Tag Archives: jura fell race

A Jura triathlon

May 29, 2012 By in Islay, Jura, recovery, running, Scotland, stroke, trike Tags: , , , , , , , , , 73 Comments

We spent last Friday and Saturday on the wonderful island of Jura — one of our very favourite places. The island was as beautiful and warmly-welcoming as ever (though we were very sad to note the closure of the beautiful gardens at Ardfin after their recent purchase by an absentee hedge fund manager). Our pricipal reason for visiting at this time of year is that Tom likes to run the Jura Fell Race (you can read earlier accounts of this race here and here)

To those of you who aren’t hill runners, this event will probably seem pretty bonkers. It involves seven hills, eight thousand feet of ascent, and sixteen miles over some really challenging terrain – bog, boulder fields and rough quartzite scree. But if you have been to Jura, you’ll see why Tom and so many other runners return year after year: the Paps are truly fabulous hills – the sort that demand you to get out and about in them (I climbed them once myself 6 or 7 years ago, but they would definitely be too much for me in my present circumstances). They dominate the landscape of this part of the Hebrides to the extent that it is hard to take a photograph without them looming large and pap-like somewhere on the horizon.

Here they are from Port Charlotte:

From Finlaggan

And from below on the Sound of Jura, where you can really get a sense of how these giant quartzite cones seem to rise spontaneously out of the water.

Like many other places in the UK, the Hebrides have recently been enjoying some glorious weather. At 9am on race day, it was already extremely warm. Warnings about dehydration and heatstroke were added to the usual comforting remarks about the dangers of the race.

And then they were OFF!

While Tom was away facing the Paps, I had my own (small) challenge to complete. For the past month or so, I have been practising my tricycling with the aim of being strong (and safe) enough to pootle on the road up to Three-Arch Bridge to see Tom come down from the hills toward the end of the race, and then cycle back with him to the finish line at Craighouse. This is a round trip of six and a half miles on three wheels – nothing in comparison to the task Tom was engaged upon, but certainly an undertaking for someone whose wonky left side is still suffering the after-effects of a stroke and hemiplegia.

I practised my ride the day before the race and reckoned I’d be fine.

On race day, I timed my tricycling to Tom’s predicted finishing time, and happily made it to the bridge just a few minutes before he appeared off the last hill. You’ll have to take my word for it that the tiny dot in the centre of the picture is Tom (the slightly larger figure to the left is a race marshall).

And here he is coming over the stile just before the bridge.

Obviously there are no pictures of our joint journey back into Craighouse, as we were both otherwise engaged (he on foot, me on wheels). The race was really tough in the heat, but Tom completed it in 4 hours 28 minutes – his best time yet! I was also very happy to complete my own mini-challenge, and happily without attendant bog-water, blood, and bruises.

The third element of our Jura triathlon was, of course . . . swimming! It is not often that one gets a chance to do this in the sea off the Hebrides, and for me it was an opportunity not to be missed, even without a proper costume.

This was the first time I’d swum in the sea since my stroke.

And it was my first time ever swimming with a dog.

The water was clean and clear and cold and full of fish. It was really pretty amazing.

To anyone who has survived a stroke, can I say: though we may never be able to undertake a feat of endurance anything like the Jura Fell Race, small physical goals that make our wonky bodies work just a little bit harder are just as important and certainly as satisfying. Try riding a trike! Swim in the sea! I know that I feel a joy at being able to complete these physical challenges that is more intense than any sense of accomplishment I felt before my stroke. These small things — like being able to take to the water, or accompany one’s partner in the final stage of an epic race — remind me just how grateful I am to still be alive.

winners

June 3, 2010 By in competition, Jura, running, Scotland Tags: , , , , , , , 18 Comments

(Paps of Jura from Bowmore harbour)

