The Dirt - Adventure Racing according to Robyn Benincasa
presented by Merrell - Wigwam

The prologue went off an hour late due to ferry delays. Once teams arrived at Kinloch Castle they were given 50 minutes to gather needed gear for the race start. Teams started the race La mans style with a 1k run in full wetsuits to a 700 meter swim in frigid water across Rhum bay to the primary island dock, so they were sweating and hurting at the end of the run and unable to feel their hands or feet 30 seconds after getting in the water. Once they made it to the dock racers transitioned to hiking gear for a 26k trek around the highest points on the island. The prologue while seemingly meaningless is slightly weighted, for every hour behind the 1st place team 15 minutes will be assessed. The time can be served anywhere on the course but the teams will not know when the penalty is coming. The race organization is predicting 6 hours for the prologue but I'm betting on 4 to 5 hours for the leaders.


The weather here has cleared up this last day, although still patchy clouds the sun has come out and stayed out for quite a while. It's very unpredictable here and it can change from comfortable to freezing in the blink of an eye. Scottish weather gets it reputation very honestly.

Once teams finish the prologue they'll camp here at the base of Kinloch Castle a barbecue has been laid on by the organization and all are invited, so if you're in the Rhum Island area drop in and we'll put another Haggis on the barby for you.

Tomorrow promises an early start so it pays to get the prologue over and move on to other things. I'll move on to something else now, more later.

--Jeff Akens