The pain from my knee was becoming unbearable. I like to think I have quite a high pain threshold thanks to all the injuries suffered throughout years of competitive BMX riding, but this started to concern me as I wasn’t moving at all and the pain was way too much. I tried to stand up but couldn’t. That’s the moment when I sat again for about 10 minutes and came to the realisation that I was not going to be able to keep running. A wave of emotion flooded my head, I couldn’t fathom the fact that that was it. All these months of preparation, training, logistics. I couldn’t cope with my thoughts, so grabbed my phone, sent the message to my crew letting them know I was heading to the closest road, stood up (this took about 5 minutes) and started heading down the mountain. It was 3pm and I was alone.

My name is Alvaro de la Camara, father of two little girls and a pretty standard guy with a nine-to-five job. I’m also the co-founder of Cycling4soup, a collective using sport as a means to share inspiring stories, explore new challenges and bring together communities by raising awareness and support for different organisations in need. I’ve bounced back from some huge setbacks in my life and now, I’m making the most of it by taking on epic challenges.

I’d spent the last 5 or so hours covering 30+ of the Charlie Ramsay Round. I’d got lost a few times, tripped once or twice and thoroughly enjoyed the incredible landscape on offer, as I moved through it. The weather was the perfect definition of Scottish summer, it went from very sunny, to cloudy and rainy and even snow at the top of some peaks.