Big Alps Run

So it begins...

2012-03-13T08:48:00.001-07:00

Saturday was the first race in the 2012 Runfurther ultra series. After the HPM, this always feels like the start of the year for me. I had recovered pretty well from the previous weekend, although my stomach took a day or two to finally sort itself out...

I left home at about 5, having had a small breakfast (I think early breakfast might be a key to sorting these stomach troubles) and arrived at Haworth in plenty of time. Before the start I felt pretty fit, so decided I would run fast but comfortably, and see what happened. On the start line the weather was certainly not as promised! Light drizzle made it chilly in shorts and a long sleeved top, which was all I had brought as a sunny day had been forecast. The start took us all by surprise and there was plenty of barging as we trotted out of the village on the road. Just as we turned off onto the track I found myself at the front and pushed on a little bit, after a while looking back to see that three of us had moved away from a larger group - Jim Mann, Jason Stevens and I. Woohoo - it was going as planned!

Bronte Bridge. Photo - Karen McDonald / Runfurther

The three of us had a good run over Bronte Bridge and up around Top Withins, although I couldn't have gone any faster over the slippery slabs, and had a couple of little mishaps! We stayed together to the checkpoint at Long Causeway (13 miles), and just after that I slipped back slightly as I was having stomach problems AGAIN (boo!). Shortly after this checkpoint I had stopped to check the map and Duncan Harris came past looking very strong, leaving Jim and I in 3rd / 4th.

We made our way towards the checkpoint at Makinholes Youth Hostel, but just before reaching the check we were overtaken by a big group of people, who had taken a better route than us. We were really disappointed as this put us back to around 10th place, so much so that Jim had a shot of Jura at the checkpoint! By this point my stomach was feeling ruuuubbish, so despite wanting to catch up with this group I bit the bullet and jumped over a wall for a few minutes.

Feeling refreshed I headed up Stoodley Pike. For some reason I like this hill, and took a good route to the top. This meant that I did catch up with Jim and the group who passed us at the top. I was pleased to be feeling good again and headed off down the hill towards the front of the group (now about 7 of us). We eventually made it to the road down into Hebden Bridge, which was very painful on the shins! After dipping into the village the route heads up again towards Heptonstall. At this point a few of us pushed on from the front of the group. Myself and Jim Rogers ran up the hill to the Heptonstall checkpoint well, which got us a decent gap.

Towards the end I started feeling pretty good again. I pulled away from Jim Rogers slightly but we were both caught by Jim Mann. I stuck with Jim so we were again 3rd and 4th as we passed through the last checkpoint. We kept the pace up and pulled away again from the group. Jim asked me whether I wanted to race it out or run in together... I thought he was stronger than me at the time so said I was happy to run in together, but if he could do then push on. My main focus was beating the guys behind. Jim was happy to run in together so we kept the pace high around the final reservoir and down a cobbled hill...

Me and Jim Mann. Good picture of the flowing locks - Thanks Karen!

Unfortunately just before the run around Penistone Hill Jim got a stitch and started to fade slightly. We were still ahead of the group though, and I decided we should finish together as long as there was a decent gap behind Jim. My line around Penistone Hill was better than last year (when I lost loads of places) and we were soon on the last run in, down through the churchyard and along a couple of little streets. Luckily there were passers-by to frantically ask "WHERE'S THE SCHOOL?!?!" and I could soon see the flags.

Then there was a small disaster, as Jim Rogers knew a little shortcut through a car park. It only got him 10 metres ahead of me, but he had caught up during the last run-in and managed to get ahead of me. With 20m to go there was no way I would get past him, I tried a shortcut across a flowerbed but was thwarted by a railing.

DAMN IT! Great race though... Duncan won, Jason second, Jim R third, me fourth, and Jim M fifth.

On a different subject, I went to see a couple of films at ShAFF on Sunday. First, the ski film All.I.Can., then Unbreakable, about the 2010 Western States 100 race. Both were brilliant... All.I.Can. is a "green" ski film, and as well as some fantastic photography it made some very interesting environmental points. Unbreakable was truly inspirational. I won't give it away, but the race between four of the best Ultra runners in the world on one of the most famous courses is just incredible.

A night on the bog

2012-03-06T03:27:00.000-08:00

Despite being about 3 hours from anywhere remotely Avon-esque, on Friday I joined the Avon Mountain Athletes to compete in the High Peak Marathon for the second time. This was slightly more organised than last time (when I joined the team at the last minute), and we had even managed to get together for a recce a couple of weeks ago. After finishing second to Flipper's Gang last year, we were keen to try harder this year and see if we could catch the blighters...

Avon Mountain Athletes... Ready!

As well as Flipper and friends, this year's entry list looked very strong, with the likes of Kim Collison and Dan Shrimpton (Crazy Diamonds), Kevin and Adam Perry in Young and Old, and plenty of others. We watched all these teams set off before us, hoping we would see them again as the night wore on. At 11:47 we set off, with only Flipper's Gang left in the hall.

As we expected, they caught up the minute and made a point of passing us on the first climb, although slightly after Hollins Cross this year. We abused them as they passed us then settled into the long night ahead, gradually catching teams as we moved on over Lose Hill and Win Hill, and onto the first big checkpoint at Moscar. Here we passed another few teams by only stopping to grab a jam sandwich and top up our water bottles, and pressed on down the road, where we saw Run MDC with Gary Davies (who I raced with at APEX) and Tom Gibbs (Adventure Racing royalty!).

