70 Wild Miles Kenny Short

I first became aware of “Glencoe 70 Wild Miles” in March 1996 when I saw a poster in the local leisure centre advertising the event. At this time I had competed in Triathlon for two years, and was looking for an event which would challenge me – the harder the better! Glencoe appeared to be the answer.

My first concern was that I had never been in a kayak in my life, but this was soon resolved with a crash course in white water kayaking (which – incidentally, has become one of the great loves of my life in the intervening 10 years!)

Suddenly my runs became longer and cycle routes much more interesting! Swimming was continued as a substitute for paddling as at this time I did not own any kayak equipment.

Sponsorship was raised from friends & family - £200 in the first year – and all was set. The old Fiesta was loaded up and Mandy & I headed for Glencoe on Friday (5^th?) June 1996.

Saturday 6^th June dawned grey and very windy – would the event be cancelled? I hoped not – what a waste of all that training! I remember registering on the Friday night, and confirming to Ian Allan that I was a soloist – to which he replied “Good man!” (I didn’t even know that you could enter as a team!)

Heading away from the White Corries was fantastic! Buachaille Etive Mor in the background and the wastes of Rannoch Moor in front was so dramatic it made the hairs on my neck stand up. The cycle passed in a flash, even the temporary traffic lights at Lochawe stayed green for me – and I arrived at Taynuilt looking forward to the kayak section.

Unfortunately, the stong winds had raised a significant swell – so much so that the lifeboats couldn’t launch – and for the only time during the ten years that I taken part in the event the kayak section was cancelled.

A short trip by kayak became a long minibus ride to take us to the bottom of Glen Etive and the start of the run. A half marathon almost continually uphill comes as a bit of a shock for a first timer – but the fantastic scenery of Glen Etive does wonders to distract the mind and an hour or so later the Coupal bridge was in sight and the end of the event.

Rehydration in the form of copious amounts of beer is mandatory at the famous post event party in the Glencoe Hotel – and has the added bonus of anaesthetising those aching muscles! Ache they may - but the friendly nature and spectacular atmosphere of the event soon induces a selective amnesia – and plans are soon being made on where improvements can be made on split times for next year.

The pre race literature for the 1997 event promised good weather – and for once this forecast proved to be correct!

14 June 1997 was a sunny warm day with virtually no wind. A much bigger entry was in evidence at the White Corries – with some serious contenders!

A lovely cycle followed to Taynuilt – where this year there was no fear of the kayak section being cancelled. I was ready to reveal my secret weapon – a home made skeg for my boat!

Paddling around the start area the directional stability of my kayak was superb – however, after the hooter sent us on our way I noted that I wasn’t travelling quite as fast as the other boats – and within a couple of miles I was dead last.

Surely I wasn’t so unfit? Was it the type of kayak? Or was it my skeg!!?? Convinced it was the later – I beached on some rocks and ripped off my skeg. On re-launching, quickly made gains on the tailenders and even passed a few.

My disaster of a skeg plan left me very tired – with the run still to come! This was the true Glencoe experience! It was a fantastic feeling to arrive at the end of the run having completed my first full Glencoe 70 Wild Miles – I was now hooked!

I was now a seasoned 70 Wild Miler – and reckoned I could do a bit better both in finishing time and in amount of sponsorship raised.

My initial motivation was certainly to complete the event in the best time – but with the passing years my main reason for taking part has changed to raising money for Cancer Research. Everyone knows someone who has suffered from cancer – for me this was my mother in law. Margaret was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1986 – which was treated successfully – or so we thought until it returned in this year.

Raising money for this charity whilst doing something which I loved now seemed like a very good idea. Hard training and hard fundraising provided better results on both fronts – which was just as well seeing as the weather certainly didn’t induce pleasure. It was bloody freezing!

Trying hard to improve on last year’s results I trained solid from Christmas for the 1999 event, and thought of more ways to get sponsors to part with their money!

I had a better bike and better boat this year – and was feeling pretty confident of a good result.

