made up energy drink and by the time I put everything thing away and put my harness back on the snow banks were back to being snow banks and the massive hole in the road had gone.
Before I went to the race I was given many lucky charms from my family, voodoo doll from my brother Kenny, lucky six pence from the year I was born from my Dad, lucky Scottish white heather from my Mam, a Buddha from my eldest son Alasdair and a brass Buddha from my wife Lynn. The Buddha relationship stems back to Aldo who was my manager when I rode for Scotland, he was like a brother to myself and Kenny and unfortunately he lost his fight with cancer. Aldo used to carry a Buddha and rub it’s head regularly so during the race I’d rub the two I had with me and think of the big man Aldo. Going up the finishing straight I took my Buddha’s out and rubbed them and looked up and thanked Aldo for helping me get through the BEAST, well when I did that I cried the whole way up the finish straight with all different emotions. As I got close to the line all I could hear was the Scottish National Anthem been played out of a car stereo by the Scottish janitor in Tuk who was also holding a Scottish flag which I borrowed to cross the line.
Athletes get to use the school hall until everyone is finished and ready to start the journey back to Whitehorse, I finished at 8.28am and the head teacher said that the P 4/5 class were doing stuff on nutrition and today it was on diabetes and would I do a presentation for them, so 3 hours after crossing the line of a 350 miles Arctic Ultra Marathon with a total of 18 hours sleep I was doing something I couldn’t think of anything better to be doing, spreading the word of what can be achieved with type 1 diabetes.

So after 6 days 21 hours I came home in 2nd place finishing the BEAST 1st Scotsman and type 1 diabetic to have finished so I can retire knowing I’m stopping at the top.

On Christmas Day I was almost home from my hilly 8 miles off-road run where the ground was covered in leaves so I didn’t see a stone under them so I went over my left ankle with a horrible crack. Having had previous ankle breaks when I was younger, five in my right and one one on my left I feared the worst. I hobbled the last 300 meters home had a shower and headed to A&E in Raigmore Hospital where I was born. A&E was very quiet, I expect not many folk want to be in A&E on Christmas Day. I was taken very quickly and after the Doctor inspected my ankle I was sent for a X-ray due to the severe swelling on it, sitting in the X-ray department the worst things were going through my head, I knew there was only 74 days till the start of the 350 miles 6633 Arctic Ultra Marathon and I knew if it was broken I wouldn’t be returning to try and finish unfinished business in 2017. X-ray results were quick and after the Doctor inspecting them she went away to get a second opinion from the Orthopaedic Doctor who was on that day. He was satisfied it wasn’t broken and because I could put weight on it I was sent home for my Christmas dinner a relieved person.
On the 28th of December my friend David Brandie who is head of the Scottish Institute of Sports Physiotherapy came around to my house to give some treatment, exercises and general advice. I have since managed to march to work and back twice which is just over 6 miles each day and this morning I did 8.6 miles marching with out too much discomfort so very pleased considering it only happened just over a week ago.
Next up for me was I was going to be doing West Highland Way then straight into Great Glen Way in the middle of January with my good friend Alasdair MacDougal aka Doug but the very rough section along the shores of Loch Lomond which we would have been doing during the night so instead we’ve decided to leave our home city Inverness and do the Great Glen Way in both directions which will give a total of 144 miles and 14,000 feet of ascending, I am familiar with the return leg from Fort William as I came 3rd in the Great Glen Ultra in 2014. This will be my last big preparation before heading back to the Arctic in March.

Now that the dust has settled from my failed attempt at the 2016 352 miles Arctic 6633 Ultra Marathon I’ve decided I’ve got unfinished business to take care of. This years race was always going to be my last race, but in my opinion you are only as good as your last race and for me failing just short of 300 miles in March this year is classed as a failure for me my family and friends and the diabetes community so when entries for the 2017 event recently opened I was one of the first to sign up. I know I’ll be going back a lot wiser, stronger and this years experience can only help me achieve my goal to finish. Mistakes on my behalf I will not let happen again like my bag with all my essential kit going missing causing me to go into the race tired not sleeping worrying it wouldn’t appear, using a two wheeled pulk was my biggest mistake as it bobbed which caused me to have back problems which was the main reason for this years failure in not finishing. Thanks to Frank Fumich from USA who finished 3rd equal this year he asked me after this years race if I was planning to return in 2017, I said almost definitely so he has very kindly left his four wheeled pulk in Whitehorse for me to use next year.

