Kindrochit Quadrathlon

A very long day - and not just for the competitors.

Left the house at 4am to get to the start on the shores of Loch Tay for 5.30 - where I met (for the first time) a famous blipper.

Once I found out her real name, I only called her Hope about 5 times. Amazing the misconceptions you have about people - for some reason I was sure she was going to have an English accent - she doesn't.

Along with Andrew (not a blipper yet, but we're working it) we were to shoot the Quadrathlon for an event photography company. Nothing artistic required - our job was just to get as many good shots of each competitor as we could.

First I had to drive round to the other side of the Loch to shoot the swimmers exiting the Loch. 220 swimmers and 3 hours later, I caught up with Hope to catch the first of the competitors coming down off their sixth Munro of the day. (They only had 1 more to do). Meanwhile Andrew was freezing his toes off in the mist on the summit of some mountain - glad he volunteered for that one.

Then another drive to the other side of the Loch, where I spent a pleasant afternoon outside the Ardeonaig Hotel shooting the cycle stage. Many thanks to the hotel for supplying copious cups of tea to keep me awake...

Then it was back to the finish to catch up with Andrew and Hope, who were shooting the competitors as they sliced a melon with a sword to finish. (Don't ask).

A catch-up and debrief over dinner, and then headed home at 10.30pm, passing the last few unfortunate competitors who had still to finish.

Knackering day, but I met some great people and learned a lot.