bru-tal Adjective: Savagely violent. Punishingly hard or uncomfortable

Brutal!  That was the word of the weekend...and my 4th outing to the HandsOn Events Ullapool Beag Sportive. 65.5 miles and 7815ft of ascent.  Not your average day out!

In fairness, it's never been an 'easy' ride - year 1 was bloody windy, year 2 I had to drop out at half-way due to ongoing hip/knee injury (and being a tad overweight), year 3 was a fantastic ride and this year was just brutal!  Not being bike fit was always going to be an issue this year, hoping to 'get by' on all the running miles in my legs, despite a good few weeks recovery still going on....and the lovely Scottish weather always adds that element of the unknown!  Although it was fairly clear that rain and wind were on the cards again this year!

Friday evening across Ullapool Bay

Friday night looked 'promising', with the rain clearing as we arrived at the house we had rented for the weekend (which was lovely - dog friendly, nestled at the foot of Ullapool hill, and plenty room for 6 of us - 3 cycling and 3 lovely support crew (who were very relieved to not be pedaling!!)).

Race day dawned (I assume, behind the cloud and rain!) and after a hearty bowl of porridge, several cups of coffee and a fair amount of faffing about (especially from Stewart, who I eventually left at the house to go and register on my own!), it was a short pedal across the road to the village hall to register, sign my life away again, collect the timing dibber and join the crowd huddling just inside the door praying for the rain to stop and laughing at the guy with the deep rimmed wheels, which caused the race director some concerns that he was going to get blown off!  

It's a great route for a challenge (Garmin Stats apart from the first 12 miles when I forgot to press start!) and there's a good few ups and downs!  As usual, people passed me on the uphills, and I passed them on the downhills!  The field quickly dispersed as we set off into the rain and severe winds, and any hopes of getting to work in a group vanished!  In fact, most of the second half, I hardly saw another cyclist!!  And that made it really tough too! 

On a better day, the scenery is amazing, as you can see from some of the photos I took when Clark and I did some walking and touring on Sunday!

Random sign at Knockan Crag

Awesome view and a great piece of stone
masonry at Knockan Crag!

Cori, eyeing up the tourists

Achmelvich Beach

That aside though, I spent the last 25 or so miles of the event saying "Never Again!" and I think this time I mean it!  I thought about DNF-ing several times, but knew that would just mean I had to come back again!  And, I'm tough, and I know I am, and even though it was hurting, I didn't want, or need, to have to admit defeat...even when some of my miles I've averaged <6 mph!  I can run faster than that FFS!  (and several times I thought that running this course would have been easier than biking it!).  And, all the hills on this route are pretty cyclable - not like Bealach, where often you have no choice but to walk some of the way!  It was more the weather that was an issue - head wind, side wind (never a tail wind!!) and some torrential downpours to boot!

The marshalls, as usual, were on good form, and had some fantastic home baking and banter - even when they could hardly stand upright at Leadmore Junction!  And my support team also kept me going, with "Whoop Whoop"ing and shouts of "Remember this is F U N - FUN" out of the window!  So, I made it to the end, definitely not a PB at 5hrs 16m, but then, everyone's times were down!  And it was a great long weekend away as Clark and I stayed on an extra night to potter about - getting to see the beautiful deserted sands at Achmelvich, and a wee trip to Corrieshalloch Gorge on the way home today...not to mention lunch at the Mountain Cafe, Aviemore on the way back down as a reward (lunch on the way up on Friday was just a bonus!).  I'm not massively sore either...tired, hungry and a bit of back/hamstring pain...but the latter was there before I started, albeit a little less severe!

New cycling event required for next year!  Ullapool is job done!