The Celtman Solo Point 5 is not really a hill race so is barely worthy of a report here. However, it does run on a trail through the hills of Torridon from Inveralligan under Beinn Alligan, the mighty Liathach and the stunning Beinn Eighe over a pass rising to just under 400m. You get 16km of technical trail before a road and a cunning trail run to the race finish at Torridon village hall.
I guess it is a poor man’s Lairig Ghru in that respect, shorter, lower maybe nicer scenery.
It has a bigger brother -The Full Celtman which is an Extreme Triathlon (i.e. a long Ironman with hills) that a few Carnethies have done. That race allows support cars and support runners. The Celtman .5 is done solo and half its brother, apart from its ascent. It is therefore equally extreme.
Preceding the trail run is a brutal 92km cycle around the Applecross peninsula with Britain’s longest bike climb over Bealach na Ba. This gets steep, it poured with rain, and had a sketchy hair raisingly fast wet descent. It is a tough climb but the hills that follow are unrelenting strength sappers. My cunning tactic of letting Jim Hardie fly off ahead on the first climb was rewarded when I pumped past him on a steep climb 70km into the cycle. I made a massive 4 mins on him by Transition 2.
Being a Triathlon, of course, you start the day with a swim. Rising at 0255, we had porridge, drove to Sheildaig, got our dibbers and trackers and racked our bikes in Transition 1 ahead of the 0500 deep water swim-start to go 1km out into the loch around Shieldaig Island and back. My tactic was to take a longer line with a wider berth around the washing machine that is a mass swim start. There were plenty of jelly fish to look at below and three stinging encounters left my face tingling for 15hrs. Crossing a shallow reef we returned to shore to encounter a band of thousands of jelly fish that had us literally jelly fish crowd-surfing to get to the slipway. Having my bike racked next to Jim was helpful since he kindly helped me find it with a numb face having arrived 20secs earlier.
In the evening was a Ceilidh to loosen the legs with the most amazing accordion player. He did the longest Strip The Willow I have ever done. If you fancy hearing AC/DC’s Thunderstruck or Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain on an accordian, plus other incredible tunes, check out Rumac Music. The Xmas Ceilidh would be amazing with this guy! Thanks also to the volunteer Carnethy marshalls and everyone else that helped on the event.
Winner: Francesco Mirando – 5:55:02
Carnethies:
48th Jim Hardie – 7:44:07
61st Mark Hartree – 8:01:23
66th Gary Forfar – 8:06:05
124 finished. Last finisher: 10:49:02.
Ps. Celtman Solo Point 5 is NOT for Jessies.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/celtmanforum/permalink/2205932796227490/
Photos: Sally Cross, Anna Henly, Ross Miller
Mark Hartree