Itera Lite 2025 – Cairngorms

After my adventures at Itera “Lite” last year with Maria, I decided that I actually quite like the shorter format compared to the full thing. And this year we were offered the choice of either. I was super keen to enter, although finding a partner was a little trickier. On Christmas day I got a “yes” from Dave who I met at Cape Wrath Ultra in 2022. I remember being sat waiting for the ferry back over from Cape Wrath itself and asking if he was interested in adventure racing; it took this long for it to come to fruition!

And so this summer the Wrath Runners were on their way to the Badaguish Outdoor Centre for a few days of short-expedition style adventure racing fun! I was all over the slightly complicated logistics and planning, making sure we had the right shoes and kit in the right bags for the right stages. The course was heavy on biking and light on trekking compared to some others. Great for me, having done zero long hikes / runs since February’s traumatic ankle experiences. Not so great for Dave – I was unsure how his (lack of) mountain biking experience was going to play out.

Getting the maps – Tues 08:00

We got the maps on Tuesday morning, so the run through was, by necessity, pretty rapid. However, we soon worked out that a lot of the biking was on prescribed mandatory routes, and apart from special orienteering stages the hiking was straightforward enough that it was on the same 1:50k scale maps as the biking. We marked up all the cut offs and I felt weirdly ‘ready’ by the time we got to the captain’s briefing at 09:30.

All the endless lists were checked off, the bikes and bags were handed in, and we were ready to get on the coach.

Prologue – Tues 14:00 – run around Laggan (5.3km / 36 minutes)

I managed a snooze on the coach, then had time for a banana smoothie before the start. The stage went uneventfully and was mostly on road – we did actually run it all, though I was already concerned about how hot and sunny it was!

Stage 1 – Tues 14:48 – kayak down the Spey (20.5km / 3h20)

After a rapid transition (despite me putting the seat on wrong 3 times) we were off down the Spey. This was way more fun than I had anticipated, as we were straight into a narrow section, with trees and gravel and choices to be made. At one point I jumped out to help unground us and nearly tipped Dave straight in, though I promise it was an accident! I think he got me back by unceremoniously shovelling water on me with his paddle more than once later on.

As we went along, we alternated easy stretches with slightly annoying sections where the low water level meant we kept getting stuck. However, I was starting to enjoy the challenge of trying to read the best line, which was often close to the bank under tree branches that battered our faces as we went through, whilst I yelled ‘PADDLE’ and babbled something about tweetle beetles* as we lost all sense of coordination and clattered each other.

One time when we did have to get out, Dave forgot that legs often protest after sitting in a kayak for some time and promptly fell over in the water – nothing to do with me this time. Even funnier when he retold the story explaining he couldn’t understand that his legs weren’t working, so whilst I got the kayak moving he was repeatedly floundering around!

The only downer was that Dave was very uncomfortable because we couldn’t figure out how to adjust the seat to a better position and it was giving no support, plus the shoe choice (actually dictated by what we wanted to wear on a trek later on!) was hampering his efficiency. For my part, I’ve had far worse AR kayak legs and was quite happy with how it went 😊

Stage 2 – Tues 18:39 – mountain bike back to the event centre (29.7km / 2h34)

I wasn’t sure how transitions would go – this was all new to Dave – but I have to say he did rather better than I did in my first race. We got to the first checkpoint only to find to our dismay that his dibber was gone 😱. We considered going back to transition but then Dave suggested this is what the mandatory camera could be used for, and he was absolutely right, so we took photos instead until we could get a new one.

A little while later I turned over my shoulder after we joined a road to find Dave missing … uh oh, what had happened? Turned out it was the first of many ‘toppling over’ incidents. It transpired over the course of the event that Dave excelled at the actual ‘mountain biking’ i.e. moving along technical terrain, but not so much at ‘starting and stopping’ 😥. I almost felt the pain in his elbows and hips every time it happened, but there wasn’t a lot I could do other than wait for him to get up and start pedalling again.

The route itself was nice and straightforward from there to the next transition in the gloriously spacious games area at the outdoor centre.

Stage 3 – Tues 21:35 – hill loop trek on Cregan Gorm (9.4km / 2h45)

Before we’d started our own race, we’d looked on the tracking at the route the leaders of the full Itera race took to the top of the hill. The choice was: straight up, or the long way round the tracks. They did the former, and so did we!! Partway up we had regrets, but there was nothing to be done by that point, except to keep on working our way upwards until we got to an easier rockier bit and then finally popped out right by the control! I’d like to say this was pure skill, but there was probably a bit of luck involved…

Compass at the ready, I checked which way to go. We were going right, it said go left 🤔. Dave tried to argue, I said we had to believe the compass … and was helped in my argument when just then another team left in agreement with it!

