I'd slept much better on the night of Day 17, which meant I woke up on Day 18 in a better mood. I was still tired, I'd woken up a few times during the night with rib pain but waking up a few times is far better than being awake all night! My target for the day was to get to Inverness or just beyond as that would leave me a good chance of finishing after another three days pushing which would be 21 days and a whole week ahead of schedule. Looking at the map over breakfast to check the route and where we thought might be a good place for lunch and where we might need to book a campsite. Whilst looking at the map it suddenly clicked why Inverness had its name, I like to think that I'd fairly bright and pick things up quite quickly. I have to admit that I didn't even know that Inverness was near Loch Ness until I was looking at the map that morning! I'd been noticing places with the 'Inver' and 'Firth' prefix anytime we got close to the coast in Scotland. The penny finally dropped that an Inver was an estuary or river mouth and a Firth was a narrow area of sea between two bits of land. So Inverness was where the River Ness which runs through Loch Ness meets the sea. I'm not sure if Ed already knew that but he humoured me as I told him my discovery anyway.
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| Getting underway on day 18! |
We were going to be on the A9 all day again which made us all a little nervous especially getting closer to Inverness. The A9 was a really busy road. We were pretty sure all the traffic must have been heading to Inverness as there is nothing much north of the city in terms of built up areas. When we got going on our push I was actually surprised how quiet it was.
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| Quiet A9 climb during the morning push. |
I had a nice start to the day with a one and a half mile downhill, the Scottish tarmac was vibrating the chair like mad so instead of pushing to try and get a fast speed I decided to put weight on my handlebars which helps keep the front wheel on the ground and allows the chair to work properly. I didn't want to be fighting for speed in the first mile of the push. Despite not even pushing my wheels the descent had gotten me over 30mph which is always a nice figure to see on the speedo.
After that initial drop I was then climbing for 15 tough miles. Ant seemed to have a new confidence in shouting me on. He was brilliant all morning, I'm not sure what had made the change, maybe it was just learning from Ed but I think maybe he was just feeling more confident we would both get to the finish line. If we did make the finish Ant would have cycled around 350 miles which is not easy from someone who really isn't sporty.
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| On another climb |
The long climb was followed by a nice 5 mile long downhill section that was broken by only one short flat and one half mile climb. The long downhill took me past the tiny village of Tomatin which is home to a famous distillery of the same name. Its an odd little place, surrounded by beautiful but rugged hills and mountains but Tomatin sits in a picturesque green valley, it looks like the grasslands of the south of England not the Scottish Highlands! Two bridges cross the valley, an old railway bridge and a modern road bridge. The views were great from the road bridge.
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| The green valley at Tomatin |
I wanted to have a geek fest over the views with Ed and Ant but unfortunately I'd just dropped them both on the long descent and they didn't catch me up until I was working my way through the undulating climbs over the next mile or so. We were soon back in rugged countryside and passing pine plantations near Loch Moy.
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| Just keep pushing. |
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| Ed being special. |
I decided to stop for lunch at almost 26 miles so 3 miles over my target for the morning, I was happy with that in the Highlands as I thought going too far over target up there would be a bit difficult with all of the hills. I was 10 miles from Inverness so I might be able to get myself 5 miles past my target by evening time. As we didn't have anything other than beans on toast on the lunch front I opted for cereal instead. There was no way I was going to be able to stomach more beans!
My dad got chatting to some old guy in the layby about his antique bike that Ed was riding, he kept coming back and knocking on the motorhome window to start yet another conversation with dad. Ant, Ed and I were in stiches laughing at my dad being stalked by the most boring man on earth, he was a right Norris Cole wannabe. I didn't rescue my dad though, it'll teach him not to talk to strangers in laybys! haha!
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| Lunch Break. |
Day 18 Morning Stats
Miles: 25.9
Time: 2:27:39
Average Moving Speed: 10.5mph
Top Speed: 35.7mph
Slowest Mile Split: Mile 14 - 9:28
Fastest Mile Split: Mile 20 - 2:29
Total Ascent: 1026ft
Average Heart Rate: 143bpm
Max Heart Rate: 160bpm
Day 18 Morning Progress Maps
Day 18 Afternoon
I had made sure dad had the shopping list before we set off on the afternoon push in the sunshine. We had looked on the map for the closest retail park and given dad instructions to head to it as early as possible so he would be back with us before too long. Ed and Ant put extra supplies in their bags so we could perform minor repairs without the motorhome if we needed to. We then got on our way to Inverness.
The afternoon push started with a cracking downhill on normal tarmac for a change! I hit 44.7mph which is my fastest ever speed in my wheelchair. I left Ant and Ed trailing behind me. Ed had a go at sticking with me for maybe a quarter mile, Ant didn't bother trying, he already knew his legs wouldn't go fast enough. There was a big climb after 2.5 miles so Ed was soon back on my tail. It took Ant a good 3 or 4 minutes to catch us but we could see him in the distance gaining on us. I may have worked a little bit harder on the climb to keep Ant chasing us, I'm cruel like that! I think it's the coach in me that likes making people put effort in!
