Day 9 - 1st Rugby club (Lochaber RC)

Today I wheeled to Fort William, right next to Ben Nevis. We wheeled along Loch Oich, which was absolutely stunning. Picture, post card stunning. It was absolutely mesmerising!

The route was much the same as every day. Hills, cambers and some downhills. I had my first day where I ended up feeling quite low in energy after about 20km. I felt really faint all of a sudden. I had to have my bowel rubbish a day early, due to going to the first rugby club this evening. It happens, but it does make things very tricky. I end up swollen all over. It plays havoc with my kidneys as I end up severely dehydrated. But there is nothing I can do about it. I hydrate, a lot, which adds to the swelling initially, but then that drops off, which means more wee wee stops! (Poor Cat & Pam!). Pam have now become acquainted with my nether yeya! 🤣 When your doing endurance events like this, I'm finding that, there is no time for being embarrassed. You just have to get on with it, and get back to wheeling as soon as possible. Your dignity goes out of the window!

So, I digress... I was feeling quite faint. Which meant pulling over was in order. The only problem there was I was wheeling along an incredibly busy road, with very few lab by's. You can't just stop on a road like that, so I just had to keep going. The road was on an incline, so it was tough to get to fluids, so I just had to hope that I made it!

Well, obviously I did, or I wouldn't be writing this so soon 🤣 I pulled in, ate some food, in the form of a flapjack, and had a load of water with electrolyte tablets in it, and after about 15 mins, I was good to go!

With something like this, it's largely about pacing and managing things that come up.

So, feeling much better, I carried on and was actually making good time. The roads were extremely busy and getting busier. I was in periodic communication with the car via my earphones, which, when not talking to the car, I am using to listen to music. About 35km in, I was happily wheeling along, listening to some instrumental motivational music, when more cars beeped at me. Cars, lorries, bikes were constantly beeping, waving and shouting nice things at me. It was so kind and really helps when your knackered! Unbeknownst to me, the beeping on this occasion was the Car. Namely, my lovely Wife, Cat, beeping at me. I thought it was cars going by as always. Then I saw Neil filming from a lay by. Which he often does. He gestured me to come closer, so I did, and then carried on. The next thing I knew, about 15 minutes later was being phoned by Cat, shouting at me, 'what are you doing?'. I, of course had no idea what was going on, I was just wheeling and couldn't see behind me. But apparently they wanted me to pull in to let traffic go. Cat did and I didn't, and I carried on wheeling oblivious to anything, whilst Neil tried to manage traffic, and ended up running down the road! So it was a fraught few minutes and a learning curve, on how and what to do when we are on busy roads! 🤣

It was a long and tiring day. 44.5km in total. A bit more than a marathon. I made quite good time though, which was good. The accommodation was tricky to find. When we did find it, it was... interesting! I have now stayed in a council flat in Scotland. It was very nice inside. A bachelor pad, we thought. We soon learned that there was no heating or hot water. But there was good WiFi, and a massive TV and more TV's in every bedroom, which was great. But we did not get time to watch anything. It was in, unpack, sort out my kit and ready more for the next day. Have a cold bath, and get ready to go to the club.

We drove for about 10 mins, and there, with the most stunning backdrop was Lochaber RC. We pulled up with the ball on the roof.

There outside was the club manager and coach. Then in came all the girls team. I dragged my chair up the stairs to the club house, and there were so many people there. The girls team, boys team and ladies team were all there. It was incredible.

We handed over the ball to the ladies team, and received our next one. It was so brilliant. I was quite emotional. (I managed to choke it up, and not start blubbering!🤣). We had a massive group photo for the local news paper, which I was so happy about. All the club in the photo was so fantastic. It shows the rugby family. There's 3 generations of players at the club, which is amazing. So the 1st ball of the relay was handed to Eilidh, the captain Lochaber RC. She was really lovely. We had a great conversation about what they would like to see happening with the women's game, to improve things. It was interesting to hear that their thoughts, mirrored ours. Plus up there, some of the players had to travel for 3-4 hours ro get to a game. But they do it for the love of the game and the team. That's rugby for you 👌

They put on lovely Gluten Free buffet for us as well, which was so incredibly kind. For them to go through all of that trouble for me, was even more emotional. We did a Q&A. They asked a lot of questions too. So really engaged, which was fantastic. Then we had the chance to chat more to the ladies team, whilst the girls and boys had training.

It was an absolutely fantastic evening. One I will never forget. They were all very excited to fin out that their ball will be going to Glasgow Warriors, which made me very happy. 😊

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