So with only 233 day’s till I’ll be on the start grid of next years race yesterday after a great family holiday in Albuferia in Portugal I made a start on my training. I’ve been putting it of as I’ve not been feeling my toes due to them been numb, they’ve felt like your mouth does when you’ve had a injection at the dentist, thankfully that’s a lot better and a doctor friend told me it was nerve damage from all the impact on my feet. Anyway I thought I’d keep this blog short just to say “I’ve got unfinished business to take care of.” Thanks to everyone for all the support they give, I couldn’t do it without it, Roddy. Xx

Wasn’t planning writing a blog about my attempt in the 352 miles 6633 Arctic Ultra Marathon as I felt I let people down, due to popular demand here is my story of my experience.

After the epic journey via Aberdeen, Heathrow and Vancouver I arrived in Whitehorse airport in the evening, waiting for my luggage to arrive was always going to have added nerves to the importance of my kit for the race. I couldn’t believe it when my bag containing all my compulsory race kit didn’t arrive. Martin the race organiser ensured me that it happens all the time and not to worry as we have four days for it to arrive. I filled out the missing luggage forms and headed of to our hotel. Next day we visited the airport for any update, my bag hadn’t arrived again. I was now very concerned and couldn’t sleep at night worrying that I wouldn’t be able to take part without it. Next day same thing, no bag. It turned out after some detective work from a Air Canada employee Anthony at the airport that my bag had lost its label at Heathrow airport. Anthony worked on after his shift to ensure my bag was put on the next flight to Canada. His generosity in sorting this out meant so much to me I bought him a thank you card and put $50 in it for his work. Unfortunately the morning the rest of the athletes were heading to Dawson Creak I still didn’t have my bag, I hadn’t been sleeping to well with worry and I had my first cold sore since been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes due to stress. Kevin one of the race organisers said he would wait with me till the late flight came in to hopefully collect my bag and drive up to Dawson to catch up with everyone. We went to the airport and went to watch the bags coming of the plane, there it was to much relief, we did a dance and got on our long drive to Dawson. On the way we seen a family of Lynx crossing the road in front of us.

We arrived at the hotel late in the evening, the hotel is World famous for its sour toe cocktails which has a real women’s toe in it, all the other athletes had to take one as its a tradition, fortunately for me and Kev the guy to makes this traditional cocktail had left. That was the only blessing having to wait four days for my bag.

Next morning we headed to Eagle Plains which is where the race starts. After another long drive we arrived to do final kit preparations for the race start at 9am next day.

The morning of the race I’m on the start line and did a head count, 13 fellow competitors, great I thought, that’s my lucky number. 9am and we are off, I ended up doing the stage to the first checkpoint at Arctic Circle with Tony, as we descended to the checkpoint I took a flyer on the ice, no problems but was gutted I trashed my Armadillo Merino wool gloves. I had two more pairs but would have to be more careful from now on.

After a quick top up of my Camelbak bladder I said buy to Tony who decided to take refuge in Josh’s very luxurious heated trailer to cook a meal. I finally arrived at the unofficial checkpoint lying in second place so decided to take advantage of the log cabin to grab a few hours sleep.

