Winter Series Update

Finally got this to load....you'll notice the dates have been "Americanised".....don't ask me...I don't know....month/day/year

The Wheelers "Do"

A grand night was had by all at the annual presentation of prizes by the Wick Wheelers.

Mackay's Hotel was once again the venue and they did us proud with a lovely meal and a nice ambience.

It was good to see our friend Norman Bremner back on his feet after his horrific road accident earlier on in the year....he truly is remarkable and an inspiration to us all....as can be seen from the photo where he's putting the "moves" on Valerie.



Michael Sutherland, once more stole the show with a gaggle of trophies....his sons didn't do too badly either. It's up to the rest of us to grow bigger lungs and stronger legs I fear.

Good on you Mike.....and congratulations Helen Richard for being voted WW club member of the year.

Div Ye Mind?

I've been sitting on this for a few weeks now....should have blogged it earlier.

It's nice when Tri Club members pop interesting things through the door.

Valerie Webster found this medal which is the very first Wick Triathlon medal from 1995....when Caithness District Council were still a recognised body and Norman McLennan, our founder member, was leaning on them heavily for funding.

The medals were quite pricey and made at the pottery in John O Groats as far as I can remember....I'm pretty sure there were mugs and soup bowls and god knows what flying around too....if you have one send us a pic and we'll start a new section in the menu bar...."Let's Have a Look at What You Could've Won...."

Anyway, along with the medal Valerie included the team competition for which there was a staggering 18 entries..... 54 people in addition to the individual entry......a busy day as I recall.

The winners, just in case you're interested, were Eann Munro (swimmer), James Gunn (cyclist) and Gary Angus (runner) in a time of 59.02.

Thanks for the wee trip down memory lane Valerie.

Winter Series # 2

Lots of things to catch up on so let's start off with the second Winter Series run.

Laura, Gordon and Brian flew the flag at the first run in Mid October, on a fairly dreich night as I understand....as there was a lack of bodies the three decided to run together....can't say I blame them. Brian did send me the times but I have inadvertantly lost them....as you'll see from the spreadsheet. I'll rectify this as soon as I can, apologies all round.

Last night's second outing was better attended with 8 runners toe-ing the starting line. Debutant Christopher MacLeod ably supported by Robin Aitken shared the fastest time of the night 32.55.

I've put the third run out to the 15th of December as I'm wearing a dress on the 8th....hope you'll all understand....it's just a phase I'm going through.....OH YES IT IS!!!!!!

The Embedit website is down I'll append the spreadsheet soon.

Alas...no

Was up nice and early this morning but the "man flu" got the better of me.....I've got one or two other commitments at the moment and can't really take a chance on being ill long term....so I decided against the "cafe run".

I was a bit ticked off as the weather didn't show up as was predicted and it would have been a good day for a cycle.

I made the mistake of going shopping with my wife and was spotted....needless to say the abuse followed shortly afterwards.

So, just getting ready to head off to the Wick Wheelers presentation evening....not up for any Oscars this year so will just kick back and enjoy the evening.....will make a decision on the club cycle in the morning, weather forecast seems to be okay again.

Schweinhund!!

There are lots of people scrabbling around complaining of flu like symptoms at the moment....apparently 220 pupils were absent in Wick High School today....I think many of them were off because they'd had their flu vaccines....never mind. It just means the cortisone I was due to receive in elbow number two has been put on hold as the medical centre handles the rush of snottery beaks and high temperatures.

As usual, come this time of year I start to get every random bug that seems to be going...sore throat and dripping nose at the moment but I remain determined to make the cafe run tomorrow.

The weather is supposed to be rather biblical so we'll wrap up warm eh?

Journey and photos to follow.

Back on the Road

Ahhh it was good to get out on the road again today.

Although a touch frosty this morning the weather was un-seasonally clement....shorts were the order of the day and I set off to run for about 50 mins.

AHR was a wee bit high but that was to be expected.....very enjoyable trot.

Got Here.....Eventually

Well....it's been a while since anything was scribbled on the TNT wall....too many excuses to possibly cover so I'll just say...thanks to everyone who has continued to look in over the past month or so...wondering when I'd get my finger out to write anything else.

