Strong winds, heavy rain and high seas were forecasted for last weekend's Scottish Islands Peaks Race and Mother Nature delivered in fine style with gusts of 65 mph, squally showers and estimated seas of 30ft around the Mull of Kintyre. As a result, at the pre-race briefing on Friday morning the organizers shortened the race to include only Mull and Jura.
The race began with a 4-5 mile run in the hills overlooking Oban. Phil and Simon finished in the top quarter of the field and were dingied out to their boat, Lady Q (photo shows the full crew - left to right: Simon, Phil, Skipper Malcolm and Pauline Lamb, and Tommy Hunter), for the race to Mull. Despite the strong winds, the seas were not too rough with the result that record times were set for this sailing section and Lady Q had made up several places to set the runners ashore in about 13th place.
For the first part of the run the weather was not too bad with warm breezes and only occasional rain showers, but nearer the top the winds picked up and the squalls came in with increasing frequency.
Despite a few of the stronger running teams overtaking the Lady Q runners, good route selection allowed them to keep their position and reached the summit (where the checkpoint had been blown away!) in around 13th place.
Leaving the summit Simon was hit by a huge gust of wind which literally blew him off his feet and resulted in him smashing his shin on a rock. From that point on he was in significant discomfort and not able to keep his normal speed over the ground. The descent was tough for him especially over the rough tussocky ground and a couple of teams were able to catch up and overtake.
As they reached the long road section back to Salen bay, the organizers announced the anbandonment of the race due to the danger of getting runners back to their yachts. In increasingly strong winds, one team had been run over by their own yacht and thrown into the water causing a rescue operation to be launched.
The Lady Q team reached the end of the Mull section of the race in 13th place having completed the Ben More run in just under 5 1/2 hours. Results to the end of the Mull run are now on the SIPR site.
The race began with a 4-5 mile run in the hills overlooking Oban. Phil and Simon finished in the top quarter of the field and were dingied out to their boat, Lady Q (photo shows the full crew - left to right: Simon, Phil, Skipper Malcolm and Pauline Lamb, and Tommy Hunter), for the race to Mull. Despite the strong winds, the seas were not too rough with the result that record times were set for this sailing section and Lady Q had made up several places to set the runners ashore in about 13th place.
For the first part of the run the weather was not too bad with warm breezes and only occasional rain showers, but nearer the top the winds picked up and the squalls came in with increasing frequency.
Despite a few of the stronger running teams overtaking the Lady Q runners, good route selection allowed them to keep their position and reached the summit (where the checkpoint had been blown away!) in around 13th place.
Leaving the summit Simon was hit by a huge gust of wind which literally blew him off his feet and resulted in him smashing his shin on a rock. From that point on he was in significant discomfort and not able to keep his normal speed over the ground. The descent was tough for him especially over the rough tussocky ground and a couple of teams were able to catch up and overtake.
As they reached the long road section back to Salen bay, the organizers announced the anbandonment of the race due to the danger of getting runners back to their yachts. In increasingly strong winds, one team had been run over by their own yacht and thrown into the water causing a rescue operation to be launched.
The Lady Q team reached the end of the Mull section of the race in 13th place having completed the Ben More run in just under 5 1/2 hours. Results to the end of the Mull run are now on the SIPR site.
As is clear from the second photo above Simon in particular was devastated that he didn't get to run up the Paps and Goat Fell!
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