I always struggle to remember the night-time sections of races, and not a lot sticks in my mind from this one, except some really boggy sections (it was quite damp this year) and both Tim Laney and myself having some stomach trouble. This didn't really slow us down too much though. Once we got towards the final third of the race we started asking checkpointers how many teams were ahead of us, and were told most times "about 6 or 7". This was a bit disappointing as last year we had been second "on the road" by this point. However we knew that some teams would be giving us up to half an hour, so we may well be higher up than this. Through the night we saw the High Peak Rollerbladers A LOT! We set off a minute behind them, and were pretty well matched. They were moving a little faster, but our route choice was a little better, and I'm sure they passed us at least 10 times.

As the saturday morning sun rose the fog and generally uninspiring weather continued, but we were still moving well. Martin's well recce-d route around Brown Knoll caught us another position and I thought we might be around 5th. We had hoped to target a sub-9 time, but the conditions had not allowed this. As always seems to happen with races finishing in Edale, the last section involved running through that horrible slurry-strewn farmyard (and there were cows... Argh!) then along some knee-bashing road to the village hall. We arrived back in 9:32, and found out later that this was good enough for 3rd place.

A checkpoint. Beep.

It would've been nice to do better than last year, but I guess a podium is good, and we were much closer to Flipper this time (24 mins vs. 53). It's an odd race this one, but I do actually enjoy it. I believe the same team are pencilled in for next year, and hopefully we can win in 2013... We might have to up our game though, some of the "new" teams from this year will be jolly fast once they know the way!

Now - rest, recover, train and taper in a week, it's nearly Wuthering Hike time!

What happened to some other teams...

- High Peak Rollerbladers - 2nd. 7 mins in front of us. 1st mixed.

- Crazy Diamonds - 5th. Some nav issues, they will be fast next year. Very please to beat Kim and Dan!

- Young and Old - 11th. Got a bit lost. We saw them at Swains Head, but then it all went wrong.

- Run MDC - 10th. Seemed to have enjoyed themselves!

- Accelerate - 13th. 5th Mixed team. Had a low point in the middle but finished strongly.

Step by step...

2012-02-27T13:31:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy couple of weeks... Last weekend I was out recceing the High Peak Marathon with the guys from Avon Mountain Athletes, who I'm racing with on 3rd March. We had a great run out and found a couple of sneaky little routes, which might save us a few minutes come race day (night).

The next day I was up at Whirlow Hall Farm to help with some photos and videos for the Big Running Weekend, which is happening this August Bank Holiday. There's going to be an ultra, a 10k, a trail race, beer and camping... What more could you ask for! The website will be up at www.bigrunningweekend.co.uk, with videos of me and Lisa from Whirlow Hall Farm trotting about on Stanage.

This weekend I took part in the first official stair race in Sheffield. I was one of the runners in the British Heart Foundation Arts Tower race, which involved us running from the lower ground floor up to the top 22 floors later. I went for a practice on Friday and found that you need to take two steps at a time, and use the handrails as much as possible! Oh, and that it REALLY hurts. On race day I was a couple of seconds slower (got excited and set off too fast), but got to the top in 1:54, which I believe was the fastest on the day.

Finally, the latest issue of Trail Running magazine is out now and I would encourage you to read it! I have done a quick interview which will appear in the next issue, which will be out on 22nd May, just after I set off.

Ultra Running and Beyond...

2012-02-11T10:22:00.000-08:00

Thursday night was the ShAFF "Ultra Running and Beyond..." night. The event was basically a question and answer session, and 70 people turned up to ask us about anything from shoes and food to just "WHY?!". I am told that feedback has been good so I think people enjoyed the night. Hopefully some people were inspired to have a go at their first ultra!

Picture from Accelerate (facebook page) - by James Kirby

I was a panellist, alongside Caz Bullard, Dan Shrimpton and Nik Cook. Stuart Hale of Accelerate organised and introduced the night, and Claire Maxted of Trail Running Magazine was our compare. The boss of the whole ShAFF thing, Matt Heason, was also there. The event was supported by New Balance, many thanks to them for the very fancy Minimus shoes, can't wait to try them but I just don't want to get them dirty

We talked about loads of things, and it was great for me to hear the opinions of the other panellists. I think I probably came across as the most un-scientific of the four of us in terms of things like nutrition and training plans, and perhaps I will try some of the suggestions from the other guys.

The only disappointing thing was that I didn't promote the Big Alps Run as much as I would've liked. I had hoped that the night could be the "launch" of BAR, but I now think I will do this on 14th February, which will be exactly three months before I start.

The Peak District was beautiful today, but very icy! Not a problem for the paragliders though, they seemed to be having a fantastic time. We took the dog for a walk around Stanage Edge then I had a good run along the edge path past Lodge Moor and Crosspool.

More photos from today on my Flickr... here

Open 5 - Warcop

2012-02-07T01:02:00.000-08:00

Sunday was my second Open 5 of the year. It went marginally better than the last one, ie. nothing went mechanically wrong! The event was based at the Warcop military training centre, a place which you can't normally access, so it was pretty cool to be there. Whilst out on the course I saw lots of old military hardware and blokes in camouflage hiding in the grass, and the odd crack of gunfire kept us on our toes!

