♪ Girls Just Want to Have Fun ♪
Anna MacEwen
‘Mountain bike challenges don’t come much tougher or more rewarding than the Strathpuffer’
Is this how I sold it to the five other people that joined me at the start line on the morning of the 13th January 2024?!? I’m not sure I can remember now..
We originally signed up on line 6 months ago and I’m not quite sure they knew what they were agreeing to! But 6 months passed quickly and here we were- Strathpuffer 2024! A mid winter, 24 hour mountain bike race held near Strathpeffer in the Highlands.
We were a girls team of 2 (Zof & Louise, also known as Girls Just Want To Have Fun) and a mixed team of 4 (Me, Jodie, Sam & Hamish, also known as Girls Just Want To Have More Fun). Yes, Hamish is a boy (and my husband) but he was happy to join us girls in a team to help boost our numbers, have fun and form a full team!
Although the race began on the Saturday, the competition really began the day before with the running of the registration gauntlet. For Hamish and I, this involved a long drive, a short sleep and some sneaky lay-by parking to get to the start of the queue. A good queue position was vital in obtaining that elusive favourite parking space at the event itself. Of course, had we not done this before, we would have had no idea where to park. Being a seasoned 2 time Pufferrette now I had a plan and positioning was crucial! As luck would have it we nailed it- 3rd in the queue!! That’s a podium before we’ve even started. Sam joined us for set up and soon Hettie & Floyd (our two campervans) were sitting neatly side by side, awning out, gear sorted and ready for a long hard Saturday night of puffering to come!
The following morning came round quick and we were joined by the other team members. Soon the set up didn’t look quite so neat but the excitement, anticipation and general event buzz made up for any worries I had about tidiness. It was game time. ‘Oh god’, I thought, as I remembered that I’d agreed to go first!
As Zof and I gathered at the start line for our respective teams, I began to feel that inevitable pre race nausea. But then…. whistle. Aaaarg, chaos, we were off and I had to run. The start of the Strathpuffer involves a Le Mans style start. Traditionally this format had been used with racing cars and had drivers running to their cars to make for a more exciting start. Of course for us, no cars. Our team mates would hold our bikes at some distance from the start line and we would run, collect our bike and start riding. For someone that had barely run in the past 12 months this felt like an undertaking! I was thrilled to be able to stop running and start pedalling!
What came next was 25 hours of cycling. Each team alternated cyclists for each lap. Handing on the baton, or in this case dibber, with each lap. Anna-Hamish- Sam- Jodie-and repeat. This allowed us some rest. Poor Louise & Zof did not quite have the same luxury but in the same vain as our quad, they did not stop!
Two laps in for me and the dark was approaching. This was the real Strathpuffer now. Lights on and off we went into the night. From 4pm until 8am the next morning. It is at this point that you get a sense of the characters that you have chosen to race with. Very quickly I realised this lot were going to be fine. No, not fine, they were going to be amazing!!
Lap after lap after lap we cycled. Each hour listening out for the piercing cry of, ‘Cyndiiiiiii’. This was our chosen call to alert the next team member that it was their turn to get out there! (For anyone not aware, Cyndi lauper sang, ‘girls just want to have fun’ - apparently not every member of our team was aware of this but I’m sure you are).
And so we pedalled on over the hours of darkness. The course changed as we went into the night. The more technical sections that I had enjoyed so much in the light became more sketchy with tired legs and less illumination. On the flip side the fireroads became oddly appealing. Food was consumed, water was guzzled, drive trains were sprayed and oiled, fire pits burned, songs were sung, people danced, photos taken, brief snoozes were even had, and then ever so slowly the light of the next morning came and we were nearly there!
After all that we were at the end. Sam managed a final glory lap finishing just 15 minutes before the race came to a close. That left Girls Just Want To Have More Fun with 23 laps in total and an impressive fourth place out of twenty one teams in the mixed quads! We were so chuffed! Girls Just Want To Have Fun made Cyndi even prouder and went and won the thing. 19 laps and first place in the female pairs!!!
I was certainly buzzing for at least the next 24 hours. Heck I still feel slightly buzzy writing, and reliving the event now! As they say on the official event website, it’s tough but so rewarding! A brilliant event, a brillliant atmosphere, made so special by a fantastic bunch of girls (and a boy!). Thanks to you all & to you Cyndiiii! x
