I have only just woken up after 17hrs sleep! Of the 8 starters, only 6 confessed that they were going to attempt the swim, the bike and the run. Such was the severity of the course. We started as a team of 3. Eddie Ette (Enduroman - the Arch 2 Arc world record holder) and Julian Crabtree.

This is Julian's 3rd year training for the Arch 2 Arc. In 2005 he had to cancel his attempt due to a shoulder injury and in 2006 he was taken ill with a serious virus so it was awful to see Julian pull out after around 65 miles on the bike with an ongoing back problem. We has stopped for almost 1hr as the medic had given Julian an injection and would take 40mins for the pain killing effect to take place. When Julian asked somebody to fasten the straps on his bike shoes for him, the support crew  had to pull the plug to prevent him causing serious damage. Hopefully he will fully recover before his attempt at the A2A.

I was very pleased with the swim, as I exited the water in first place in a time of just over 1hr and 20mins.  Our support crew was Nigel Winsper and Lucy. Nigel reported to us that a competitor had stopped next to their vehicle after about 15 miles on the bike course and threw his bike and helmet into a ditch swearing at the mountains!!

The views were nothing short of amazing and we enjoyed every minute. We took things very casual stopping for 40mins in T1 for a bacon sandwich, quick phone call with Nick and a brew, and we stopped for 35mins in T2 for a pasta meal.

We rode the last 2hrs in darkness with the support vehicle behind us providing the light. As we entered T2 we were told that the leader had to be pulled out by the medic after being found delirious half way up Snowdon only 6 miles from the run start.

Mike Trew was now in first place a couple of hours ahead of us. The only other racers left in the race were Eddie and I. We then realised that this wasn't any "normal" event. As sleep deprivation became an issue things started to get a little ugly but we managed to keep our sense of humour. The same couldn't be said of the support crew as we got growled at every time we leap frogged their position and gave the van window a knock to wake them up.

We were now running (sort of) the straights and downhills and walking the uphills. The run course followed most of the Snowdonia marathon course but it was the additions to the course to make up the extra 12 miles that caused the problems. The run was nothing short of a fell race and there we parts that Eddie and I went up almost on all-fours!!

I'm not sure on the finishing time. It was around the 27hr mark. The winner finished some 5hrs ahead. We were amazed to see that the winner and their support crew had waited for Eddie and I to finish. We were given our bottles of Champers and the organisers treated everybody to a fry-up in Pete's Cafe.