This was my first attempt at a 300k. I have found the last couple of 200k events i've done have been fairly straight forward to do, and with a 400 planned for August, it was about time i uped the distance.
a 6am start from Musselburgh train station meant i had to leave Selkirk at 4.30am! I was feeling a bit nervous, and didn't sleep very well the night before.
At just under 18hrs, it took almost 3 hrs longer than i expected it would take. It's a lovely route with some cracking roads but it is a hard route.
There was quite a big lead group for the run out to the Granites, where as you'd expect it splintered into several groups. The rain that had been forecast had arrived soon after we left Musselburgh. I was glad I had put on my heavier waterproof jacket, as it didn't look to improve for the rest of the day.
While climbing the Granites, I was spat out the back, and decided 300k was longer than i'd ever done before, and didn't want to blow up on the first 100!
I soon settled into a steady pace and was joined by Stephen and John and we stayed together for the rest of the day.
After a quick control in Innerleithen, it was onto the more familiar roads down to near Selkirk, then some not so familiar roads towards the border at Carter Bar, where we stopped for bacon rolls and pint mugs of tea.
From there a gentle tailwind meant it was a fast blast down to Elsdon and the excellent cafe control where we caught the faster groups. As lunch progressed a few more riders came in and after some excellent beans on toast and tea, our trio set off together into what was now sunshine
Elsdon to Alnwick packs in more hills than I would have thought possible for a stage of less than 40km. Most of the hills had pretty tough gradients and I was reduced to the granny ring on absolutely all of them. I found this really tough
We became a bit strung out, but regrouped for a coffee in Alnwick to recharge the batteries.
The flatter terrain up to Wooler allowed for some rest bite, but as we crossed the Tweed bridge into Coldstream, the heavens opened again. Luckly we were only a few minutes away from stopping for a pizza, but in that short period of time, we were totally drenched.
We headed back out into the rain, to face more climbing over to Dunbar and more familiar roads. This section started easily enough but from Duns onwards we were back in steep, hilly terrain, and my pizza was sitting heavy in my stomach.
From the top of one hill we finally got a great view of the sea and Torness power station just as darkness was falling. I assumed it would be just a couple of miles to Dunbar. One hour later, we arrived at Asda in Dunbar with minutes before it closed to collect another receipt. The rain had turned to hail, and I had to stop several times on route as i couldn't see a thing.
We sheltered under the door heater in Asda until they switched it off, and asked us to leave.
From there on it, it was plain sailing with a slight tail wind all the way back to Musselburgh, and the finish for a warming bowl of soup.
Route can be found here
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