On the Lowe Alpine Western Isles Challenge planning the route can take almost as long as completing it, which is saying something when the event covers 200 miles across 8 of the Outer Hebridean islands in 3 days.

Easily the most complex navigational race in the UK, the Challenge is the brain-child of Ian Callaghan, a hotel owner from the Isle of Harris who spends the long northern winter nights hunched over maps plotting a race requiring the thinking power of a supercomputer and the strength of superman. Then he applies this fiendish intelligence to designing a web site, and draws athletes from around the world to one of the most remote and beautiful parts of the British Isles. They are willing pawns in a game of physical chess and Callaghan is the Grand Master.

The end result was that 6 individuals and 18 teams arrived from as far away as the USA, Canada and Taiwan, (though even getting there from England and Wales was not easy). Mark Hartell, who was persuaded to enter late in ‘Team Lowe Alpine’ arrived with a bulging folder of spreadsheets, and he was not the only one.

The reason was this. The course covers almost the whole of the Outer Hebridean island chain, with checkpoints on 13 summits, in the middle of acres of bog or on the fabulous beaches, which stretch for miles round the coast. Provided the checkpoints are reached the route is almost entirely open, as are the number and position of changeover points for teams, which include a combination of 4 canoeists, runners, road and mountain bikers.

On top of that teams must run 80 km in a northerly direction over the 3 days, there are separate mountain bike time trials, optional canoe legs and swims, or a choice of checkpoints to visit at the start of day one. Oh, and Callaghan varies the rules and routes depending on circumstances as the race progresses.

    Rob Howard (2nd from right) interviews Robert Nagle at the finish.  Photo: Tony di Zinno

The canoeists set off from the Isle of Barra to start the race, and were soon caught in a fierce squall and rough seas. Rescue boats raced to those who capsized and 3 were pulled from the water and brought ashore. Then the baton, a kilt pin to which small squares of tweed were attached at each checkpoint, was passed to cyclists on South Uist, and teams began to run and cycle up the tracks of the Machair, the grassy coastal dunes. The individual entries scrambled from canoes and onto bikes to tackle a course only slightly shorter than that facing the teams.

As the showers chased spectacular rainbows round the sky and finally disappeared eastwards it was time to climb Beinn Mhor, the first of the big hills. Rising from a sea level landscape and with sheer cliffs falling away to one side it seemed huge, though the summit is only 620 metres high. All the hills had a grandeur and presence out of keeping with their modest heights.

Descent off Eaval. Photo:Rob Howard

This was especially true of Eaval, which the runners climbed later in the day. It is almost entirely surrounded by water, and careful navigation is needed to find a way through a maze of lochs at its base. From the summit St Kilda was visible one way and the towering cliffs of Skye, the Cullins, and Rhum the other. The landscape fell away to a sparking display of coast and lochs, and the hills of Harris huddled in the distance, waiting for the competitors the next day. There has never been a more spectacular checkpoint.

Photo: Tony Di Zinno

Back at sea level Mark Seddon of ‘Team Lowe Alpine’ was the only one to swim a tidal loch to progress northward, and vehicles, bikes and canoes buzzed about the isle in frenzied competition. The day culminated at Lochmaddy on North Uist, ready for the evening crossing on the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry to South Harris and by now one individual and two teams had realised they were too slow to complete the day. Only the Royal Marines, who were rescued at sea at the start of the day, missed the boat. Officers will shout.

The cycling start on Day 2 was a bizarre reflection of the freedom to choose routes. A flag was waved and half the teams went one way at high speed, half the other. Their routes up onto the wild, rocky ‘moonscape’ of the Harris hills were almost all different, and navigation in poor weather was now playing its part in the Challenge. This was true again later in the day on Clisham, at 799m, the highest point on the island, and a mountain with many dangerous cliffs. With 3 people lost on the hill at one stage, Callaghan was radiating tension as he manned the radios to keep in contact with checkpoints and the rescue services standing by.

While this was going on the mountain bike trial was circling the hill on tracks which in places can only be described as vertical bogs, and some canoeists were still out at sea on the east coast. The idea of a continuous relay may have been blown away, but it was anything but dull. Everyone still able to gathered at the village hall on Great Bernera that evening, but the complexity of the race was such no one really knew who was winning. However, it was clearly extremely close.

Day 3 started with canoeists heading for the famous standing stones at Callanish on Lewis, to be met by teams who had started earlier in the day on mountain running and road cycling sections. Then the baton was taken by bike, at speeds of up to 45mph across to Stornoway, into a fierce surf and cross wind in the canoes, a few more of which capsized, and then out into one of the largest, deepest areas of bog in the British Isles. From there it was on to the finish at The Butt of Lewis lighthouse, Europe’s most north-westerly point, where teams made emotional finishes, but still did not know the results. The only result which was clear was that Marc Laithwaite was a comfortable winner in the individual race. His time was 24 hours 19 minutes and if they make any more Superman films they should give him a call.

Team results were only announced at the prize-giving that evening, following serious number-crunching by Martin Stone, who looked more exhausted than all the competitors after surviving on 3 hours sleep a night for the better part of the week. After so much competitive effort, hundreds of route choices, risks, and changeovers, it was left to the Grand Master to make the final move. "In second equal place are ‘Team Lowe Alpine’ and ‘Fat Al and the Style Council’ in 35 hours and 36 minutes, and the winners in 35 hours and 34 minutes, are Sula Sgeir." Uproar, astonishment, joy, sorrow, dancing and much drinking were to follow.

Winners SulaSgeir at the Lighthouse.  Photo Rob Howard