Picture from James Kirby / Open Adventure

The snow had arrived, as predicted, at 2pm on Saturday. By the time Lucy Harris and I arrived at the hostel in Kirby Stephen it was about -3, and certainly felt like it remained so throughout the night in the Team Accelerate bedroom! Sunday was sunny, with a little fog on the tops, and snow high up. The course had been designed so that you could get a fair few points without going too high, but I think most people did anyway. I set off on the bike first, and went west for a reasonably successful loop through CPs 4, 3, 1, 2, out and back to 5, then 6 where I met Lucy Harris and Adam Marcinowicz for a while. Then we set off up the hill towards Long Fell and CP20. The climb was hard and long but good fun. After the checkpoint near the top I was still with Adam, and we headed up to the top, then east to CP16. So far so good. This descent is where the picture above was taken, in a rare moment of control!

Then, we tried to head for CP19. This is where things started to go wrong, with hindsight we should definitely have turned south at CP16. We lost about half an hour not finding the paths across the top before giving up and cutting across to CP15. I was now eating into my run time, but decided to get the high-pointers near the finish (12, 13, 9). I headed into transition after about 3 hours 35, with 290 points.

On the run, I set off west to pick up CPs 27, 29, 30 and 33. I got these without too much trouble, although my legs did take a while to get going properly. I then headed up to 39, losing maybe 5-10 minutes on the way up as I climbed the wrong hill (Middle Plantation), but thankfully realised before it was too late and cut back across. From there I knew it would be tough, a long climb up to Musgrave Scarth and CP38. I managed to run the whole climb and felt good at the top! I have marked the map wrong at this point, I actually climbed straight up to 36, then back down to 37. I was debating cutting straight across from 38 to 37, but although I was short of time, thought I would probably mess up the nav so headed up... From 36 I really had to step it up a gear and try to get back in time in order not to lose any of my 150 run points. It was always going to be hard, and despite throwing myself down the gap through the out of bounds area as fast as I could I finished about six minutes late, losing 12 points. I finished with 440, so ended up with 428. Having set off at the same time as me, Adam took a much more sensible run route, stayed slightly lower, got loads more points, and was back in time.

The problem I have with this type of event is that I just can't navigate well enough to be running or biking as fast as possible, so whilst on long climbs or sections between controls I can crack on a bit, I get passed again by all those people who can read a map! Congratulations to the rest of Team Accelerate - Dan was 2nd male solo, Dave and Nick 2nd male pair, and Lucy took her second female solo win... Looking good for the series now!

ShAFF is coming...

2012-01-19T09:24:00.000-08:00

This year's Sheffield Adventure Film Festival (ShAFF) takes place on 9th - 11th March this year, but before that there are some "Expert" nights - one of which is focusing on Ultra running, and features me! Nik Cook is hosting the event on 9th Feb, and I will be talking alongside Dan Shrimpton and fellow Team Accelerate-er Caz Bullard. The film festival itself features some brilliant films and talks from the likes of Angela Mudge and Jethro Lennox, here's the trailer...

Everyone who went to the festival last year and the year before said they would go again, so come and see us on 9th Feb, then get yourself there a month later! Click on www.shaff.co.uk to read more and book tickets.

Not a great start...

2012-01-09T23:35:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the first Open5 this year, and the first in the south... We were on the Quantock hills in Somerset. This should have been good news for me as I had been here a few times before (Lorna's parents live there), but things didn't quite go to plan...

I was excited at the start, as it would be my first ride out on my new bike. I entered, sorted my gear out, and elected to ride first. It was a 2km uphill ride from registration to the start, but by just after 10 I was ready to go! I dibbed the start, was given my control description sheet and started to mark them onto my map. A few minutes later I had marked the bike controls and set off, the points were split 350 / 250 so I thought I'd spend maybe 3 hrs on the bike. I went straight along a good track to CP17, no worries, then carried on to CP19, where I had a nightmare and couldn't find it. After a while I decided not to waste any more time and carried on to CP20. From there on to 18, but half way down a rocky descent there was a loud Pfttttttttttth... An inch-long cut in the sidewall of my tyre! As the tyres are tubeless I thought I'd not taken a spare tube or pump (silly boy), so now had no choice. The long walk to transition took me an hour, although I did find CP19 on the way back!

So I did a quick transition, and set off on the run, thinking I probably had time to clear it. However, it soon became clear that I had misplaced the control description sheet and pen during my bike-carrying (this was turning into an day to forget!), so I would be visiting ALL the controls on the map, even the ones that the didn't actually have any points. I was pretty frustrated by now and realised I would not be scoring highly, so just attacked the controls in order, working my way up the western side of the map, around and down the eastern side. Near the northern end of the area I met Matt and Rose, who (being a pair) had a spare control description sheet, so lent me their second one. After another navigational error meant I had to go down and up a big hill I turned around and made my way back towards the finish, not many controls to go now... But I was running out of time, and had to give up on CP37.

The icing on a thoroughly disappointing cake was that, despite my lowest score ever, I was a minute and a half late back so lost even more points! The only other Team Accelerate entry was Lucy, who showed how it's done and won the female solo category. To read a blog about how this adventure racing business is supposed to be done, see here.