After a few hours kip, more than most of the others as most had headed off I set of and slowly made my way back through the field, as I approached the mountain the winds severely got up to the stage I thought my pulk was going to get blown off the road. After 23 miles I approached the next checkpoint which was a big truck yard. I had 2 hours sleep and headed of with PJ at midday for another 47 miles to the finish of the 120 miles race and checkpoint at Fort MacPherson. We were covering the ground well until we got 10 miles from the checkpoint PJ said he was tired and decided to sleep, I had my race head on and decided to crack on. This was a major error on my behalf as a few miles later I was convinced I was on the wrong road so started going back and fourth on the road looking for the school hall which was the checkpoint, six hours later the three musketeers, Frank, Alex and Hully caught me going in the opposite direction, I proceeded for a few miles with them and convinced them we were going the wrong way so we all turned. They eventually seen sense and turned, tiredness, fatigue and stubbornness I disagreed with them and cracked on in the wrong direction to eventually meat PJ who was fresh having had a few hours sleep, I on the other hand had thrown in at least an extra 20 miles and was looking at a daily total of 90+ miles. PJ asked me where I was going, I said to the checkpoint, he said I’ve done this race before and know the checkpoint is this way. I trailed behind PJ with very weary tired legs struggling to keep up with a fresher PJ who had a spring in his step. Finally made it convinced that the side of the road had one massive stretch of fish tank, it was only on the drive back after the race I realised it didn’t exist.

Next day a Ice road trucker stopped me and asked if he could take a photo, he then asked where I’d come from and was going, I said Eagle Plain to Tuctoyaktuk to which he replied and they call us f__king crazy. The night of day three and I’m six hours from check point and it goes pair shaped. Jonny Davies the medic gets worried and comes out knowing I should be closer to the check point, I am convinced Jonny is the head of SAS recruitment and he’s putting me through my final training, I phoned the MOD twice to say I’d seen 20 land mine bombs in the snow and to say area was high alert. I then had my two friends Ewan MacDonald and Ross MacDonald who had invented a treadmill which was built into pavements for folk doing their fitness waiting for their bus, well they exported them to the final miles of this stage so I wasn’t actually moving, as much as I shouted at them they wouldn’t switch them off. Finally Jonny seen me climbing the snow bank trying to rescue a cat. I was then convinced that I need to change platform in a train station. I didn’t have a phone with me and there is obviously no trains there but I was convinced this was all true. It took me 4 hours to do my final 3 km’s and I eventually got into my sleeping bag proud I’d made the cut for the SAS and was convinced I was getting a rest day next day for my extreme efforts. Although all this was going on I still had the sense to check my blood glucose levels. Unfortunately I didn’t get a rest day and was back on the road after a few hours kip disappointed the SAS put me through that for nothing.

10 miles into next day and I finished my fluid so stopped to fill up my 3 litre Camelbak bladder, put it back into backpack and put it back on only to realise I hadn’t put the top on correctly and the 3 litres poured all over me. This was seriously dangerous and luckily for me Kev pulled up as this happened and quickly decided to mark my position on the road and take me back to the checkpoint to dry all my kit. This was more time lost due to human error on my behalf. My back really started to cause me pain as my two wheeled pulk was bobbing, I eventually started pulling it with my arms to try and ease the pain from my back. I eventually got tendinitis in my left forearm from doing this. I got into my bivvi bag for a rest and a Northern Territories trick pulled up and asked if I was ok, I said I was just having a rest, he then asked where I was from, I said Scotland, which part he replied, Inverness I said, no way he said one of my relations has just moved from Stornaway to Inverness, it’s a small World.

Next day I flew along to the checkpoint despite my feet been in tatters with blisters, the final one before hitting the actual Ice road for the remainder of the race. I ended up getting frostbite on my nose which Jonny treated before I put my head down. He asked me when I wanted woken up which I said 3am to make a early start to Swimming point the final checkpoint before the finish. I was struggling with my back and fallen behind the others due to various reasons to decided to pull the pin short of the checkpoint gutted that I’d not completed what was to be my final race and your only as good as your last race.

As I’m in Canada I’ve asked my colleague Callum to post this up for me.

Looks like my missing bag which has been sat at London Heathrow airport for 4 days with its label ripped off is finally on its way to Whitehorse in time for our journey to the start of the 352 miles 6633 Ultra Marathon.

It contains most of my compulsory kit and also my GPS spot tracker, so with luck anyone interested will be able to follow my progress from Friday at this link:  http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0LVcYN7eJTt2copHktZ2icj6uvHQTnOAF

Roddy Riddle