Raceid.com manage the World Xtri Series which includes the Celtman in the UK. They do virtual events and I completed their Extreme Triathlon Chapter 1 last summer. Chapter 2 was a vertical challenge to do 42,200m ascent, equivalent to a vertical marathon. The event ran from 1 Nov 2020 to 31 Mar 2021 and comprised 16 ascents named after hills adjacent to each of the Xtri‘s. The ascents ranged from a mere 906m for Mount Pantokrator in Corfu to a challenging 6993m ascent as a nod to Machapuchre in Nepal. You log your Strava in the Raceid website stating your ascent and times, accumulating multiple activities to hit the race height needed.
In the end I claimed running, hiking and skiing activities benefitting from the awesome ski conditions in the Pentlands to get ascent with no mechanical assistance. My biggest day being the Pentland Skyline on ski’s in a week where I managed 6000m ascent over 72km. For several weeks, with sore ribs, I claimed nothing. I had to rest my various niggles between runs and had to take a week off after running three days consecutively even. Usefully, I finished in a hail storm on Caerketton.
Mode | Activities | Ascent (m) | Time (hrs) | Distance (km) |
Hill Run | 60 | 33,162 | 91 | 530 |
Hike | 15 | 1,641 | 11 | 47 |
Ski tour | 6 | 7,397 | 22 | 95 |
TOTAL | 81 | 42,200 | 124 | 672 |
A vertical marathon over winter is quite a challenge. Luckily, I moved closer to the Pentlands south of Edinburgh so could tick off 350m ascent at lunch time and try and pick gaps in the weather. Some runs were pretty miserable though: scrambling into full body cover is hails storms hit you, getting cold and wet on muddy, slushy, mindless re-ascents. But I got but the awesome sunrises and ski days which made up for all ills, even skiing into whiteout in the dark alone down the wrong way of the north ridge of Allermuir was fun.
I started on the 11th Nov and carelessly managed to break a rib or two slipping on wet snow on 5th Dec which limited my running time and requiring a bit of walking to keep my tally rolling. I was planning to run everything thinking this was what others would do since it was an ascent challenge but I soon realized that most triathletes do most things on a bike, in a garage or gym, on Zwift, in a place called Watopia. I am sure this is ‘hard’ but compared to the Scottish hills in winter, not as hard and certainly a lot quicker. The rules allowed an equivalence system to convert pedaling into ascent without even going outside. This conversion was a bit like running a road marathon while racing a guy on a bike trainer pedaling the equivalent distance while watching TV. By example, I could have claimed over 3,000m ascent for a 4hr, 90km cycle. The same ascent on the hill took me over 11 hrs. For those without hills, a road running conversion seemed equally generous to me. That said, I think my way was a far better experience in the mountain air.
I resolved to just be bitter, disgruntled, whinge to folk I ran with and avoided the Face Book MyXtri chat to avoid hearing of garage heroics. I only counted my ascent including the associated time running up and down. For example, the 6993m ascent race took me 21.5 hrs while some guy cycling in the Watopia imaginary world claimed 6.5hrs. This puts my position way down in the results typically between 100-160th on races out of ~200 who signed up. I haven’t found anyone who didn’t use a bike yet.
Now, I need to get on the bike and swim in the lochs. The Celtman Xtri looms again in June.
Mark Hartree