I enjoyed the next section in the dark, having a nice chat, even running / jogging some bits. We got slightly tangled up in felled forest coming down, but somehow came out on the right track and sailed back to transition.

Stage 4 – Weds 00:53 – biking north to Glenlivet via a trail centre (54.5km / 6h06)

A long section of this route wasn’t mandatory, but there was only one way through the Abernethy Forest out of bounds area. I probably made this harder than I needed to, because I was keeping a very close eye on exactly where we were, ticking off turnings and other features. I’m sure if you knew the route and it was daylight, you’d be saying ‘just ride along that road until…’

It was along here that my ability to change into my big chain ring totally failed – on closer inspection my cable outer had a hole in it, the cable was fraying and tension in it was minimal. The best I could do was zip tie it up out of the way of further damage on my fork crowns and resign myself to little ring riding for the rest of the race.

At one point we found ourselves in an exceptionally midgy glen, crossing countless small streams (which we pushed our bikes through) and then having a slightly tricky bit of nav onto the right path. This was made worse by the fact we were getting eaten to death every time I stopped to try and make sense of a bit of a map confused by useless county boundary markings.

Eventually we got to the trail head for some red grade MTB routes that would take us up to a viewpoint atop a hill. It was nearly dawn, and we paused just to collect ourselves for a little while. I had a little lie down, and then discovered a very welcome, warm, open toilet … Despite the temptation to sleep we pushed on but now in ever increasing daylight.

An interesting confusion arose as we checked out the trail signage. Dave interpreted these like ski maps and assumed we’d have some downs as well as ups. Meanwhile, when I announced ‘post number 14, only one more to go’, he was very confused about where the down would come in! There was none, we were nearly there and then flying along the Speyside Way down into Glenlivet.

Compared to other centres I’ve ridden, this one was actually pretty cool, I enjoyed the uphill singletrack and some sections were quite challenging. Dave, on the other hand, had nothing to compare it to – this was his trail centre initiation ceremony!

Stage 5 – Weds 08:15 – trek on Ben Rinnes and Little Conval (29.8km / 7h55)

This was the biggest hill of the event, but looked straightforward in terms of navigation. As we climbed it got increasingly hot, and Dave was not feeling great. The conversation turned to castles and the never-ending challenge that Izzy and I are still on visiting castles / towers along the coastline from Stirling to Newcastle. Unfortunately for him, he made the mistake of sounding even just a teensy bit interested, which left the door open for me to expound on this topic almost all the way to the first of three of checkpoints we could take in any order.

Just as we got there, the skies started cracking with thunder and it duly poured with rain. I was not for putting on any extra layers, I was quite warm enough thank you! We noticed many other teams heading a different way from us, but we stuck to our route, trying to keep up with a couple of lads (not associated with the race) who weren’t even in running gear but were making a better job of a fast descent than we were.

Conversation was good as we wound our way along the road and onto the second hill. However, fluids were running low and there were no water sources apparent on the map for quite some time. I think we were both pondering the same thing when I suggested that maybe we should consider filtering the water out of one of these fresh rain puddles?? And so it was we got our first taste out of a logging road puddle, to be topped up later from the runoff along a pine needly forest track and then finally from a tap at a farm shop. What an exotic cocktail!

After a direct heathery descent off the hill, navigating some classic ‘tracks in the woods not on our maps’, seeing dragonflies flitting past and admiring the many cep mushrooms alongside the track, we finally made it into Charlestown of Aberlour, stopping in at the Coop on the way for a cold drink and other snacks.

We had planned to arrive here where we would have access to our tent and sleeping kit in the dark. Unfortunately, it was only ten past four in the afternoon, and yet we were both pretty jaded given we hadn’t slept yet. So we decided to stick to plan but just lay on the grass on our sleep mats to get some kip for about 2.5 hours. I convinced myself that although this meant wasting daylight for riding, at least it meant it would be cooler when we set off again. Sadly, my sleep was not gloriously deep as I had looked forward to, because we were right by a very noisy main road. In retrospect, maybe we should have had this sleep elsewhere, but it’s hard to decide in the moment.

Stage 6 – Weds 20:23 – bike to the sea (35.1km / 4h37)

This leg started with quite an intense climb, followed by a highly technical natural trail descent, now in the dark. I was at my limits, but constantly surprised and impressed to find Dave right there on my tail. As we blasted down some old forest tracks, I also revelled in how easy and fun it was to ride a mountain bike after many months riding similar terrain on a gravel bike!