Little Alps Run!

2011-12-27T10:45:00.000-08:00

At the moment I'm over in France with the family, staying in Villa Monette skiing from the village of Samoens. Today I took a day off the slopes and went for a run for a couple of hours. It was great to get up out of the village on foot for a change, and I set off up a mountain called Le Criou, which we climbed in the summer.

I ran along the road out to the village Vallon-en-Haut, then set off up the hill from about 700m. After an hour of winding through the woods I reached the hamlet Trot. No-one lives here during the winter, but there is a tiny "Buvette" (little shop/cafe which is occasionally open at weekends in the summer), which looked as though it had been left just a couple of hours ago - tablecloths still on tables and things hanging on the walls!

It was a great little run, the snow was only about a foot deep at worst, and the view was amazing all the way up and down, but especially from Trot where I could see mountains all around, including Mont Blanc.

Trot and the Buvette

Back down to Samoens

At the top (Mont Blanc behind)

Last race of the year...

2011-12-24T13:04:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I was in the Lakes for my last event of 2011, and one I'd been looking forward to since missing it last year... the Tour de Helvellyn, organised my Joe Faulkner and Nav4.

The race started on a cold but clear morning in Askham, with start times between 7 and 9am. Milling around before the start I spotted a few very fast-looking people, including Kim Collison, Bruce Duncan, and last year's winner Alex Pilkington. I started at 8:45, with about four or five people still in the hall, including all the above. The weather was good at the start and the ground was icy, but as we climbed the first hill I felt like I was moving well (first long run since slicing my knee a few weeks ago) and passed a fair few people.

The route was a lollipop shape, with a long run out, loop up and around the Helvellyn range, then the same run back in. By the time I hit the loop section I was going well and had not yet been passed by anyone from behind. I had just about caught up with Dave Spence from Team Accelerate, but as we hit the deep snow on the way up towards the ski centre, it was hard to pass anyone without putting in a huge effort. The loop around Helvellyn was pretty snowy most of the way round, and after what felt like a fast first third I now felt a bit carp, and dangled 50m or so behind Dave for a long time! During the climb Kim Collison came past looking like there wasn't any snow on the ground, he was flying. At the far end of the course I was really cold, because I hadn't stopped when I should have I now needed to take a while to put gloves on and eat, and I felt lost a bit of time here.

Now on the way back, I slowed down for a while (losing sight of Dave) but then got going again. Along the forest tracks I put maximum effort in, only to find I had taken a wrong turn and dropped too low, and having to climb again! Back onto the lollipop "handle" there were just two checkpoints to go, I felt the end was in sight, the snow had relented and I was running ok again. I passed a few more people who had started before me, and eventually ran into the finish in 7 hrs 24, which turned out to be 8th place. Kim won in 6:05.

I was pretty disappointed in this, I hoped that I might manage top 5 and around 6:30 - 7 hours. Dave finished in 7:35, and Bruce and Alex came in after me, but having started before me I was beaten by Bruce. Despite this it was a fantastic race, and one I will certainly be back to improve at!

Elite is a scary word!

2011-12-04T10:23:00.000-08:00

I found out a week or so ago that I have been accepted onto the University of Sheffield's Elite Sport Performance Scheme. This means I get a free gym membership and help and advice on training from the Sports team. The scheme can also help discuss time off with the University if required, although my PhD supervisor has been really great up to now so fingers crossed this won't be necessary! It's nice to be able to represent the University, and I am very grateful to those who support the ESPS financially in order to allow us to follow our dreams...

University of Sheffield Elite Sport

I have never spent much time (any time that should be!) in a gym before now, but I think it will be very useful. I have been using static bikes for warm up and down, then focusing on leg press type strength machines, as well as rowing and static weights.

And finally for now, some more news in brief...

Big Alps Run planning is reaching a critical point... Booking flights and getting things sorted. I am planning to start on something around 14th May.
Some ****** stole my bike from outside the Mappin Building on Portobello Street, Sheffield. If you spot a Yeti ARC with AXON forks looking suspicous I would be grateful if you would let me know.
It looks like I will be racing Raid in France again in 2012. This is brilliant news as it's the World Championships.
I have been asked to speak at the ShAFF (Sheffield Adventure Film Festival) in March. More on this to come, but again sounds fantastic, and hopefully a good opportunity for publicity!

Blood and Woofs

2011-12-04T10:08:00.000-08:00

I've been really busy for the last month or so, so haven't written anything on here. Apparently it's now nearly christmas, so here's a quick update on what's been going on (split over a couple of posts)!

The weekend after the Dark Peak Club Championships I was over in Staffordshire for the Roaches fell race. A 15 mile out-and-back race from Meerbrook Village hall, I was warned by regulars beforehand that the first (and therefore last) few fields were horribly boggy and slurry-ish. They weren't joking! Anyway, the race went quite well to begin with, and half way to the turnaround I was about 4th. The guy in front and I took a slight wrong turn and lost a couple of places, but then caught most of them back. However, it then all went a bit wrong... Coming down an off-camber descent in the woods I slid and tumbled over onto some gritstone rocks. These were like a cheesegrater on both knees, my right arm and left hand. To cut a long story short I lost a couple of places, got frustrated, consequently fell a couple more times, and finished the race in 11th, a bloody boggy knackered mess after losing a sprint finish with team mate Matt Hulley. We did at least win the team prize though, which was great.