Have had a good rest and am now ready to throw myself back at the training. Cortisone injection in left elbow seems to have worked but now the right will need the same treatment. I've been wearing my TRION:Z bracelet religiously and will surely start to feel the benefits soon....whatever they may be....I can't wait....really.

Anyway the upshot is no swimming still but the running starts again next week...gearing up towards the Inverness half in March. Also I'm looking to get back into the cycling and might join Phil and Joe on their Saturday sojourns.....Sunday will be too hectic for me at the moment....maybe once we're into January.

The holiday in Florida was great and I did run most days and swam in the sea down on the gulf coast.....will post some pics later.

Hope you are well dear readers....I've missed you.

NB NEXT WINTER SERIES RUN.........TUESDAY 17th NOVEMBER....5.45PM....MACKAYS HOTEL

Over The Hills and Far, Far Away

Just received this from Robert Cormack. He and Phil Baker recently competed in a cyclosportive over in Ullapool...The Ullapool Mor...

What organisers say about it....

The 130 mile Ullapool Mor is a monster of a ride designed to be the final big test of the season. Starting and finishing in the beautiful west coast town of Ullapool this route takes in some of the wildest scenery Scotland has to offer from rugged cliffs and tiny islands to lonely moorland and remote sandy beaches with superb panoramic mountain views, tree-lined twisting roads and foaming rivers. The ride passes the ruin of Ardvreck Castle on the shore of Loch Assynt, built by the MacLeods of Assynt in the 16th century and the Kylesku Bridge which has been described as one of the most beautiful bridges in the world.
The Ullapool Beag is shorter but equally impressive in terms of scenery. This 65 mile route winds around the unique and spectacular mountains of west Sutherland on quiet roads. The route is demanding but rewarding, taking you to places you may have never been before. A little gem

Sounds great, here's what Robert had to say about it....

I think this was about 40 miles in looking at my face looks more like 100.

The loch in the background is Assynt. It was a great day starting as it meant to go on by climbing out of Ullapool with a tailwind pushing us along more or less all the way to Laxford Bridge with some scary sidewinds and fast descents around Kylesku.

Pleasantly surprised going alongside Loch Shin as wind seemed to still be behind us and it was reasonably flat making the 90 miles to Lairg in 5 and a half hours. That was the end of the easy stuff the last 43 miles was hilly and into a headwind with the last 18 miles being a block headwind with winds gusting to 40mph. On the very last hill before Ullapool I was down to just under 4mph at one stage but after 128 miles I would have fallen off before I stopped.

Relief going down hill to the finish all in all a brilliant day well organised looking forward to next year hopefully with a few more wickers for company. Our on bike time was 9 hours 12 minuets at time Phil could of knocked at least half an hour if he hadn't been kind enough to wait for me.

Good stuff guys...hopefully I'll be one of the Wickers volunteering to accompany you next year.

A Grand Day Out

The official timings for the Inverness Running Festival are available here...

Inverness Running Festival

I'm a bit weary just now and will give the low down tomorrow. Our boy in the marathon did well...Grant, in his first ever 26miles and 385 yards, came home in 4.02.30....excellent effort and .....judging by the shape of some of the competitors that came past us before him.....he did it the smart way by running within himself to begin with.

I managed 48.46 for the 10K which has me in jubilant mood. However unlike Grant I went off a bit too quickly which saw me through 3K in 13.30.....that's about 7.15 per mile which is way too hot to be sensible for me at the moment ( in fact it's just daft! ).....still, hung on, just....chuffed about that.

Nearly There

Only took a couple of run outs this week about 40-45 mins each.....looking forward to the Inverness 10K tomorrow.

It's going to be an early start as Kirsty needs to be on the start line for the 5K run at 10am....the 10K starts at 11am. Hopefully the weather won't have too much of a say in proceedings.

My best wishes go with Grant on his first ever marathon. He's worked really hard and the road hasn't always been an easy one during his training, however he's benefitted greatly from running with Robin and tapped into his years of experience.

Relax grasshopper, you'll be fine.

