Day 3 of the North Coast 500: Knowing when to quit

We awoke on day 3 of the North Coast 500 cycling adventure in our tents at Gairloch to heavy rain and driving winds. A place that the night before had been a haven after a long, hard day on the road felt bleak, cold and rather uninviting.

With a heavy heart we made the difficult decision this morning to quit our NC500 ride. The weather forecast had quickly turned from the blue skies and gentle breezes of day one, to five solid days ahead of gale force winds and driving rain. But I guess we were in the Scottish Highlands!

The decision felt difficult because we were disappointed, but this was supposed to be a fun adventure after all, not a torturous journey we forced ourselves to finish at all costs.

Knowing when to quit

Making the decision to not finish something you've started and so desperately want to finish is far from easy. Too often, we continue along a path out of sheer grit or stubbornness ("I know I can do this if I just try a bit harder"), but more often than not our behaviour is driven by a fear of failure. "This is what I set out to do - I don't want that feeling of failing; I can't be seen to quit."

Day 3 was our last day on the course. The excitement of the first couple of days had been replaced by disappointment as the weather took a turn for the worse. Driving rain and gales were forecast for the next five days, making continuing not only dangerous (with the amount of gear Damian and I were carrying on our bikes), but downright miserable.

Acting on new information

We had new information since starting out on Saturday; not only the deteriorating weather conditions, but I had a problem with my bike. We had to make a decision based upon this new information and know when to quit. So yesterday morning, we made the difficult decision to cycle no further along the NC500.

Today I am happy that we made the right choice with the information we had available and didn't battle on stubbornly. It's a lesson for other areas of life too. Kathy has recently made a similar very difficult decision and withdrawn from the European Middle Distance Triathlon Championships that she qualified for almost 3 years ago, but which has yet to take place due to the pandemic. She was due to (finally) represent Great Britain in her age group and race in Bilbao this September, but an ongoing niggling injury and the stress three years of training for the event has put upon her body (and life!), led Kathy to conclude it was right for her to quit. She had new information and was brave enough to act on that, ignoring the "If I just try a bit harder .." and "I can't be seen to quit" voices that can drown out all other voices.

A new strategy, the same goal

Having retrieved our bikes and returned to Inverness, we started to hatch a new plan. The aim was to have an adventure bike packing, and the route we chose was the NC500. Thankfully Kathy pointed out that the NC500 was just a strategy, not a goal. The goal remained the same: to have an adventure bike packing. In the moment of feeling exhausted after a hard day's cycling and disappointed to be quitting, I hadn't seen this so clearly. Bizarrely, Kathy's suggestion felt like a lightbulb moment and we started to plan again.

We have driven south to Yorkshire where the weather forecast is kinder and we are setting out today on the next leg of our adventure. I will keep you posted.

Farewell to the Highlands (for now). Here we come Yorkshire!