THURSDAY28^TH SEPT 

Head off 4pm in bright sunshine - hit East Prawle (most southerly tip of Devon) 7pm in swirling mist and fog.  The weather and road signs with their country miles should have warned us about  the weekend we were about to endure.  We finally arrive at the B & B joking about fog, It’s like something out of Hounds of the Baskervilles as we feel our way along the tight Devon lanes, driving like Stevie Wonder. We felt our way into the B&B, when out of the mist 2 large Labradors catapult towards us - it was funny but you probably had to be there! That was the welcome to the lane of the 6 fingered glove. The “Munster” family we were billeted that night seemed friendly enough, as they made their local brew and discussed the slaughter of various livestock. It was time to get out. Check out the infamous “Pigs Nose” the finishing point 72 hours ahead! Asked Mr B&B way to pub and after insisting going over the detail of the instructions several times, thinking that with the fog, we may not get there in time to order food when actually it was only 150m down the road - another ‘had to be there’ to giggle. 

Picture Pirates of the Caribbean and that’s the Pigs Nose Pub.  They keep a till similar to the shop in Open All Hours but on steroids!  Keep count with notepad and pencil and growl at you when you ask for a drink or food!  We try the local energy drink “Thatcher’s” Food arrives - served by an Italian Chef - you have to use your imagine please!  So…. After 4 cloudy ciders and lasagne and chips we head back to the Adams Family B & B.  They are busy making apple wine and thrive on being totally self sufficient.  We crash after very long day looking forward to lots of sustenance for breakfast.

FRIDAY 29^TH

Olympic Full English for Tim - good choice ’cos ended up being the last decent meal until the Little Chef on the return trip.  Head off to check out finish 1 and ¼ miles of serious downhill.  Just a little mental prep for the ’adventure’ to follow.  Shelter from more wet sunshine in village café and chat to fellow C2C entrants.  Ask them how long it took them and they say 20 hours…WHAT!?  Enormity of the event descends.  Spend the next 3 and ½ hours travelling to the beautiful village of Brendon and my first experience of camping.  At least it wasn’t raining when we put up the tent.  Head off to pub for carbo loading NOT!  Worry event is being over sold and under delivered.  Order basket of chips for dessert.  10.30 head torches out then the sound of rain on canvas…uurrgghh but the weather was just getting going.  Wake up to blue skies - phew.  Breakfast seriously basic - what, no porridge and no bananas. 4 boxes of cereal and a couple of loaves of bread between 130 competitors! It was going to be a competitive event!! 

SATURDAY 30^TH
9am We’re Off.  Glad to get going after all the preparation.  Expecting tough 1 hour road run - oh no, mountain goat stuff in road shoes.  Awesome scenery.  7 miles takes 1 hour 20 mins! Just a bit lumpy but that was the easy bit!  Warm up over we hit T1 and the 58 mile cycle on mountain bikes across Exmoor.  Towing system installed on Tim’s seat post makes fellow competitors jealous.  Head off and up but need emergency repairs after only 5 mins but happy that we are still in the middle of the pack, so we think!  Know that we have to climb out of village but we were still climbing 20 miles later!  Difficult to appreciate the scenery when grinding up and flying down. Map reading, urgh!  We thought the cycle would take us 4 hours-ish tops so 6 and ½ hours later and several SOH failures when cycling Whitton F…g Down we hit T2 - Widdecombe on the Moor.  Duckety, duck that was tough.  Head wind so just no respite and so, so, sick of gels.  Tim not feeling too good due to lack of sustenance so we walk the 1^st mile of the 2nd 7 mile road run.

Meet up with 2 nice guys with similar trials and tribulations AND RAW I.T. BANDS!  Walk the downhills and finally hit camp 9 hours and 1 minute after we started.  Thinking that, surely there would be buckets of hot pasta - oh, no…a (singular) pie and a (singular) spoonful of potato AND salad! Urgh again.  Follow the meal with a nice cold shower and then torrential rain, thunder and lightning.  All part of the adventure!  Spirits still good and even refrain from going to the pub.  Tim missing home and family heaps.  9pm and still not everyone in.  Feel so sorry for them 12 hours and finishing in the lashing rain to find sleeping bag and kit has been left outside, and a cold pie left…Nice!!.  Industrial ear plugs needed. Difficult to get any sleep with the weather.  Cannot face venturing out to the loo so just have to tough it out and hang on till daybreak.  Thoughts of preparing all the kit and bikes not very enticing as was the breakfast or lack of it.  Weather so bad the pub shuttle abandoned, so no chance to find food. Even the ambulance with us aquaplaned and crashed bending the wheel