All went to plan until 5 miles from the end of the run when I hit the marathon runners “wall”! All I wanted to do was lie down in a ditch and go to sleep. Luckily my wife found me wandering up the Glen Etive road and found some fruit juice and chocolate for me. This revived me enough to jog to the finish but I’d blown my big chance at glory! My time of 5 hrs 19 was less than 7 minutes behind the winner – I certainly lost more time than this during my walk!

I probably shouldn’t have gone to Glencoe for the 2000 event, as by now my mother in law was very ill. However, Mandy was keen for me to go and I intended returning south immediately after the race.

The 70 Wild Miles gang had raised £229,000 before the 2001 race, and the event had assumed the logistics of a military campaign. The organisers and their fantastic helpers were, are, and will always be the stars of the event – we competitors (I would love to say athletes!) get to turn up on the day and enjoy ourselves!

There really are too many to thank individually – but the contribution of each and every one of them is hugely appreciated. I thank you all. As for the race itself, the windy conditions along with a leaky spraydeck conspired to fill my boat with water during the paddle – It felt like I was paddling a bath tub!

I had to stop twice to empty out the water and could have cried after 2 hrs 16 mins in the boat! Totally exhausted by the end of the run.

There was loads going on in my life during the spring of 2002 – so much so that I didn’t think I’d be able to take part in the event. I was still training for and taking part in sprint triathlons so knew that I’d be fit enough to get round if I could make it to Glencoe.

In the event I couldn’t keep away so a quick round of arm twisting to get some sponsorship raised and I was off.

It was a funny old race in 2002, with a couple of the fast boys picking up injuries, and many times lady winner and nicest competitor around Maggie Creber unable to do the kayak section due to a wrist injury. Maggie was kind enough to offer me her boat (a beautiful Kirton Inuk) which I gratefully accepted. (Previous to this I had generally borrowed a boat from Ian Allan which doubled as a middle age torture device it was so uncomfortable!)

The end result of these coincidences was that I managed to finish in second place! Amazing! I even beat my old adversary Hamish Irvine for the first (and probably last) time. Major celebrations were in order at the disco this year. Didn’t feel much like dancing next morning though……

The 14^th of June 2003 dawned calm, sunny & warm – and would stay that way all day.

A sobering start to the day was helping Christy McKee after she suffered an accident on the decent to the start line at White Corries. Christy suffered broken fingers, concussion and lots of bleeding bit after falling off her bike and to my knowledge is the first 70 Wild Miler to be hospitalised from an incident during the day.

I kept in touch with Christy after the race – and thankfully she had no lasting damage from her accident.

The calm conditions made it a year for the K1 boys on the loch, and Calum Urquhart used this to his full advantage, posting an astonishing overall record time of under 5 hours! I was happy enough in my brand new Kirton Inuk though – no more torture in Ians boat!

Every year I look forward to meeting up with all the regulars who have became friends over the years – and this year it was good to see Jimmy Smith back after a year’s absence. Jimmy has raised more money than anyone over the years. Long may it continue.

The course record was again broken this year – Simon Paton making it a hat-trick of wins in an incredible time of 4 hrs 45 mins! The favourable conditions helped me to a PB too this year! (maybe it was the outboard on the kayak) Fantastic organisation as always and logistics which should be a nightmare run as smoothly as ever.

Spare a thought for the organisers though – the effort going on behind the scenes starts in November and doesn’t stop until September! This effort has raised over £400,000 for the benefiting charities – a fantastic achievement – but the time has come for the administration of the event to be passed to these charities.

I hope that they continue to run the event in the friendly, open and inclusive way that Ian, Gordon, Ray and Brian have done over the past 16 years!

My tenth straight year. I will try to make it memorable – My plans to take part in my first Ironman in July means that I should be quite fit for 11^th June.

I have also set a target of at least £2040 for sponsorship – which would bring my own contribution to £10,000 over the past ten years. It’s not a massive amount – but it all helps.

As I write this our television screens are filled with images of devastation in SE Asia following the Boxing Day Tsunami. One comment from the region keeps coming back to me – that in times of disaster we see the best of humanity. The generosity of the world at this time is truly uplifting.

I feel privileged that I have I have been fit and able enough to help those less fortunate that myself on a yearly basis for the last ten years - through.