So, we are due to fly tonight to Patagonia, and you’d have thought that would be the easy bit.  Pack kit in bags, pack up bike, go to airport and fly.  Sadly, its never that easy.  Last night as a number of other teams headed off to Chile, they hit huge issues at the checkin desks, bags too heavy, too big, excess costs soaring to £1000’s!

So today we decided to ensure we actually got to the race we would just take bike bags instead.  Not too much of an issue, but as i am in London and all my other kit is in the Lake District, thats not so easy for me.  I have ended up shelling out for a new bike bag, which was a massive headache on its own, you ring up one shop, they tell you they have one.  Upon arriving they tell you that that one is actually for someone else.  So off to the next shop, taking on London’s morning traffic!

Finally i got hold of a bag, and have not packed it all up, and luckily it all fitted in, but i am pretty worried about how the baggage handlers will throw it around, can’t think of that though, so fingers crossed it will be ok.

All the rest of my kit is sorted i think.  There have been hundreds of emails back and forth about what we need, late changes to kit, who has what items, and what bags we are actually taking.

I think i am almost ready now, all that needs to be done is book the taxi, and get to the airport.  It’s a long journey, we leave tonight, (5th) and get to Punta Arenas at 8pm on the 6th.  We have a long stop over in Santiago and are being met by Marcelo from Prunesco, this will be a great chance to thank our sponsor and chat about races we have planned for the rest of the year.  Then the final flight to Punta Arenas with the other British team, Fast and Light, who have missed their connection inMadrid.

I am off for a run now, be good to get one last leg stretch in before being cooped up on a plane for hours, and to just see how i feel.

Keep watching the race for updates and satalite tracking  Wenger Patagoniain Expedition Race

Bruce

Its not long now till I’ll be flying over the Atlantic Ocean to Chile once again.  I can’t believe a whole year has rolled around since we last set off to Patagonia on a totally unknown adventure. Now we know exactly what we are letting ourselves in for, we know how wet, cold and miserable we might become, but still we are excited about heading back

The last year has seen a huge amount of changes in my life, leaving my full time job in the oil industry up in Aberdeen, moving to the Lake District, being a full time athlete and getting some outdoor qualifications.  These have been big changes, but ones I have embraced and thoroughly enjoyed.  I have trained hard all year, making the most of what I have on my doorstep, and I am intrigued to see if it makes a difference to how I race in Patagonia, and to see how my experience helps in the event, last year I was about to embark on my first expedition length race, now with a few under my belt, I hope it will go a lot smoother.

Final preparations for the Wenger Patagonian Expedition race have gone well, I found all my kit in all the various boxes and places I had it stored.  I have trained hard over the winter doing a lot of strength and conditioning work in the gym, and having had a year racing with and against my team mates we know each other really well.

There is still the usual last minute emails and phone calls to each other and the race organisers to ensure we have all the paperwork and kit that we need.  I still need to chase up a number of items, my insurance, passport details, medical certificates and climbing qualifications, but fingers crossed I can get it all sorted before the end of the week.

For the last few days I have been on the road, working for Threshold running training events for Nokia.  This involves long days and plenty of travel, but there have been some good friends working too, so we have managed to get in some good runs and training sessions between working.

This weekend is the latest in the Helly Hansen series of races, it is being held at Pirbright, and we are putting in 2 teams again.  I am racing with Nick and Tom, so hopefully we can challenge for the win against our big rivals in this race, VO^­­₂. Nicola, Mark and Howard are also racing together.  This will give us chance to meet up to swap kit, chat about the race, and test how fit we are, (and hope its all good, as we don’t have much time!).

Helly Hansen Race - Finish Line

I will continue to train hard to the end of this week, then next week will be much more steady, involve getting some good sleep in, and also plenty of food too!  The race starts in 9 days time, so its getting very real now.

To follow us when we are out in Patagonia, go to the race webpage for satellite tracking. Patagonian Expedition Race and follow Team Helly Hansen Prunesco.

I have just written a wee update for Sleepmonsters, and thought i’d pop it on here as well.  12 days to go till the race starts, getting nervous now!

Team Helly Hansen Prunesco are heading off to their first big race of 2010.  The same team of Nicola MacLeod, Mark Humphrey, Andy Wilson and Bruce Duncan are going back to Patagonia to take on the 2010 Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race.