SUNDAY 1^ST OCT 
They delay the start of Day 2 by 45 minutes so make many trips to the loo but our tent is being used as a baggage store (we find out when 30 bags entomb us in the tent). So faffing time restricted to writhing on the wet floor trying to change the tires on the bike. Apply as much anti-fouling as we could. Vaseline and baby oil (Wendy’s idea which worked well) The rain has caused havoc with the mountain bike course and it seems that sheep sometimes get fed up with grass and eat the signs on the course. (We are not beyond this ourselves by now!)  1^st section of Day 2 is a 20 mile mountain bike.  Cannot face riding up the 25% incline before getting warm so opt for the walk option - did not lose much ground and hopefully saved a little bit of energy and mental strength for the journey to Totnes and the kayak section.  We miss check point as signs have been washed away - cannot worry about being disqualified as so many others missed check point, too. Marshal eventually instructs “every man for themselves and get to Totnes”  Getting used to country miles - how long can 5 miles be!  Hoorarh - T1 Day 2 Sun is shining.   

Think we will be able to relax a bit whilst sitting in kayak for 2 hours - thought we could eat, drink and get mobile signal!  But… head winds and rain cause stationary water skiing while having fireman point hose in your face….then it got difficult!  Just had to keep going,   Tim saves the day ’cos Wendy so ready to abandon ship. Duckety, duck Bit Time.  Bring back the Basingstoke Canal, please. Gusting 40 knot winds and wind over tide produce a tempest that capsizes or blows over scores of Kayakers. It’s grim going, and a moments rest sees you loosing ground to the wind. Wendy hauled out of kayak, unable to stop shaking and heads for shelter in the back of the ambulance. 

The Dartmouth Park we stumble too, like a herd of geriatrics with DT’s, looks like a refugee camp. There are many grown up adolescents shaking uncontrollably whilst exposing themselves to the local yokel old folk. (Much to there amusement. Stripping to your running shorts before getting re-dressed in the wind and rain.) Prepare for the 20 mile run and more gels…urgh.  Where’s the Costa Hot Chocolate when you need it?! 

But to our delight the first 5 miles are only a roller coaster of steps leading you from craggy cove to cove, Oh joy. Eventually we arrive 7 ½ miles in at CP1 at the end of Slapton Sands. A check of the “Passport” and the last water station for 13 miles. So with 3 ltr of water in the camelback sloshing about, on Douglas Bader’s borrowed legs we shuffled on. Tim’s IT bands now twanging like a banjo. 

In the distance one can clearly see Start point lighthouse. This stayed this way for the next 71/2 miles through the rest of the steep climbs and huge descents until the lighthouse appeared. Just 5-6 miles to go!!
 There was great camaraderie from fellow sufferers,  both overtaking and being overtaken. The sun was setting and light fading. The going underfoot was treacherous, and we knew we had to get a move on. This course in the dark was not going to be an option. Vertical cliff tops with gaping drops 4 feet to the side would not be a bag of laughs with a Legoland head torch.

Soon (figuratively speaking) we are there at the southern tip. Just the 1000 ft climb up to East Prawle and were there!! Done :O) 

Get signed in and recover the gear from various fields and a hot shower, Sausage in a bun (the slap up BBQ) and head for the bar. After finding out the accommodation for that evening reduced to sleeping in the car. (Weather too bad to pitch tents and the pub floor at £10.00 a head looking grim) We join in the merriment with some excellent re-hydration (Thatcher’s Cider) and the local one man band.  
It was great to catch up with the friends we had made over the last three days and yarn about the various stages of the race and how much massage, counselling and rehab we would need before rejoining the human race again. We ended up with the fixed grin of satisfied combatants (3 sheets to the wind) and the pub erupting to massive cheers when other later parties crawled through the door every 15 minutes, for a further 3 hours after we got in. By now the weather was atrocious, driving rain and strong wind and of course pitch black. The poor sod’s. 
All in all a great event. Could have been so much better with some more organizing. Hot showers, enough food and sleep would have made a big difference. But still a amazing race, fantastic company. Met some great people. And again the camaraderie between competitors was fantastic. 

Never again…….Well not this year :O)