After cleaning up and a few days' recovery, my legs looked like this:

Straight after the Roaches race presentation, we had the Runfurther series presentation. This year we unfortunately didn't have a nighttime party event like we have in the past, but it was good to catch up with everyone, confirm my 10th place in the series and look forward to next year's races!

So, what has been going on to keep me so busy for a month? Training, PhD-ing and whatever else I do obviously, but also a new arrival into the family...

She's called Dolly and is a 6 month-old Labrador/Terrier/Whippet mixture dog-type creature... She's a rescue dog (from Rain Rescue in Rotherham), so we are still unsure of her past and certain things seem to scare her, but she will make a great training partner!

Lizzy Hawker stops "Sky Dance" run

2011-11-07T10:41:00.000-08:00

One final thing (three posts today!)...

Lizzy Hawker has had to stop her 1000 mile run attempt. Hers is a bit more serious then mine - she was attempting to run the Great Himalayan Trail across Nepal. The run had to be stopped when she lost her communication equipment.

Lizzy is an incredible athlete, UTMB winner, world 24 hour record holder (she beat everyone in the mens and ladies' races by miles at the Commonwealth championships recently) and always seems a very calm and in control person. I hope I can approach my run with the same positivity as Lizzy always seems to show, although hopefully a different outcome!

Thule gold, Silva silver, Seagate bronze

2011-11-07T10:30:00.000-08:00

The Adventure Racing world championships in Tasmania have just finished. World championships are always longer than normal ARs, and the Thule team took 5 and a half days for this race. It sounds like a true epic, with Seagate leading throughout the race until they had to sit out a four hour penalty at the last checkpoint. At this point Thule overtook them, and Silva (who qualified for the world championships by winning the Apex race I took part in in May) squeezed past and held on to beat Seagate by just 4 minutes.

Lots of great reporting on Sleepmonsters.com

Next year the world championships will be held at the Raid in France. 6 days of hike-a-bike anyone?!

Dark Peak Club Championships

2011-11-07T10:18:00.000-08:00

This weekend was my first go at the Dark Peak Fell Runners (DPFR) club championships. The route was the Kinder triple crossing, starting and finishing at Edale.

Parts of the route were fairly straightforward, but the actual "crossings" over the boggy hell of Kinder Scout were less obvious. Not being a navigational expert I tried to stay within sight of the lead group on the first crossing, but as we spread out more and more during the race I struggled a bit and took some slightly dodgy lines, although I don't think I lost more than a minute or two overall.

The nine mile race was great, we seemed to either be running along a river, through a bog, or up or down a steep hill at all times. The winner of the race was Rob Little, who was handed the trophy in typical fell running style (in a carrier bag with an apology for "the faff of carrying it about"). I finished about 7 minutes later in 12th place, reasonably happy if not ecstatic with the position, but a great race!

In the evening we had the annual dinner too, which was a great event with some really good food, beer and (as I recall) an incredible dance display by myself and Rhys. My racing plans for the rest of the year seem to have changed every day recently, but I now think I'm running the Roaches fell race next weekend and the Tour de Helvellyn in December. This is a low-key 38 mile Winter ultra which sounds fantastic, can't wait!

Nice to be back!

2011-10-19T11:18:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I last posted, mainly due to moving house and the lack of internet. It's great to be back in Sheffield, having the Peak District on my doorstep again is fantastic!

Last weekend was the bi-annual Bob Graham 24 hour club reunion dinner, where the members of the Pudsey & Bramley travelling circus were presented with our certificates... It now hangs next to my degree certificate, and I can't decide which took more effort to achieve!

I also had a really good run while I was in the lakes. Having missed the entry deadline for Langdale I decided to go "Wainwright bagging", and had a great afternoon up and around the High Street area. The total was 9 Wainwrights in the end, in about 14 miles. It was pretty spectacular to be up there at sunset. I had heard these deer from a long way off, and finally saw them (appropriately enough) on Deer Fell.

It's the WfK AGM on friday and I have just sent Carey some posters to put up, so hopefully they will help drum up some more support! Here's one of the posters, just in case anyone wants to stick it up anywhere...

The hedges of the peak district

2011-09-25T15:00:00.000-07:00

Last weekend's High Peak 40 was not my greatest race. I travelled to Buxton on Friday night, planning to stay in the van overnight ready for the race on Saturday. Unfortunately it would seem that driving slowly late at night near a school attracts attention, and after looking for somewhere to stop for a while I was stopped by the police! After being breathalysed and told to drive less eratically I carried on and found a quiet road to stop on.

Anyway, the next day was the race. The HP40 is quite flat, with no big ups and downs. The terrain is also pretty hard (hard like tarmac, not hard like difficult), making it a relatively fast race. This means it's not my favourite race, but I had been feeling pretty good before the start, and decided that I would like to have a good go at winning a race. So when the pace wasn't too fast off the start I moved to the front, passed Martin Beale and set off into the unknown!