There are a great many Caithnessians heading south for the events so I'll try to let you know how they get on tomorrow.....the 10K course is supposed to be dead flat....hmmmmmm

Thurso/Wick Interclub

39.30 was the huge margin by which Caithness Cycling Club won the annual Interclub event with Wick Wheelers.

Here are the full results....should you wish to view them.

I must admit that I was just a tad tired going into this having run quite hard on Saturday but enough excuses....we had expected a back wind all the way from Thurso but it seemed to be swirling around a bit, to be fair it helped most of the way....I was just glad to break the hour....55.40 is nothing startling and about a 21 mph average.....I'll take it.

Overall Results for 2009 (Summer Series)

The Boys and Girls of Summer.....Have Gone

First of all let me thank those who turned up this morning to run.

The ladies once more showed up the men and outnumbered us.....good on you girls. Eight runners in all which wasn't as good a turn out as I'd hoped for but there you go.....you can't have everything and those that did turn up were blessed with a smashing morning, weatherwise. There was a bit of a breeze blowing across the Grey Bools and down the South Road but other
than that it was "cooking".....definitely an Indian summer.



My hopes to duck under the 40 minute barrier were a bit previous......I've felt that I've been running quite well recently but racing 5 miles is a whole other kettle of fish. My average heart rate for the whole run was 164 bpm maxing out at 179 bpm going up through Charity Farm Hill....I was knackered there and once more it took me a couple of minutes to get my legs back under me. Robin had decided he'd run with me today and give me some gentle persuasion along the way ( in a bid to get towards the 40 minute barrier ). It didn't turn out as I'd hoped but after having a wee while to reflect up on things I should be satisfied that I was able to run below level 8s. The run has been measured at 5.2 miles and my time of 40.51 converts to 7.51 min per mile.
I have to be pleased with that if indeed it is correct.



Anyway enough about me....there were seven other runners....Alick Reynolds (36.17), Laura Laing (46.18) and Lisa Coghill ( completing her "full house" in 47.35 )....Robin's time was 38.51 as he gave me a two minute start.


On the short course we had three runners. The short course is a testing run covering the same ground as the long course until the routes diverge at the March Path. Fiona Bremner (38.34) lead the way home for our two novices Kirsty Farmer (46.03) and Diane Mackay (46.28). All three girls are heading for Inverness next weekend...Fiona to do the 10K and Diane and Kirsty to do the 5K.....this was a good performance by our first timers, it's a tough wee run and will stand them in good stead for next Sunday.



My personal thanks to all 23 runners who trod the beaten path this summer....we shall meet again for the Winter series.....and ofcourse next April to do it all over again.

I'll post the full results sheet on an embedit file in a wee while.

My thanks also to Grant for taking these snapshots and Fiona for adding the Y2K T-Shirt to the collection.

A Wee Well Done

To date only one person has completed all of the Summer Series runs.......that person is Lisa Coghill.

If you're there tomorrow Lisa you have the full set......well done and thanks for the 100% support.

As I said earlier it would be nice to see off the summer with a healthy turn out...hopefully we'll get that and some decent conditions.....winds are supposed to be SW in direction and approx 15 mph, however it should be warmish.

Latest run

Enjoyed a 40 minute run with Robin yesterday.....AHR 154. Grant has gone down with a sinus infection...hope you get better soon sunshine.

There was a fairly strong face wind across the fields at the Grey Bools and down the March Path. Should this prevail it'll be a hard slog from the car park all the way to the top of Newton Hill on Saturday.....something to look forward to eh?

Bring it on.

Squeezing in a Run

Been very busy this week what with all the comings and goings at the cottage. Our last tenant has moved out and, thankfully, today we have managed to secure a replacement so the "little place in the country" will be warm and safe over the winter months....phew!

Time for running has been at a premium and today I ducked out of school fairly early so that I could get a few miles in before heading out to Bilbster for yet another viewing. A quick loop took me just a whisker under half an hour. Average HR 155.

Looking to run with Robin and Grant tomorrow so that'll probably do me before Saturday.

Busy Weekend Ahead

Looking forward to this weekend.......On Saturday we have the final series run over the testing 5.2 mile summer course. Hopefully there will be a big turnout for that one.....and....hopefully there will be an equally healthy attendance at the final cycling race of the season - the Thurso-Wick Interclub.