Soon enough we were out onto some minor roads then attempting to follow the Speyside Way again. I was mightily annoyed due to the poor signage, which at times bore no resemblance to what we had mapped, and intermittently dropped in and out or was missing at key junctions. I did think to check that the next transition would be on the same route. I glanced down at the map – yes, red diamond right through it, excellent. What I didn’t spot was that the diamonds went in two directions at our intended turn off, and hence we found ourselves on a 20-minute diversion to the sea at Garmouth.

Stage 7 – Thurs 02:02 – mega orienteering & beach trek (36.5km / 10h10)

Although I felt as if the sleep before the bike had been inadequate, it must have done something, because we moved well through the transition, and I had some very cheery chat with Rachel who was handing out the bonus maps.

The walk-in to the first orienteering leg was quite long, and then we had to really focus on a map that this time had every possible detail. Now, I’m no great shakes as an orienteer, as any of my results in orienteering events will testify to. However, I have results in orienteering events, meaning that I am at least familiar with the maps and can do it, albeit slowly.

And so we worked our way through mile after mile of sand dunes, with a true highlight being the big bag of Bombay mix that Dave produced just after it got light and after a slightly dodgy spell with my tummy. We were careful, found all the controls (including number 6, which was particularly pesky) and emerged in one piece at Lossiemouth. I was very impressed with the accuracy of Dave’s counting / distance estimation – I soon stopped double checking when I requested something like ‘tell me when we’ve done 180m’. There followed a long beach run where our diligence to stick exactly to the prescribed mandatory route up and over the cliffs by the lighthouse was probably an unnecessary waste of energy.

I was feeling like I was all done with the heat and the trekking by the time we got to Gordonstoun, a famous private school where we had a more urban orienteering course to do. I found this straightforward, although one lady did get quite annoyed with us: ‘I don’t know why you’d come this way round the building when they are doing works on this side’ … we meekly backed out and went the other way without explaining that it was the direct route and our maps did not show live demolitions…

Finally we paused to get a drink and ice cream at the village shop before we made it to transition, me with sore feet and shins and glad it was over, Dave probably wishing it went on for twice as long rather than get back on his bike.

Stage 8 – Thurs 13:58 – long bike with interesting bits to break it up (130km / 17h56)

We had a lengthy transition where we just took our time and sat and ate lunch together without trying to multitask, whilst collecting our thoughts for the next leg. We also got some advice on how to loosen the springs on Dave’s pedals. This was as I had guessed but had been too timid to try. It had an immediate positive effect, and I wished I’d just done it after the first MTB leg.

Eventually we set off, getting another cold coke on the way out and considering our route options on the MTB orienteering map we’d just received.

The wayfinding was a little testing, this time following the Moray Coastal Trail, whose signage was even worse than the Speyside Way. I regretted not keeping a closer eye on distances and our location, as we weaved along through woods, taking total guesses on the correct route at various junctions and hoping for the best.

At one point I pulled ahead and, not seeing Dave behind me, stopped and turned back. He appeared round the corner with a look of consternation on his face. His seat post had been slipping & requiring constant readjustment all race and now the quick release clamp holding it up had given up the ghost and was no longer functioning at all.

By pure good fortune, not 20 metres from where we were, a girl was running a mobile beach sauna and had a fat bike lying by the car. After ascertaining the nearest bike shop was in Elgin, we asked if there was any chance at all whether, if it fitted, we could buy her seat clamp off her? She said it was her mum’s and she needed permission … there followed a very anxious wait whilst contact was made and we received the answer – YES we could borrow it. Then some moments of stress seeing if it actually fitted Dave’s bike – YES!!! Ecstatic, we were on our way again, though it took quite some time for Dave to relax and trust it was actually going to work. Louise and Fiona – thank you, you were awesome!

Kinloss Airfield was more fun than I had expected: who knew that a runway was just so wide and long?! I was oblivious to the apparently obvious Top Gun references and was more concerned about whether it was acceptable to pee on army property.

Next up was some MTB Orienteering – now this I haven’t done before, although the mapping is very similar to foot orienteering. I made my second notable nav error of the race, where I set off to control 6 instead of 16 .. once corrected we made good progress.

I got increasingly tired as we went round and was trying to keep myself awake and just make it to the end. One path looked overgrown, but passable, and was much shorter than the alternative. However, at the very top it turned into a wall of impenetrable gorse. Many other riders had clearly come this way, and we abandoned the bikes whilst we investigated every dead end until we found one that actually got us out.

