![\"image\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/wpid-DSC023421.jpg\" "\\"DSC02342.JPG\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nToday I finished the challenge in a few seconds over three hours, pretty much what I predicted as far as time goes – but what a route this is! It begins by heading under the magnificent Culloden Viaduct in the running section, then heads steeply uphill.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The uphill last pretty much for the first six miles! In some parts it’s so steep that there’s no choice but to walk and even when I was running it was sometimes more of a shuffle than a run. The weather was hot and sunny – which gave magnificent views over the Moray Firth if you could drag your eyes off where your feet were landing on the rough tracks.<\/p>\n
From the top, the track continues for a mile or two before hitting grouse moor that must be crossed – and it’s boggy down there. Then there’s rough heather to cross before finally reaching tracks on the Moy Estate.<\/p>\n
By the time I got there my ability to run was limited! I was happy to reach transition and get on the bike. Inspired by the Tour de France, I went for it, using the few hills to gain some ground and pass a good few competitors, crossing the line in just over three hours.<\/p>\n
You can still sponsor me for the event at http:\/\/www.charitygiving.co.uk\/johndavidson<\/a> – you’ll be raising money for Raigmore’s cardiology unit.<\/p>\n The Heartbeat Challenge is a duathlon made up of a 12-mile run over the Monadhliath hills between Clava outside Inverness and Moy, followed by a 10-mile cycle back along the road to Clava. Today I finished the challenge in a few seconds over three hours, pretty much what I predicted as far as time goes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,83,84,50],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5M0xs-nJ","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1471"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1471"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1472,"href":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1471\/revisions\/1472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/a>