This is a huge race, it is Chile’s bi centenary year, and as such Stjepan Pavicic, the racxe director, has planned a monster of a race, set to cross almost the whole of Tierra Del Fuego, and the Beagle Channel. (see a wee interview here with him http://gearjunkie.com/patagonia-tierra-del-fuego-expedition-trip)

What the team may face in Patagonia

As defending champions and also current World Champions, there will be a fair amount of pressure on the team, but they are hoping to have a steady race, they know the conditions that will face them, and are hoping that it will be tough with poor weather, which will suit the British racers fine.  ‘We are used to training in rubbish weather, we know how to cope with it, and to just get our heads down an get on with it’ said Mark Humphrey, out training in the snow, ice and now mud of the UK winter.

The team have been training hard over the last few months, running and biking in some pretty harsh conditions, as well as some good tough gym sessions, and with knowing more than 2 weeks in advance unlike last year, they should be more prepared.

Bruce has had an indoor kayak trainer set up in his barn, as the lakes have all been frozen.  Mark has been out pushing his wee lad around as resistance training, Nicola has been altitude training, (well, skiing in the Alps at least), and Andy has been eating lots to ensure he has enough on his body to keep warm this time.

There are some good teams heading out this year, the full list and number of teams has not been released, but there are known to be teams from Finland, Switzerland, USA, Canada and 2 teams from the UK.  Fast and Light, headed up by Simon Fisher has been onto Helly Hansen Prunesco for advice and tips on how to race, and they are keen to help each other out to ensure both teams finish, and finish well.

With only 12 days to go till the race starts, the team are rushing around trying to get all the kit from all our sponsors, and to make sure it all fits into our bags!  We have had some great help from sponsors over the past year, and hope this year to be able to get them even more coverage.

I will try and post another update before we head off to Chile, but remember to keep tabs on us during the race from the race website

www.patagonianexpeditionrace.com

Team Helly Hansen Prunesco

www.teamhellyhansenuk.com

Last weekend saw the annual Adventure Race Ball, which was held at Wilfs and the Brewery in Stavely Mill Yard.  It was a great gathering of folk from all over the country, and a rare occasion that we all meet up socially, and an even rarer occasion that we all get dressed up in posh frocks and smart suits.

We met in Ambleside for a mountain bike ride saturday morning, it was cold and wet, but we still had a good turn out.  We then proceeded to slip and slide our way to Hawkshead for a pub lunch before continuing on the ride back to Ambleside.  The paths were really icy, and made riding rather interesting, but i think the roads were the worst, no ice, then all of a sudden the whole road was covered, and you were going fast.  There were a few falls but nothing too bad.  My drive side crank arm was about to fall off too, poor bike maintainence!  So i stopped at the pub, and went for a run in the afternoon instead.

After glamming up and getting to the ball for a champagne reception, Wilfs laid on a great meal, and then the coveted Adventure Race Award Ceremony took place.  There were a lot given out, and all were well deserved, except mine, but i’ll keep that quiet!  A ceildh was then held, and with the adventurous type we all are, everyone was up dancing almost every time, this made it quite cosy, and a lot of toes were trodden on.  The basket dance was probably the best, and Ant Emmet and myself joined forces to ensure we got some great spinning going on.

Sunday morning was lovely, sunny and all the hills out of the cloud.  After a lot of people watch the Adventure Race World Championships on Channel 4 in the morning, (you can see it here, it is a brilliant show Adventure Race World Champs 2009), we all headed up Kentmere to go for a number of runs all varying in length.  The usuall AR faff occoured and parties got split up, but in the end everyone got the run they were after.

The long run went up to the reservoir, and then up the hills to the east, the snow was really deep still, and it was hard work plugging away up the hill to get to the ridge line.  Once up the snow was deep in places, and non existent in others having been blown off.  We ran along the ridge a short way before dropping back to the valley.  This was great fun, running, jumping, shoving, sliding our way down the snow.

Kentmere Reservoir

Running up the valley

Ant and Tom climbing up

Paul, Andy and Fi on the slog up

Paul and Helen on the top

Running on the ridge

It was lovely up high, the light was amazing, and again it was brilliant to be out with so many good friends all having fun.  Heading back to the valley, we ran pretty fast, burning off the excesses of the previous night, and working up a healthy appetite for our planned roast lunch in Stavely.

A last catch up with all the run groups in the pub, then everyone headed home, luckily i only had a 40min drive home, the folks heading south on the M6 had to contend with cows on the road!

Thanks to Ant Emmet for organising such an awesome weekend.

Well, i have once again been super busy over the last month.  I headed off to Canada, to the West Coast to get some great back country skiing in over christmas and new year.

It’s typical that as i go away, the UK has the best wintry period for years, but there was way more snow where i was, but shame not to be able to play in both.

