Tired, sore and unable to fully comprehend the enormity of her incredible achievement, Caroline Livesey reflected on this week’s record-breaking North Coast 500 ride and insisted, ‘I could not have gone any quicker’.
The endurance superstar had clearly given everything she had. Six months of meticulous planning had culminated in an astonishing 32 hours and 21 minutes of pure pedal power around the Scottish Highlands, and she knew there was nothing left in the tank.
Even when her support crew informed her that she was three hours ahead of record pace, she refused to let up. While 35 hours was enough to claim the world record for a supported female – ratified by the World Ultra Cycling Association (WUCA) and Guinness World Records – she had other ideas.
Pushing herself to the absolute limit
The triathlete and gravel bike champion had trained so well in the lead-up to this week’s challenge that simply beating the old time of 36 hours and 39 minutes was not going to be enough for an athlete who clearly loves to push her body to the absolute limit.
Having set off from Inverness Castle at 4am on Wednesday, she whizzed through the towns and villages of Applecross and Achmelvich in the west and Durness and Duncansby Head in the north on a nonstop 830km (516 miles) clockwise trek around the scenic yet seriously punishing roads of north Scotland.
While it rained for 80% of her journey, crucially, there had been very little in the way of wind, and she returned to the Highland city having smashed the previous FKT by more than four hours.
Speaking to TRI247 as she continued her recovery from the ride, she said: “It was amazing. My body was very, very sore last night, and I was still kind of wired, so I didn’t sleep that well. I went up for another sleep just now, and I woke thinking that of all the hard things I’ve done so far, I think this might be the one I’ve enjoyed the most.
‘A really successful training block’
“A lot of that is because my preparation was so meticulous. I really had a very successful training block. Sometimes when you’re doing training blocks for hard things, you get injured, you get sick, or things just don’t go to plan, but I just had an amazing time.
“It made things easier, and it wasn’t easy, don’t get me wrong. It really wasn’t easy, but it made it easier to enjoy it because I was in a physical place where I was just able to go out there and do it at a pace that I knew I could hold.”
That pace ended up being a remarkable 27kph (16.7mph); something she knew she was capable of, having already achieved something similar on one of her many training runs.
“I was never just going there to simply try and break this record,” she said. “I have this approach with all the endurance events I do. I want to go there, and I want to execute it in the best way that I possibly can.
‘I was absolutely delighted’
“When the team were saying to me that I was three hours ahead of the record pace, it meant nothing to me. I wasn’t going to relax and go, ‘Oh, OK, well, I’ll just chill then and have a cup of tea’. For me, it was all about knowing what I could do, and in my head, I worked out that 32 hours was the fastest possible physical time that I could do.
“Somewhere between 32 and 35 was the goal. If it’s in the 33/34 hour mark, I would be really happy. If it’s 32 and something, I’ll know that I’ve executed it perfectly and that everything has gone to plan, there have been no problems, and I’ve absolutely nailed it.
“So, when I finished, I asked someone the running clock time, because by then my maths brain had gone out the window, and they said 32 hours, 21 minutes. Yeah. I was absolutely delighted. I could not have gone any quicker.”
Forced to dig deep both mentally and physically, she pushed on through her darkest hours by reminding herself of the main reason she took on this ‘crazy’ challenge in the first place – raising funds for her charity, Peak Education Nepal.
‘Raising awareness and funds for the charity’
Founded with her husband, Mark, they provide children who cannot afford it with the opportunity to get an education. They are currently supporting 12 through the charity, and it was the faces of those students that gave Caroline the momentum to ride on through the night without sleep.
“The world record was never really what I was after,” she explains. “It was really important to us that we had a foundation for fundraising for the charity and actually getting the name of the charity out there.
“The whole idea in the first place was to do something crazy that people would engage with and raise awareness and funds for the charity.
“One of the things that kept me going during the dark moments on that ride was thinking about each of the children that we currently support. I know each of them personally because we were there in December and we met all of them.
‘I know where this money is going’
“I was thinking about one of our girls. She wants to go on and do a nursing degree, and now we have the money to fund that for her. It’s a very tangible thing that I’m doing. Getting this money donated. I know where this money’s going… and I know how much good it is going to do.”
While there are no firm plans in the diary for another challenge just yet, this epic trek, ‘immersed’ in Scotland’s beautiful coastal scenery, has certainly whetted her appetite for more of the same.
“I honestly don’t even know what I’m doing tomorrow because it’s been such a focus of our lives for so long. I have not been able to think past this,” she said. “I need some time to get my head around what we have achieved this week.
“I think it will take a while for it to be clear in my head, because at the moment, it’s just a blur. It’s a blur of snapshots of things I’ve remembered, but I’ve forgotten massive chunks of it.
‘I’d love to do something like that again’
“I’ve got so much more respect now for people who do this sort of thing, world records and go and do crazy feats, especially those who do challenges that are over two weeks long and things like that. The amount of organising it takes is insane.
“But I’m sure there’ll be other projects. When I woke up from this nap I just had, I was thinking, I really enjoyed doing that. I’d love to do something like that again, but, at this moment, I’ve got no idea what that looks like.”
Whatever it is, you can bet it will involve another incredible feat of endurance and willpower.
You can read more about the Peak Education Nepal charity and donate to their cause on the website HERE.
