The Skye adventure proves to be a game of two halves ............again!

What a superb day out on the Island of Skye. Bigman and The Ironman travelled up to Kyleakin on Friday evening and re-visited Saucy Mary's Hostel. Wih the Ironman having a more musical talent, the Bigman will leave him to recount tales of the ballads of Saucy Mary in his version of events. Suffice to say that sleep deprivation was suffered by both! After a healthy plate of chilli corne carnie and fish, by Bigman and Ironman respectively, they both indulged in a carb induced sticky toffee pudding washed down by ice cream. ...............Ironman is starting his diet tomorrow.

The temperature inSkye was 22 degrees at 06:30 when they rose to begin preparations for race day. A good size portion of porridge supplemented by bananas provided a good start to the day. Bigman mixed up his chewy banana slices with raisins and a sprinkling of the Ironman purple energy jelly beans. Departure at 7:00 meant we would arrive at Portree at 8:00 in time to register and get ready for the off. The marshalls were well organised and even provided a spare tube - they must have heard about Bigman's Etape experience ........... one for spare kit box he thought!

The race began with a staggered start at 9:00 in 26 degrees and a strong wind out of the south east. The wind would be their friend for the first 20 miles however for 60% of the race they would be battling a headwind. A target finish time of 6 hours 30 minutes was agreed.

A top speed of 72.9kph was recorded by Bigman on the first section. They were flying. An interesting location for the first food stop at the bottom of a hill in Staffin. We had pre-arranged we would use the food stops and to fill bottles with water given the temperature and the fact we would be climbing almost 10,000ft of ascent. At Hungladder, some 27 miles on, the nature of the ride changed. The battle was not only the climbing but also a head on wind that seems to vary its direction of travel so as making it difficult to take shifts at front.

At the 41 mile mark just before we turned towards Dunvegan, the return of the Etape struck. Bigman got a puncture. Now you would have thought tfrom his experiences a couple of weeks ago he would be well experienced at changing tyres. On re-mounting his bike after replacing the tube, he was literally pedalling squares with a flat area of the tyre. After a few hundred yards they had to stop again to replace the tube which appeared to have a kink in the tyre. Some thoughts about abandoning the enlarged race and taking the smaller 55 mile race, took place however the second tube sorted the problem and they were back on their way. 30 mins were lost from time and so the target remained for 6 hours 30 mins of elapsed time.

The trip out to Dunvegan had the wind on our backs and we were able to make good time. At Dunvegan the real challenge began. Around 31 mile back to Portree with the majority uphill and against the wind. The race marshall advised there were only two hills. What she did not advise was that the first lasted for 20 miles! This section was the toughest for the Bigman. Near the Glenbrittle turnoff, the road looked like it had a steep downhill followed by a sharp climb. At this point Bigman was trying to remember who it was that had the original idea for this outing. Fortunately the road wound north and down to Sligachan for the final climb however wind assisted. With Ironman shouting down the Kilometres to travel and the time left to complete within 6 hours elapsed time, the pair melted the tarmac with an average speed on the last 9 miles of over 35kph. Pretty impressive considering they had climbed 10,000ft of ascent over 95 miles. They completed the ride in 5 hrs 55 mins.

The Isle of Ske has many awesome views and this was a crackerjack route. The views around the headland and down to Uig were amazing. The guys felt very honoured to have such brilliant weather in such a beautiful part of Scotland and not a midge in sight! Mind you, neither did they see the Three Chimenys Restaurant so highly acclaimed by the Ironman

When they travel to Cape epic the total climbing over the eight days is 48000ft over 8 days and so this outing was a great test of current fitness with only 41 weks to go. On the way back to Dunfermline, the team stopped for Fish and Chips in Pitlochry. Ironman's diet will start again tomorrow..........................