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| A nice wide berth from a tanker! |
It didn't take long to conquer the climb and get my self going down the amazing hill that leads in to Inverness, again I dropped the lads pretty quickly. My speed was building up well, I was tucked down low to make me nice and aero dynamic. I crept up to 42mph and had lots more hill left to gain more speed, I was easily on for 50mph before the bottom, I was loving it. Then a tosser in one of those Hymer motorhomes from the 70's that look like a giant VW camper but with tiny wheels pulled out in front of me. The most annoying part of it was that he pulled up to the edge of the layby, stopped, looked straight at me and then decided to pull out on me. If he hadn't stopped and just carried on driving there wouldn't have been a problem, he would have accelerated and got away from me. His acceleration from a stationary position was nowhere near fast enough to pull out when he did. I managed to slow enough not to hit him but I got close enough to tell him what I thought of his driving skills. Slowing down so quickly had torn a big chunk of rubber out of my gloves. A 50mph opportunity well and truly ruined.
Not long after it was the junction that dad needed to take to go shopping. I was now pushing on the hard shoulder so I didn't need shielding by the motorhome anymore. I pointed at the road sign and the exit and tried waving him off the dual carriageway but he was having none of it and carried on driving with me. I managed to get the message to him that he had to leave at the next junction or we would not have any food for dinner. At this junction he did leave but I was worried now because he would have to find his own way to a retail park and not follow the directions we had given him for the previous junction. The A9 was almost gridlocked at Inverness, it's basically a motorway but it didn't feel too dangerous because we were on the hard shoulder and the cars were only moving about 10mph.
We crossed over the Moray Firth on a bridge with some serious views and then the hard shoulder disappeared on the Black Isle. Some of the drivers shouted abuse out of their car windows at us here. I think they were frustrated with being sat in the road works traffic for so long.
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| The bridge over Moray Firth |
Whilst climbing over the Black Isle it got really cold and started to rain. I could have done with stopping here but dad wasn't back yet so I just kept going. I had another belting downhill to tackle to get onto the bridge to leave the Black Isle by crossing the Cromarty Firth. This downhill wasn't fun, the rain was hurting my face as I was descending at 40mph again. It felt like I was being pelted with drawing pins, My hands and forearms were so cold they were hurting. I was also worried about Ed and Ant and how they were feeling. You could never have guessed it was the first day of July, it felt like November. Ed Caught me up when I was just leaving the bridge but Ant wasn't even in sight now. It took a long time for him to get back to us.
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| The Cromarty Firth Bridge |
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| The busy, wet A9. |
I really wanted to stop so when we crossed the bridge Ed phoned my dad to see where he had got to. He was stuck in traffic. I was struggling because of the cold so sitting and waiting in wet clothes wasn't really an option. I'd already done 21 miles when I left the Black Isle. That was 48 for the day. The A9 was hugging the coast now we were back on the mainland do it was much flatter, another 40 minutes later it had dried up so I warmed up slightly and managed to work my was back to a respectable speed. After clocking 32 miles for the afternoon push I was ready to find a layby to wait for my dad but we were in a huge area of road works and we didn't find anywhere suitable to stop until over 35 miles.
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| Not looking too bad to say we'd pushed and cycled 61 miles. |
Ed phoned my dad again to find out where he was and direct him to where we had stopped. It took him another 20 minutes to finally get to our finish line I'd done 61 miles! I couldn't quite believe it. Part of me wanted to phone all those trustees at 'that' meeting where they had spoken to me like I was an idiot for thinking I could push 33 miles in a day. I wanted them to know just how wrong they were! I hadn't gone out that day with the idea of pushing anywhere near that far but circumstances had almost forced me into it. I was just happy my body was capable of doing that even with two broken ribs! If I had a good day on day 19 It might be possible I could finish on day 20, just a few hours earlier I had been hoping I could manage to get it done in 21 days.
There was fruit and veg in the motorhome!!! At last something healthy to eat. We had pasta with a tomato and herb sauce with mince beef, peppers, onions and mushrooms thrown in to bulk it up a bit. I was so happy to eat!
Day 18 Afternoon Stats
Miles: 35.62
Time: 3:01:17
Average Moving Speed: 11.8mph
Top Speed: 44.7mph (Fastest yet)
Slowest Mile Split: Mile 16 - 11:07
Fastest Mile Split: Mile 7 - 1:24
Total Ascent: 1175ft
Average Heart Rate: 141bpm
Max Heart Rate: 161bpm
Day 18 Afternoon Progress Maps
Total Daily Mileage: 61.52
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