Three Peaks Yacht Race 25 June 2011 Andy Bryant reports: For 5 days from Saturday 25 June Steve White and Andy Bryant ran, cycled, sailed and rowed the 3 peaks. This is the "grandfather of all three peaks races", with a 34 year history. It involves sailing 389 miles from mid-Wales to Scotland, running 68 miles and cycling 35 miles to ascend each of the British three peaks starting at the coast. We joined a team from Topsham in a yacht called Beeline. The start from Barmouth was challenging, with force 7 winds and up to 20' waves making our 27.5' boat pitch and roll dramatically, and forced the retirement of 3 other boats. Both Steve and Andy had a rough night with sea sickness, which made for a tough run up Snowdon at dawn the next morning. The sail from Caernarfon to Whitehaven was smoother, so at least we had some sleep before the next leg, Scafell Pike. This was a real epic, with 2.5hrs cycling and 6.5hrs running. There was just time for a quick shower before hopping back on the boat to catch the tide out of Whitehaven. The next sail took nearly 2 days, past the Mulls of Galloway and Kintyre, then past Islay and Jura into Loch Linnhe and on to Fort William. Although we lost ground to some competitor yachts on this section we had spectacular skies and scenery, good food and sound sleep. Alighting the boat for the final Ben Nevis run we were in perhaps the best shape yet and ready to run hard. The 18 mile 4409' run took us 4:06, nearly half an hour faster than our recce a couple of weeks earlier! As runners we placed 11th equal out of the 32 starters, with a total time on the hills of 18 hours. Overall our team placed 23rd, a pleasing result as we were the smallest boat in the field. The crew were brilliant, sailing us safely through challenging conditions, and everyone mucked in and got on really well. This was a race to remember forever and one I [Andy] hope to do again next year!