This week has been an interesting one. We have had a number of activities running including an introduction to sea kayaking course and then the big one, the Celtman. The Celtman is an Iron Man competition that was run in the Torridon/Wester Ross area.

The race involved a 3.5km swim, 200km cycle and 42km run. The swim was across Loch Shieldaig finishing in the village itself, the bicycle ride continued from there almost to Ullapool then down to Achnashellach. From Achnashellach the competitors had to go over the Coullin Pass then onto Beinn Eighe (over 1000m of Munro) before running back to Torridon Village hall and the finish line.

The Activities team were well represented by Ryan who competed in the event and who will write about his achievements in more detail later.

However the team were also in charge of the safety boats on the swim section of the course. This started with a piper playing the competitors into the water and then lining them up at the start line with Chris and Rich at ether end.

The conditions were perfect as there was no wind and the sun came out from behind the hills, bathing us in a golden light. As the competitors left the start , one kayaker led the race and then we had two kayakers on ether side down the field keeping everyone going in the right direction and making sure they were safe. We also had one kayaker at the tail making sure all competitors got in safely.

As well as the kayakers, we had motor boats from Torridon Sea Tours and Ruairi who stayed outside the cordon of kayakers in case there was an incident which required helping a swimmer to get out of the water. On each of these boats there were also two members of the Coastgard.  As well as the coastgard the boats had a number of photographers and members of the BBC, who were filming the whole race.

The fastest swimmer was off the water in under 40mins. From our point of veiw, the swim was a sucsess as all the competitors were able to complete it and get off the water under their own steam. The whole race was a fantastic achievement and congratulations to all those competitors who completed the course – especially Ryan.

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