As dusk settles slowly towards night over camp 3 at the Cape Wrath Ultra a very cold evening wind has sprung up and everyone in camp is finding out their warm jackets and hats.  

The chill will be of more concern to those still making their way towards the camp after a long and exhausting day, especially as they are moving slowly and there is a difficult finish to the day. 

The final descent is a steep one and racers need to stick closely to the path, then it’s a zig-zag descent into the valley to reach camp, which everyone has said goes on much, much longer than expected! Finally there is a river to cross and then at last they are in camp.

After a further 9 retirements at CP2, one which involved 3 vehicles transporting them out along an estate road there has been at least one further extraction from the course using a 4x4 and the participants who are now last on the course are just hitting the passage point times and are still on course for a 23.00 finish.  (It’s a developing situation of course, with the race monitoring positions and logistics.)

Participants are still coming in as I write and the latest to arrive is Gillam Boogerd of Holland who has had some ‘navigational problems’ on the last hill.  He’d lost a lot of time and I think climbed the hill twice somehow. He said, “I didn’t think 2400m of climbing was enough, so I did some more!”  He was still in good spirits and headed off to get some blisters treated and find some food.

It will be a late night for some of the staff, including the medical and catering team as they wait for the last participants, who will have little recovery time before restarting tomorrow. However, day 4 is shorter at 22 miles, with less climb and it promises to be even more spectacular as it winds its way through the mountains of Torridon.

Words by Rob Howard @ Sleepmonsters