Enjoying the stunning view high in the mountains

So a total of 9 days of great skiing in Canada, a few days at Whistler Blackcomb, a great overnight hut trip near Duffy Lake, then some lovelly day trips near Squamish.  The powder was amazing, so deep and kept being refreshed, so new tracks almost all the time, i have never skied in such conditions, fell in love with it.

Jon and Thomas with Blencathra in the background

Arriving home on the 2nd Jan, the snow was still lying thick on the Lakeland fells, so i was super happy to be able to get out and play in it.  My brother was also around, and i really enjoyed catching up with him and his wife and 2 wee kids.  Running with Jon is always good, i love the social side of being out in the gorgeous hills with my Brother, and the way he kills me as he is so much faster, one day i’ll get him on a bike!

My sister’s family all stayed at Dads as well for the week, so despite me being away fro christmas, we had a fantastic family week with all the wee children in superb weather.  Sledging, running, walking, skidding and chatting, a great way to ease into 2010.

A very frozen Blea Tarn with Harter Fell in the distance

I then headed over to Eskdale to do a wee bit of painting for some friends here  Fisherground Farm House its a stunning holiday house, that used to be the owners family house, so it was odd being back there to see the new layout and new function, and it was quiet, considering the noise and banter that always used to be present there.  Between painting i managed to get out for a run up to Blea Tarn.  It really is a beautiful place, my favourite valley in the Lake District.  I had my camera with me, and took some great wee shots.

I then headed to Manchester for a weekend, more snow and sledging fun was had, along with a walk up Kinder Scout in full on conditions.  It was quite busy up there, especially the fully frozen falls, there must have been about 4 parties queueing up to climb it.

Awesome new down sleeping bag.

Back to Keswick on Monday via a trip to our great new sponsor, ARK consultants, who are owners of The OMM and also bring in loads of cool amazing equipment from various countries.  It is all top end stuff, and we are very grateful for their support.  We are getting a bunch of stuff for Patagonia, which is only a few weeks away!

I have now moved house, up to the wilds of Darling How, a great wee cottage out the back of Whinlatter.  its great, but tricky to get to at the moment, the snow is pretty thick here, and snow chains are a must to get to the house.  A real shame i have a cold at the moment, as i can’t make the most of the stunning location.

Well, think that is me about up to date. Lots more coming up, friends launching a new range of gym equimpent, the Adventure Racing Ball in Stavely, Patagonia, training, and settling into my new place.

I hope everyone has had a great Christmas and New Year, and remember to get out there and play in the snow, who knows when we will get it this good again!!

After my wee trip down south, i had a manic few days of sorting all my kit out from the various places that i had it stored, to try and get everything i needed for my ski trip to Canada for Christmas.

The weather when i got home was amazing, beautiful cold crisp days, hardly a cloud in the sky, and SUN!! the first time i’d seen it for ages it felt.  I managed to get some good training in, i could feel my legs from the Helly Hansen race at the weekend, but tough spin session on wednesday night, and swimming thursday morning felt great.

After a meeting with James Thurlow about the race i am planning for next summer (www.adidas-ar.com) i set about sorting all my kit out.  I have a lot of stuff, and it took ages to find it all in the various boxes and then work out what i needed.

When i’d finished it was time to head out to go and see Warren Millers latest ski movie, it was amazing, such a cool film, really got me pumped up ready to go skiing.  The best line of the whole film was the quote by some old ski dude ‘ My Life is better than your Vacation!’  Loved it.

Friday was another lovely day, and i managed a sunset run along the mountain bike trails up at Whinlatter forest, it was great fun to run them and not ride, a bit odd, and very slippery in places.  Once at the top I headed over to the top of Lords Seat and then along the ridge to Broom Hill to over look the house i’m moving to in the new year.  It was a stunning evening, with amazing views right over to Scotland.  Heading back and down the rest of the trail i was feeling great, and was dissapointed i didn’t see a biker, was looking forward to a race!

After a great night out in Keswick with friends on Friday i got up early and headed to Windermere (www.windermerecanoeandkayak.com) to go paddling with Ant Emmet on surfskis.  We had chatted on wednesday about paddling the full lenght and back again.  So on a very cold, but stunning morning we headed off carefully trying to stay as dry as possible and hoping to not get too cold.  The views were amazing, and after 15mins of paddling we were both really hot, apart from our hands!

Getting to Waterhead (the top end of the lake) we quickly turned around, and headed south, it was a long way, and we started to think that we were doing too much in the cold.  We swapped boats at the halfway point, i jumped into the Elite Surfski (http://www.epickayaks.com/products/surfskikayaks/v10-sport) it was way tippier than the normal V10-sport, and gave me a serious abdominal workout to keep it upright, it was not the time to go swimming!