At checkpoint 1 I was, for the first time ever, the first person to arrive. I quickly grabbed a drink while my tally was stamped and continued. On to checkpoint two I was still running well within myself, but just before the CP had started to get a bit of stomach ache, so I slowed down and was caught by Jim Mann. We ran together and chatted through CP2 and on towards 3, then got slightly lost, staying too high past the passage control. Not a disaster but enough to allow a group of runners past us. We weren't too concerned though and agreed we would gradually catch them up.

However, this is where the problems started! I won't go into details, but for the next five hours I basically hopped from hedgeback, to dry stone wall, to public convenience, and so on... Somehow I had got bad stomach cramps and digestion issues. It was like the problem I had at Bradwell but longer, and due to the flatness of the course there was no uphill respite. There were a number of people who I passed five or more times during the race, which seemed to amuse them more and more each time!

Eventually the issues faded slightly, with about three of the fourteen checkpoints remaining. I think I was in around 20-30th position. The one-before-penultimate leg was a 5 mile road section, and it had just started to rain. At the time I was running with Jim again (who had been having similar problems to me!) and another guy. We ran well all the way along the road and caught a fair few people. At the checkpoint Jim retired and with about five miles to go I decided to go for it again, if only to get the end of a fairly disastrous race!

The last couple of legs were mostly off road, a bit lumpy and quite enjoyable. I overtook a few people, and was finally on the run in to the finish. Luckily, the van / local area / police disaster the night before meant I recognised the road in (a few people had problems finding their way into the finish).

Looking at the results I was surprised to be 11th, finishing in 6:38. The winner was Rob Sellors in 5:53. As my final counter in the Ultra Series I ended up with 888 points, actually better than I managed in the Lakeland 100 and Wuthering Hike, which felt like much better runs! Ah well, hopefully I can solve the stomach issues and one day win a race!

Raid in France Adventure Race

2011-09-13T16:08:00.000-07:00

It's taken a while, but here's a report on the Raid in France... There's also a video here

Before the Apex race in May, I said it would by my first and last expedition race. It didn't

quite go to plan, but it was a very memorable introduction to long races and I decided maybe

one more...

So I found myself in Buis le Baronnies in the south of France at the end of August,

preparing for the 2011 Raid in France. I was to be racing with Dave Spence, Caz Bullard and

Kev Honeyset, so I would definately be the least experienced member of the team! We arrived in Buis a couple of days before the start, and passed the time building bikes, shopping (mainly for cake), practicing our rope ascending and arguing with the event organisers over whether our candles were big enough. Sadly they were not and we had to get new candles.

Team Accelerate (l-r): Dave, Kev, Caz and me

The race was advertised as a “Back to Nature” event, part of which meant that we would not have access to our kit barrels very often. A very complicated system of bags would make sure that our bike and kayaking kit was in the right place, but essentially we would have to be self-sufficient for three legs of 30hrs+. This explained why the kit list suggested a 40 litre rucksack. It was at this point one member of our team noticed that the 20 litre OMM rucksack looks a lot like the bigger one when you're packing in a hurry!

The morning of the start arrived and at 6am we met in the centre of Buis. We were then bus-ed for a couple of hours to the start, warned about the dangers of Urds, and were ready for the first paddle leg. I was pretty nervous as we packed the boats and prepared our portage slings, there were a lot of very fast looking teams around! We carried the boats down to the water and assembled behind a vague start line across the water, then someone (probably) shouted “Alles” and the chaos began! I remember Kev saying something along the lines of “just get a paddle in the water if there's a gap”. As 50 teams tried to squeeze through a narrow rock archway there were boats sideways and the wrong way round, it was brilliant. It was 1.5km to the first portage, where we carried the boats for a while then passed them to race officials who threw them down a hill for us. Then back in for a 20km paddle to the end of the first kayak section.

Leg 2 was a trek along a river. It was about 7km I think, but basically as it sounds, we ran/trekked through a river which varied between ankle and waist deep. It was the middle of a hot day so this was quite welcome, although the bruises from slippery rocks not so much. After the trek we were in around 15^thplace and feeling good. Next was the first bike leg... This proved to be a bit of a monster! The bike legs in this race made up a big part of the total race distance, and trekking looked to be a small part of the race. This was until you realised that about 20% of the bike legs were hike-a-bike sections, as I recall always up massive hills. As we headed into the first night this started to get hard, but the views as the sun set were amazing. I don't have the exact time for each leg, but that first bike leg took somewhere in the region of 24 hours.

Before we go on, a disclaimer... I think this is the order things happened, but I could be wrong!

Next we had a trekking leg, which also included canyoning and caving sections. We had some issues with the caving map and despite finding the control relatively easily we emerged from the cave back at the entrance, so after some cartographical discussions went back for a second attempt. The cave was huge and very impressive. The canyoning section involved changing into wetsuits then sliding, climbing and abseiling down a canyon. Caz turned down a marriage proposal from the organiser, but not before we had all had a quick swig of his wine. Nice.

Leg 5 took us back onto the bikes and into our second night. This leg was not quite as brutal as the first bike section, but there was still plenty of time carrying our bikes. On this leg we had a fair bit of bad luck, particularly with Dave's bike which had a broken chain and two snapped spokes. We also all had punctures, and ran out of water at one point (we had to collect and purify water for the whole race). There was some great riding though, and some steep drops off the narrow ridges we were on. We took two hours sleep during this leg, and can confirm that a Terra Nova Laser can sleep four in luxurious comfort.