The Paps of Jura dominate the horizon all over the inner Hebrides and look spectacular from any direction. They are fabulous but quite challenging hills – steep, rocky and boulder-covered, rising out of Jura’s rough, boggy landscape. I climbed them on a misty day in 2005, but there’s absolutely no way I could imagine running around them during the infamous Jura Fell Race, even if my circumstances were different. It is a tough race, taking in seven summits and sixteen miles (or considerably more, if your navigational skills aren’t up to much). Tom managed the race last year in truly appalling conditions, completing the course in 5 hours 6 minutes. He was determined this year to improve his time, and, like the other 210 hardy souls in the field, was really hoping for better weather. All day on Friday, the view to the Paps was clear, with very little cloud. But the weather gods were not smiling, and by Saturday morning, the Jura hills were once again swathed in grey. Visibility was going to be poor, and the difficulty of navigating one’s way about the paps would be considerably increased..

At Craighouse on Saturday morning I heard many dark mutterings of the third pap, which, with a sheer precipice on one side, poses particular navigational challenges on descent. We were all hoping that the participants didn’t take this advice literally.


Despite the weather, both runners and supporters seemed upbeat. . . .

and then they were off!

According to Tom, he was making good going, until he made the fatal mistake of following a local boy, who had chosen a particularly bizarre boulder-strewn route for one descent. Tom tripped and gashed his shin, and then lost time correcting the navigational error. From this point on, things got rather grueling, but he still did great. Here he comes, approaching the finish line 4 hours 48 minutes later!

18 minutes better than last year! Huzzah!

These are the tags that the runners hand in at each navigational checkpoint and, as you can see, Tom’s race number was 98. This is the number he chose for the winner in the Mini-Manu draw, who, after eliminating my own comments, those who had left more than one, and those who did not wish to be entered, is Margaret. Well done Margaret! I have sent you an email asking for your address. Yarn and pattern are now Yours! And the Mini-Manu pattern is now available, from ravelry or the designs page. By the time you read this, I’ll be off down the hospital. Thanks for all your support and kind wishes, as always.

fat rascals! competition! adventure!

May 26, 2010 By in recipe, running, Scotland, textiles, walking Tags: , , , , , , 286 Comments

I am foolishly excited. This is because we are going away for a few days this weekend. Guess where we are going?

that’s right! Islay and Jura! As wild camping is a bit beyond me at the moment, Tom has hired a camper van in which we shall zoom about the islands in comparative luxury. What fun! He will be running the Jura Fell Race and I, of course, will be having a much more sedentary time. I’m sure, though, that I can manage some low-level walking and know I will really enjoy just being in these much beloved places.

I am also pleased because the mini-manu pattern is nearly ready to go and will be released as soon as I get back from our trip. I realised that I had 175g of the lovely spring green “St Magnus” Orkney Angora yarn left over – more than enough to make a toddler-sized cardigan – so I thought I would give the yarn away with a copy of the pattern when it is released. If you are interested in this “prize” from my stash, just leave a comment here between now and next Tuesday, and I will enter you into the draw.

Finally, my sister brought me some home-baked Fat Rascals a couple of weeks ago. They were very good, and I immediately nabbed her recipe and made some myself. For those who don’t know, Fat Rascals are a sort of cross between a rock bun and a scone, with the luxurious addition of dried fruit, spices, and peel. They are decorated with a wonky ‘face’ formed out of cherry eyes and blanched almond teeth, and are familiarly purveyed by Betty’s Yorkshire Tea Rooms. I particularly enjoyed the smell of grated citrus peel and nutmeg while I was making these (is there anything more mysterious-looking than the interior of a nutmeg?) and the finished result was very tasty indeed. Please to note: if this recipe is followed, your rascals will have a pleasing dome-like appearance, rather than the unusual mushrooms that you see here. Their odd shape is because I baked them in the type of tray that is meant to hold buns in bun-cases. And this, in turn, is explained by the fact that I got up at the crack of dawn on Sunday on a baking whim, and found myself unable to get into the cupboard that houses the flat baking trays due to wonky arm and leg. It was 6am, and Tom was sleeping, so it had to be the bun tray. Ah, the vicissitudes of post-stroke cooking.

still tasted good, though.