Getting near the bottom end of the lake i started to get tired, and felt like i was paddling through glue.  We swapped boats as my paddling was getting sloppy and that meant a very high chance of a swim, not what i wanted so far from where we had started.  I threw some food down me, and started to perk up, and thought I’d come this far, i may as well finish the trip, Ant was already off having said he had to do it, so he didn’t have to do it again!  I followed expecting to drop way back and then turn when he came back, but the food did the job and i almost caught him at the turn.  All that remained was to paddle back to the Kayak shop!  it seemed a long way, but we broke it down into small sections and paddled hard all the way back to beach in a time of 4hrs, not too bad considering how little kayaking we have done of late, and how cold it was.  Joe from the shop made us a cup of hot chocolate then it was time to head home to recover fully.\

Saturday was another night out! Been a few heavy nights, but was well worth it, a whole lot of fun was had up at the house i’m moving into in Jan.  Sadly having to get up early again to go Orienteering in Bleaberry Fell with my sister.

Bleaberry fell (read Hell!) is the area out the back of Walla Crag overlooking Keswick and Derwent Water.  It is covered in heather and bog, so it very physical, and with the low temps the bogs froze your feet.  I started badly, taking poor routes, but slowly started to race properly and was navigating well and cleanly.  I was very glad to reach the finish however, and to have won.

A wee walk up near Whinlatter followed catching up with my friends i’d been out with all weekend, enjoying a nice walk and good lunch after such a full weekend is very rewarding.  After all this was over, i headed home and cleaned everything away and got set to head to Canada the next day.

So i’ve been on a wee road trip the last 10 days.  I headed south after my weekend in Scotland and went to Wales to see some friends, John Laughlin and his wife Hester for a few days, it was great, we did some training, had some great banter, and chilled out while John studied for his medical exams!

I then headed to London to Nick Gracie’s house to see his family for a few days, it was good to catch up and chat about the past few months, and what lies ahead, sadly Nick was ill so we couldn’t get out and train though.  I did catch up with some other good friends, but as is usually the case for London, didn’t see everyone i had planned to.

Sunday i took part in the Helly Hansen race at Hawley Lake just near Camberly.  It was a big race, 350 teams of 3 people.  We had 2 teams entered, and up until about 30mins to go we still didn’t know who would do what.  So in the end Tom Gibbs, Paul Pickering (a last minute replacement for Nick Gracie) and myself ran as a male 3, and Nic MacLeod, Mark Humphrey and Howard Lowe raced as a mixed 3.

We didn’t know what to expect, Tom was still very tired from his World Champs efforts, as was Paul, and i was keen to race fast!  We set off at a good pace, and soon had loads of keen beans running past us on a nice track. but then we hit some soft woodland, and we flew past everyone, being able to run on uneven ground and slippery surfaces really is a skill you don’t realise till you see tarmac runners try it!  We came in in a good position on the run, and after a very speedy transition we were out 3rd on the bikes.  A fast 15km loop through some great singletrack and very wet tracks saw us return in 1st place, having passed VO2 who were replacing a punture!  It was so muddy and wet we were totally covered.

The transition to kayaks consisted of us dumping bikes and running in all bike kit, helmets included into the kayak.  A very short paddle and we were off the water almost before the next team arrived.  Back onto the bikes, and after over 1000 people had gone round the bike loop it was very deep sludgy mud!  We lapped hundreds of people, zooming past many like they were standing still (many were!).  Some people were shocked that we were already on lap 2, others were not so helpful in moving out of the way, but we squeezed past and got round in a good time.

Setting off on the run we knew we couldn’t ease up at all, and we pushed it at a similar pace to the first loop, coming into the obstacles area before even any marshalls!  We were good boys and did all the challenges and left before the next team arrived, a great sign on such a fast race.

Clambering over the slippery wall to finish in a time of 2hrs 18mins we were very happy, muddy and exhausted.  We had raced really well together, and were pleasantly suprised at our result.  VO2 finished over 5 mins behind us, so a comfortable victory.

Once finished we laughed at how muddy we were and washed both ourselves and our bikes in the lake and headed to the pub after the prize giving for a wee team social. The guys in the mixed team finished just behind For Goodness Shakes, so sadly missed out on the prizes.

It was a great race, good to win and continue the 100% winning streak Tom and myself have when racing together!  Meeting up and chatting with friends was great too, and it was fantastic to see my friends Claire, Alison and Hayley racing and finishing the whole race in a time of about 5hrs, they were shattered but i think they did enjoy some of it, and i was very proud to see them finish the whole thing.

