Been pretty quiet on the bike front for a wee bit , letting my self have some time off and head recovery for my winters plans. Since ive moved to Aberdeen ive been doing a 3 mile each way commute and ive done 2 , 90k rides.
Sat in the flat playing fastest finger first on the laptop to see who gets a strathpuffer 2010 entry.
I got lucky
So based on that i quickly got in touch with frazer at Nofuss events and sorted out an entry to Relentless 24.
We left on Friday night and headed over the lecht to the grey corries lodge at roy bridge for a good nights sleep before the race. In bed at 10pm a first for me i think. Up at 8 and at the race by 9. Signed on , pit set up , speak to a few friends and line up for the lemonds start.
Off we went. New tactics for me - real food , fruit juice and taking it easy. No point in racing wont last not done enough milage!

[photo by oliver coats of www.olivercoats.co.uk]
Rode with josh ibbett for 3 laps till i had to stop for some real food , then with Dave Buchanan again till food , then Twinklydave till i stopped again. All of us working the same policy of riding easy till 3/4am rather than racing hard, training ride all round.
All went well , my new USE exposure Maxx D and Joystick were infailible and gave out so much light it was a revelation over riding with my old dinottes.
Got caught out in my quest for 3rd place and got caught in heavy rain and bitterly cold winds on my last 2 laps wearing a non waterproof softshell which soaked me to the skin and my body just shut down. Ended the morning at 6am sat in the cafe wearing 3 warm jackets with a blanket round me right next to the fire shivering for an hour eating food till my body let me regain control!
Stopping didnt hurt my result that much, dropped from 4th to 6th as the top 4 (josh , dave , dave and me) were that far ahead of the rest.
Happy with that for a training ride ! Bring on the puffer (new waterproof that breaths i think for that one)