Fat Rascals

4oz plain flour
4oz self raising flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
pinch salt
5oz butter
4 oz caster sugar
2 eggs
1 lemon
1 small orange
small nutmeg, ground
half teaspoon ground cinnamon
5 oz currants
3.5 oz glace cherries
packet blanched almonds

Preheat oven to gas mark 5 / 375f / 190c
use a non-stick baking tray, or use some butter to grease a normal one.
grate the rinds of the citrus peel. Grate nutmeg and chop your cherries, (leaving 12 whole cherries for decorating later)
Rub butter into the flours, baking powder and salt.
stir in sugar, spices, rinds, currants, chopped cherries.
Beat the eggs. Add 2/3 of the beaten egg to the mixture (keeping last 1/3 to brush surface later)
mix to form soft dough. If mixture is too dry, add a little milk. If it is too sticky, add a little flour.
divide mixture roughly into twelve rascals and place well-spaced on baking tray.
cut your remaining cherries in half, and place on top to form ‘eyes’.
Add blanched almond ‘teeth’.
Brush with remaining egg.
Bake in oven for about 20 minutes (but check the oven, as they catch easily).

Eat warm, with butter.

Don’t forget to leave a comment if you want the yarn and pattern and also, do let me know what you think about the blog’s new appearance (I am overhauling things). You may recognise the header from the card made for me by Kowajy, which I love (I will get back to updating the correspondence archive next week) – but is the sashiko stitching round the edges too much / too twee? Do you prefer a cleaner look?

Edited to add: I got rid of the stitching. . .

See you after the weekend!

Jura fell race

May 31, 2009 By in Jura, running, Scotland Tags: , , , , , , 9 Comments

smallisles

I’ll complete the Jura series by telling you a little about one reason we were there. For much of our time on the island, as the photograph above suggests, the weather was just fantastic. Tom was pleased about this, since he had to run up and down this hill:

benshiantaidh

. . .and six others in the Jura Fell Race. For hill runners, this is a legend among races: sixteen miles, seven summits, a true test of navigational skill and physical stamina. The race’s key peaks are the paps of Jura — three huge quartzite cones that are visible from the mainland and which dominate the island’s distinctive landscape. I have only walked up the paps, and they really are fabulous mountains, but from my pootling, boot-shod perspective I would say they form a challenging landscape at the best of times: bog, and rock, with little inbetween. Their tops are crazy boulder-strewn moonscapes and what might look from a distance like a fine scree turns out at close quarters to resemble the gigantic rubble from a demolition site.

bearings

As I said, the weather had been gorgeous, but by the morning of the race it certainly was not. The mountains were swathed in dense cloud, and a thin rain was falling to complement the nice, chill wind. These were evil conditions in which to scale and descend several rocky mountains at speed! Visibility is very important in this race because of the particular navigational challenges of the terrain. For example, to the north of Beinn Shiantaidh is a sheer precipice which, when cloud is low, is very difficult to spot.

The crowd of locals, runners and supporters assembled here number more than twice the existing population of the island. Very few people live on Jura.

crowd

Tom ran while I waited (and knitted). The weather seemed at times to want to clear, but then it became even more grim. I hope you don’t think I’m romanticising my own position (I wasn’t running, or owt), but conditions were so bad that I felt the same kind of concern as if my feller had been out at sea in a storm.

waiting

A few hours later, I took a walk up to the three arch bridge to watch the runners coming down off the hills.

threearchbridge

The terrible conditions meant that times were very slow. But, after a while, gaunt and muddy figures began to appear out of the mist. Tom was one of them. Hurrah!

homestrait

The sense of achievement and (for me) relief was immense. And from my non-participant, outsiders perspective, I would say this is a truly great race in all senses: the intensity of the challenge it presents, the camaraderie and atmosphere, the local support ( which is tremendous), and, more than anything, the brooding majesty of Jura’s landscape. From the runner’s point of view, I can report that the conditions made a genuinely difficult race deeply unpleasant at times, but not so unpleasant as to contemplate not doing it again. I think we might be back next year.

champion

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