Back home now in Keswick where it is raining again!

This weekend just gone i headed up to Aviemore with a bunch of top mountain bikers from Cumbria.  Its the 5th year they have been heading up, i first went up 2 years ago, and had a great time.  I was busy competing at the Landrover G4 trials.  So i was very happy to be heading back up to the amazing singletrack in the gorgeous forests around Aviemore.

Saturday was to be a big day, sadly one of the lads was ill all night and had to stay in bed, so the rest of us headed out for a huge ride, about 80km, mostly off road, with some big climbs and great singletrack.  The group are all superfast on their bikes, so there was very little stoppping, and no faffing.  We had no mechanicals or punctures, and enjoyed some great weather.  We headed north from Laganlia, our base for the weekend.  We skirted Loch an Eilein, then headed through to Loch Morlich before having a wee lunch stop at the Badaguish outdoor centre, where Pete Strong managed to cruise across the ‘rings’, no one else was up for it, so i thought i’d have a go.  I felt confident, but it all went horridly wrong in the middle, and needless to say i got very wet.  Carrying on i tried to warm up, and after an hour i could feel my toes again!

About to fall in the water, but doing all i can not to!

We arrived in Carrbridge, then headed up the River Dulnain, and headed up the long climb over the Burma Road, a great climb into the snowline, followed by a great fast decent in the dark.  Some more great tracks were riden in the dark giving some added challenges and some great images of 16 riders flying along on tight twisty tracks.

Sunday we woke to fresh snow, and the odd fluries still occuring.  Chris was back on song, and a shorter ride to the south was planned.  Heading into Inshriach to start we headed down Glen Feshie then climbed up over a ridge dropping down through some of the best single track i have riden for a long time, the added dusting of snow just capped it all off.  Plenty of awesome single track followed, finishing in a final all out blast, with John Houlihan just pipping others to the post.

Getting back to the centre, plenty of tea was drunk, then cars packed and we all headed south after about 12hrs of top class riding in great conditions.

Thanks to Peter Strong and Bryan Singleton for route planning and naving over the weekend.

After a gruelling 6 days of racing, with little more than 7hrs sleep, Team Helly Hansen – Prunesco consisting of Nicola Macleod, Nick Gracie, Tom Gibbs and Warren Bates with support crew James Thurlow and Nicola Wiseman were crowned Adventure Racing World Champions 2009. It has been a nail biting time trying to follow the 59 teams progress through the course with both mandatory checkpoints (CP’s) to visit and the “bonus” CP’s thrown into the mix. This made the event even harder for the teams, having to meet the strict cut off times and working out the strategy well in advance. Lack of information from the organisers and faulty GPS tracking devices made following the teams almost impossible on the race website. It was only through the power of Twitter that we could communicate with the teams support crew’s on the ground and other people supporting the event that enabled us to piece together the team’s positions.

On the back of winning the Wenger Patagonian Adventure Race win earlier in the year and now crowned World Champions the recently expanded Helly Hansen – Prunesco team have certainly put this squad firmly onto the Adventure racing map and are already looking forward to 2010.

2009 Adventure Race World Champions

Last night i headed down to Manchester to the Arndale Centre, where our team sponsor Helly Hansen were opening their first UK Brand store.

Team shot at the end of the Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race

Helly Hansen have many stores all over the world, but in the UK you could only buy HH kit in other outdoor shops, now it is possible to view their full range from High Street Fashion items to Technical Mountain and Sports Clothing.

I had never been to a launch before, so was a bit worried about it, what do i wear? Most of my kit is outdoor branded, but i don’t have any casual HH kit. I turned up to be met by a lot of very smartly turned out people, HH staff, VIP’s, including Theo Walcott’s girlfriend who is the face of the lifestyle range!

With an ice bar rapidly melting and lots of cameras flashing away, the store was opened with a few speaches and presentations. Howard Lowe, Fiona Patterson and myself were the sole athlete representatives, and many of the other folk there were impressed to hear exactly what we all do.

Following on from the store opening, we were set a wee challange to get to the Champagne Bar where the party would continue. It was a mini urban race, with 15 questions needing to be answered involving getting to a number of different shops with the map provided. We didn’t take it very serioulsy, but wandered around the shopping centre managing to get lost, but finally got out and found the answers and made it to the party where we were presented with a lovely buffet and champagne!

It had been a great night, very different from anything i’d been to before, but good for us to have been there to show our support in payment for the support they give us.

I wish the shop lots of success, which i think it will have in such a prime location.