It was somewhere around this point that we were joined by Gordon, our 5^th member. It seems that the feeling of having another team member is a common one during these races, and as we all felt we were missing someone we gave him a name. Gordon even helped Kev up a hill at one point.

The mountain trek (leg 6) was a low point for me. I struggled for a long time to stay awake enough to put one foot in front of the other, and when the others would stop to navigate I would collapse for a two minute sleep. I don't know how long I was useless for but it felt like a long time! Having slept during the previous leg we knew we would miss the cut-off for the long mountain trek stage, and were short coursed at this point. We had a spectacular view of the ridge the leading teams would be on though. Leg 7 saw us back on the bikes and more one-legged riding from me (the bail-ready position). I think it was on this leg that I went over the bars and landed on my face. Bike training at home is all very well but it seems I need to practice more on a narrow ledge, in the dark, without sleep.

Leg 8 was a highlight of the race for me, the descent of the Drome river. After another couple of hours sleep we started at about 3am, and it was pretty difficult to follow the course of the river accurately in the dark. This meant we spent a lot of our time jumping out of the boat to pull or push ourselves back into the flowing section, and unfortunately did not do the ends of our paddles much good. I reckon we could get jobs as gondoleers though. The Petzl gods were also not on our side during this section and we had a number of problems with lights. In our boat all the batteries ran out, whereas Dave unfortunately left one of his lights at the bottom of the river. Shortly before it got light we reached the checkpoint halfway down the river, and were warned of a tricky section coming up. Lets just say one of our boats was more successful than the other, and Kev and I were grateful when the sun came out to warm us up...

Leg 9 (if I am in the right order) was another massive highlight for me. As part of a trekking leg we completed a Via Ferrata type course, followed by an amazing 210m abseil. The views all around were spectacular, and it was a very odd feeling as the overhanging rock fell away and I dangled hundreds of metres above the ground.

"We've just come from the top of that big one behind us..."

Leg 10 was our final bike leg, and we hoped Dave's remaining spokes would hold on. The full leg was 100km but we were short coursed again, and found ourselves in a cafe in a small village with two hours before the compulsary coach transport left. Luckily the owners were happy to provide sausage, chips and coffee. This tasted fantastic, but we were all a bit disappointed not to be able to ride the remainder of the leg. After some fun trying to get the coach working (five tired adventure racers cannot push a coach) we were off and soon all asleep. The restart would be in the morning, with teams going 5 minutes apart for the remainder of the bike leg and final trek. A nice bit off chaos to finish then...

Enforced stop before the finish

We felt rested and decided to race as hard as possible, and caught (I think) six teams during the remainder of the bike. Of course, this all meant we were then stuck in a huge queue along the final ropes section before descending to the finish, which was a little frustrating in sight of the village! We finished off with another amazing abseil and I soon forgot my frustration, being chased down by a cameraman also helped! From the bottom of the abseil we trekked through some serious undergrowth, if they weren't a mess before our legs certainly were after this. Finally we got the last stamp in our passport and headed home in the only fitting way for Raid in France... by trekking up a river.

We finished 10^th in the end, in a time of 93 hours and 12 minutes. Raid in France was a fantastic experience and I have learnt a lot about this type of racing. Maybe I should just do one more...

Well that was fun! The 2011 Rolex Fastnet Race

2011-08-21T12:38:00.000-07:00

Clearly the Fastnet is quite different to any of the other racing I have been doing recently. For any runners reading, here is an explanation (this is what I have been told anyway, as I am not exactly an old sea dawg myself)...

The Fastnet is one of the classic ocean yacht races. The start is from Cowes on the Isle of Wight, the route most boats then follow is along the south west coast of England, around the Lizard, throught the gap between Land's End and the Isles of Scilly, then turn and head for the south coast of Ireland, where at the western end is a small rock with a lighthouse on it - predictably called Fastnet Rock. After rounding the rock boats head back towards the Scillies, this time around the south of the islands, then east along the coast to finish in Plymouth. I was taking part in the race on a 40 ft yacht called Wild Spirit, with the eight other crew. Finishing times are anything between sub-48 hours for the fastest multi hull boats to nine days for the smaller boats. We were expecting something between 5 and 8 days (apparently it depends on the wind).

We set off on Sunday morning at 11am. I didn't really know what to expect. The start was madness with boats all over the place, all trying to get across the line at the right moment and in the right place. We saw all kinds and sizes of boats at the start including the expected winner, the brand new 100 ft "Rambler" with 21 professional crew on board. Our start went pretty well and we were underway along the south coast. We soon started our 4hrs on / 4 hrs off watch pattern. The weather was a bit rough at times during the first few days, and most of the crew were seasick at times.

Wild Spirit 2011 Fastnet Team

Due to the watch system and my general forgetfullness I am not sure when we passed the Scillies to set off across the Irish sea, but I would imagine it was around monday night. The weather was better now, with reasonably good wind most of the time and not too much sicknesss. I enjoyed a bit of helming ("driving the boat"), and things were generally pretty busy. This was likely to be the longest race I had ever done and I had been a bit concerned it would feel like a looooong time - 9 people on a 40ft boat for 6 days! But time seemed to pass quickly, and I really enjoyed the camraderie and teamwork side of things.

