Thursday 4th August 2011
After reapplying plasters and filling the team with as much porridge as they could, the support team sent them on their way at 0600. It was a beautiful morning and the team went on to climb 8 munros: Bheinn Bheoil, Ben Alder, Beinn Eibhinn, Aonach Beag, Geall - Charn, Carn Deag, Beinn a' Chlachair and Geal Charn.
The support team went to do washing in Kingussie and to buy more exciting food stuffs for the boys to keep the morale up. Lucy had also been contacting some of the bereaved families to organise times and meeting places for their climbs up the Munros in the coming week. However the rest of the day didn’t go quite according to plan....
The support team pitched camp where they left the vehicles, quite literally on a tiny patch of grass next to the road and not far from a river. Not luxurious but ideal for the team as it was the best place for them to camp enroute. Earlier the support team had cycled for an hour across beach and other terrain in order to leave the bikes in an obvious place for the team to collect at 2100. However, there was no glow stick to place with the bikes, which proved to be a bit of an error....
Sarah, Lucy, Sally, and Henry were all organised and settled down to wait for the team at their campsite. Earlier in the day the team’s GPS had stopped working and so there was no communication between the support team and runners. Furthermore, Becky had gone off on her own with a map to meet the team on their second-last Munro, and the support team had no communication with her either. At 2100 the runners were expected to show up, but 2100 turned into 2200 and then 2300 still with no sign, at which point the support team decided to have supper. Lucy was beside herself with worry, and the support team also had Rupert on phone concerned about the team and wanting to know where they were. The only person not worried however was Sarah, who was sure that all was fine and that they had just become help up at a point along the route. At 0130, and still with no word from the team, Henry and Sally went up the track to try and get contact with the team via their radios. Finally, contact was made.
It turned out that Becky had managed to meet up with the team without any problems but they had all come off the track at a different point. Combined with the fact that there was no light to suggest where the bikes might be, the runners were unable to find them. This put them back slightly, but the worst was due to come when the chain on Becky’s bike broke, preventing them from going any further. Once in contact with the support team, the runners continued back to the camp while Henry and Sally met up with Becky and walked back with her and her broken bike. The runners got back at 0230 and everyone was in bed by 0300. A ridiculously long 20 hour day, but everyone was safe, sound and happy to be together again.
Due to the nature of the first 4 days, and the fact that the team had been getting in so late, it hadn’t been possible to chat to them much about how they were doing. However, we gathered that there has been a lot of ipod use, with Tom using Dr. Who to get him through!
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