Will Wick's lamentable track record against Caithness Cycling Club continue or will fortunes change.....who knows?

All I know is that I'll be doing both of them.....if you are reading this and feel inclined....why not do the same?

Hurrah!!! More T-shirts!!

Thanks Willie Sutherland (Plum) for sending in T-shirts for the years 2004-06.....

All others gladly received...there must be someone out there that has some stuffed at the back of a drawer?

Wear it to the Summer Series on Saturday and we'll get a photo.

Heads Hunted

Well......that's that eh?

Come 9 o'clock yesterday morning eleven headhunters had pledged to undertake if not all then some of the 80 miles which lay ahead. Eight of us mustered here at Bexley Terrace and the three others joined us at various points along the course.

Let's start with the weather shall we?

Couldn't really ask for better....much the same as Friday... the wind gradually increased throughout the day but it always seemed to be moving around and we were fortunate that by the time we reached the road to Westerdale it was on our right shoulder and once we hit the back road to Watten we were more or less "sails up".

So onto the trip....what a great day out. This is only the second time that the "Headhunter" Tour has taken place (the last time being a remarkable ten years ago....we think!) and it was every bit as rewarding as the first. The group made short work of the first leg of the trip out to Duncansbay Head and before we knew it we were up at the first lighthouse taking photographs.

There were some stunning views across the North Coastline yesterday and the twisty 5 mile journey from the main road up to Dunnet Head ( Mainland Britain's most Northerly Extremity ) didn't disappoint.

Unfortunately Joe suffered an untimely puncture at the foot of the climb and we decided that we'd pick him up on the way back down.

This seemed to set off a chain reaction as David then "blew out" as he crossed the cattle grid at the entrance to the lighthouse. More repairs, however we were soon on our way again and coasting back down the hill into the stiff breeze. We stopped to pick up Joe and and at this point became a bit strung out. One or two of the group had arranged to leave us at this point and head back to Wick so they had moved along the road.

Laura, Lisa, Phil, Brian and I were in a wee group and Robert and Joe were slightly in arrears.

It was after a few minutes of looking over our shoulders that we realised that Robert and Joe weren't following, in fact they were nowhere to be seen? Brian decided to double back and find them.....when he did they were heading back UP towards Dunnet Head.....not being able to understand why, Brian turned once more and caught back up with us. We left mobile phone messages and headed for Thurso or Scrabster, to be precise, and our final Head of the day Holborn Head.

We arrived there at bang on 1.00pm and dallied around for a few minutes taking some snaps before deciding to go and eat in the Upper Deck. No sooner had we sat down when Joe phoned to say that Robert and he were in Thurso and on their way. The Magnificent Seven were reunited!

It transpired that Robert had lost his hyper-expensive GARMIN cycle computer and he and Joe had retraced the path back up to Dunnet Head in a bid to find it. Travelling back down from the top Robert was in a fairly dejected state as he was having difficulty concocting a convincing enough story to tell his wife Jane.....this is, after all a £300+ piece of kit we're talking about here. He luckily decided to have a look around the spot where we stopped to assist Joe initially.......and lo and behold, there it was.

What's an extra ten miles when you're doing 80? Or a fourth "head" for that matter?

So, after a lovely lunch in the Upper Deck we hit the road again. I needed to replenish my water bottle and decided to purchase some sugary sustenance for the 30 miles back to Wick (fudge).

We were cycling into a head-wind until we got turned at Glengolly. Once on the back road to Halkirk it started whipping in from the side. Preferable, no doubt, to being in our faces but I began to struggle a bit as we passed through Halkirk and on towards Westerdale. Whether it was the effects of just having eaten, the discomfort in my joints and having to fight the side wind or just plain old tiredness I'm not sure.....probably all three.....however, it was a bad patch and cost me the full bar of fudge, most of my water and an energy bar donated by Brian.

Once onto the home stretch ( from the Dunn turn off ) it was fairly plain sailing with the wind helping all the way. We got back into Wick at a little after 4.30pm.

A most enjoyable day...thank you all for the company....let's do it all again next year.