After all this palaver, Dave had a slow puncture, which I was reluctant to try and actually fix (who wants to find what is probably a tiny thorn in a tyre when you’re as sleep deprived as I was?), so we resolved to just keep pumping it up and see what happened.

By the time we got to the end of the section, it was dark. I thought a quick mental break like we’d had at the trail centre would be wise, once we could find somewhere ‘suitable’. Somewhat comically, after lying down, nibbling a bit of food and chatting for about 10 minutes until the midges descended, we got up to go with Dave announcing he’d nodded off for a while. What?! We’d been talking the whole time! I guess my conversation was less fascinating than I thought…

We pressed on to the next exciting control at Lochindorb Castle, but I think our focus on ‘getting there’ got in the way of thinking about the best time to sleep. I was singing to myself, trying to talk in between and reportedly slurring my words. Meanwhile, Dave was making zero sense whatsoever. We were on an old railway that just went on and on and on, ever so slightly uphill. It was now the turn of Dave’s gears to play up, but I was in no mood to try and adjust them in case his hanger was bent from one of the tumbles. The last thing we needed now was a broken mech!

When we got to the loch side and I asked ‘shall we take a sleep here?’, Dave said yes quicker than you can say ‘midges incoming’. My alarm was set and we crawled into our bivi bags, pulling them right up over our heads to stay warm and midge free. 30 minutes later I went to wake Dave. After saying his name and shaking him quite hard several times, nothing was working. I gave up and resolved to reset the alarm for another hour.

The second wake up attempt was more successful and we got ourselves ready for a paddle across to the island with a castle. Dave seemed to think he’d let me down somehow, but I couldn’t fathom how. Later, it turned out this was maybe the surfacing of some whole other inner monologue that I’d not been party to – such are the strange things that happen when you’re so sleep deprived. I managed to get him to agree to sit back and relax whilst I used the single paddle to get us across and back. In the dark with gentle waters lapping at the boat, I genuinely rather enjoyed the provision of this taxi service, imagining I was delivering some sort of Scottish version of a gondola ride.

Once back on land we rode off again, making good progress to the ropes stage, where we zipped off a cliff and across a ravine, then climbed back out the way we had come.

There only remained ‘a bit’ more cycling along the Dava Way, which won the prize for best signposting, before rejoining the more confusing Speyside Way and some ensuing debate about whether we were allowed on the road like that other team, or should stay on the trail that ran alongside it at somewhat more effort (we took the latter option).

Eventually we got to the last climb where, as the issues with gears and tyres continued to conspire against him, Dave finally succumbed and filed a request to stop riding. I like to finish hard, so it wasn’t my first choice, but I decided on balance the right decision was to walk, talk and try not to make any stupid mistakes at the final turns. To be honest, it probably wasn’t an awful lot slower, and by the time we saw the buildings of the event centre peeking through the trees we were already riding again and pressed on to cross the finish line 6 minutes under 66h, well ahead of our planned schedule. We were both delighted to have completed the full course, which was our primary aim and a first for me.

We just won’t mention our failure to wake up for the finisher’s ceremony & dinner and the subsequent need to have our own pod party in the wee small hours of Saturday morning!

Reflections

This has to be one of my favourite events and just re-emphasised how much I love adventure racing in general, and this race specifically.

For a few days, I was totally focussed on something I enjoy i.e. staring at maps, finding our way and executing on the logistics we so meticulously planned before the event. Looking back, the times I felt rough were minimal compared to overall race duration and they were never bad enough to have made any impression compared to the times I travelled with a big grin either literal or metaphorical, loving being out in nature, whether in a kayak, on foot or on my bike (though I could skip the scorching sun!).

Despite a total dearth of what would traditionally be classed as decent trek / run training, what I had done (which did include some strength work and uphill treadmills) was sufficient and my ankle, which suffered so much earlier this year and last, seemed absolutely fine.

But more than all of that, it’s about who you do it with. After the success of racing with Maria last year, would it work out again this time around? Well yes, I quickly realised I could just be myself and not worry about it. There was an easy sense of companionship and no major disagreements or conflict to deal with (that I noticed, anyway!). Dave’s limited experience in adventure racing and some of the difficulties he faced could have turned things sour if he had not come in with the right mental attitude and amazing teamwork. Dave; once you’ve stopped being ‘mad at your bike’, maybe you’ll be tempted to give it another go!

As ever, big thank you to all the race organisers, planner, volunteers, photographers and everyone else who makes these things happen.

* If you don’t know about these, you need to read ‘Fox in Socks’ by Dr Seuss