My Cape Wrath Boys

Setting out to run the Cape Wrath Ultra, there were lots of unknowns. Would my feet hold up for 8 days? How would my body cope, day-after-day over the rough Scottish terrain? How would tent-life be? 

Surprisingly, my feet held up until the tarmac of day 7, and my body coped miraculously well! Tent life?? The self-named babes of tent 13 were fabulous! I couldn’t have asked for better tent-mates, especially Jill, who I shared my sleeping compartment with.

It is probably no surprise to those who know me (I’m chatty, and love a good hug!), but I came away from the Cape Wrath Ultra with some very special friends; my Cape Wrath boys. 

Known initially as ‘Nikki and the tendonitis heels,’ before being renamed as ‘The Dream Team’, this motley crew consists of myself (31), Glenn (36), Owain (42), and Dad to the group - Ian (57).

In normal life you might not put us together; an ED doctor, a scientist, a product manager and a business innovation advisor; spanning 3 decades, and stretching from Sheffield to the Cairngorms. We might be an odd bunch, but the bond formed from mutual suffering (plus singing) is a long-lasting one!

I’d met Owain at a previous race; we’d shared bad jokes for 20km of the Highland Fling, my first Ultra. I’d just seen the Cape Wrath Ultra 2016 film, and told Owain I planned to enter if I finished. We both finished, and both entered! When it came to the Cape Wrath Ultra, we decided to start together but see how things went. Similarly paced, we ended up together for the whole race.

On day 2, after a bit of leap-frogging, Ian politely asked if he could join us. Whilst 3 could be seen as a crowd, Owain had already run out of jokes, and Ian turned up with a fresh set, plus some excellent story-telling skills!

Glenn didn’t join us until day 4, when his running partner thus far became injured. His excellent singing voice and good recollection of Disney lyrics meant he was a keeper. Our crew headed north, singing and chattering away.

Other runners laughed and commented that we seemed to be having too much fun; invariably you could hear us coming!

Since the Cape Wrath Ultra, we’ve met up many times. For our first reunion in the Cairngorms, Ian made us medals (Tour de Cairngorms!) and we even recorded our very own song.

We’ve run the Tour de Helvellyn together (all of us), Lakes in a Day (3 of us) and the Lakes Sky Ultra (2 of us).

Ian really needs to learn to say no!! He joined my team at short notice when we needed a man for the ITERA adventure race (sorry Ian...). I’m not sure he knew what he was letting himself in for!! And he was very easily persuaded into running the Spine Race with me this coming January.

The Cape Wrath Ultra was an incredible journey through some beautiful parts of Scotland, but more than that, it was the start of some very special friendships!