We rounded the rock at just after 9am on Wednesday, 40th of 68 starters in our IRC-4 class. Just after the rock the winds faded, and for a while our online tracker showed us doing some reversing! It is at times like these that the experienced sailors start to do things with the sails and steering wheel that the rest of us (ok, just me) understand about as much as some sort of witchcraft. At these times I do as I am told. My 45 degree tea-making has come on nicely! Anyway, once we got going again we seemed to make our way quite quickly back towards Cornwall, via an incredible evening with sunset, dolphins and even a sperm whale.

Being a northerner, I was not sure where Plymouth was, so was surprised to hear that it is quite far west, meaning that the return leg from the rock would be significantly shorter than the way out. It didn't seem to take long at all, at least until nearly the end. The end of the race was amazing, as we came in to around 5 miles to go, we started to see lots of green (starboard - right) lights, around 30 boats... Quite amazing to be so close together after five days! The wind dropped, we were all now up on deck, willing the wind to hold on enough to keep moving, whispering and moving around on tiptoe where necessary to try to keep some momentum.

Nautical items in this picture: Spinnaker, Cleats, Coachroof, Sheets, Bruce

Due to some impressive sailing from our crew we managed to approach from a different angle to the other boats and kept in the wind longer, meaning that we quite literally sailed past them, and made up a lot of places! It was not over though, as we weren't sure whether we would squeeze past the lighthouse at the entrance to Plymouth harbour, which was the marker at one end of the finish line. From the front of the boat I could see rocks outside the lighthouse and we tried to keep as far inside the line as possible to avoid having to tack and lose the places we had just gained... We squeezed just inside the rocks, and at 1:51am on Thursday morning the hooter went and we had finished!

The race was brilliant, and I am very grateful to Paul and the rest of the crew for the opportunity to race, and also for their patience with my inability!

PS: It really was a classic race this year, with both the multihull and monohull records broken by Banque Populaire (1d, 8h, 48m) and Azzam (1d, 19h, 39m) respectively, and the favourite capsizing near the rock (all here).

Final preperations...

2011-08-11T14:07:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I set off towards the Fastnet, then after that it's a quick few days at home, then off to Les Baronnies Provencales in the South of France for the Raid in France race. It's all very exciting! I have spent the last week training, packing and preparing for both, and everything is pretty much ready, including my fully AR-ed up bike...

You can follow my progress in each race online:
For the Fastnet - I am on board "Wild Spirit", in IRC class 4. http://fastnet.rorc.org/2011-fleet-tracking.html
During the Raid in France, look for "Team Accelerate", here http://chrono.geofp.com/rif2011/

In sickness and in health... Long Tour of Bradwell

2011-08-07T14:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the Long Tour of Bradwell, my third counter in the Vasque Ultra Series this year (the others being Wuthering Hike, Lakeland 100 and High Peak 40). Being the week after the 100 my legs were still feeling a bit battered by thursday and I wasn't sure whether I was going to run or not, but it was a good excuse to go see people in Sheffeld on friday night.

So, with predictable slight hangovers Lorna and I arrived at Bradwell Sports Pavillion. After a cup of coffee, registering and all that malarkey it was soon 9 o'clock and I was standing with everyone else ready to go. We set off straight up a slight hill, first on the road then up through the cement works. Everyone set off at a fair pace, but perhaps not as stupidly fast as last year. Four of us were running together as the climb levelled off, then steepened. Unfortunately I had started with my waterproof on which turned out to be a bad plan and I was soon boiling, so had to stop to take it off. Luckily I caught the guys again when they stopped to dib at the second CP.

After a while we were descending down Cavedale, but I was feeling rubbish. I had been trying to drink some water with energy powder in it, but it had foamed up and seemed to be giving me stomach cramps. Towards the bottom I was in pain and going really slowly. I dropped off the back of the group and was passed by David Jelley at the CP in the village. Along the road section from here to the bottom of the next big climb I found that if I ran bend double it was less painful, so I tried to do that and keep moving as fast as possible (not very fast).

Cavedale on a sunnier day than yesterday

After a while (and some stuff I've forgotten) we climbed up to Stanage Edge. On the way up we dibbed at the CP, as I did so I looked back and saw a few people getting closer to me, so I decided to try to run hard along the edge. Despite the on and off rain there were quite a lot of people climbing, which took my mind off my stomach a bit. On the way down to the next checkpoint I was passed by Simon White, who was running well. I stayed with him for a bit down past Higger Tor but after a while he escaped.

It was getting close to the end now and the 100 was starting to catch up with me. Luckily my stomach had settled a bit by just drinking plain water, although I have never eaten less in a race of this distance. At CP 15 there were three of us together in 5/6/7th, one of whom was Kevin Perry who I had run with for a while last weekend. I got away from the CP just before them so had a small gap. It wasn't far to the quick dib at CP16, it was now just Kevin and I. The run down from the last checkpoint was quite enjoyable... A few tracks to start with, then over fields and down a couple of nice steep descents into the south end of the village. Just a run up through the village and out the other side now, about one km to go. I had maybe 20m on Kevin as we entered the village, but I lost these looking for a set of steps through the village, and it looked like we might be sprinting for 5th.

As we passed through the top end of the village (the Sports Pavillion is just outside) Kevin picked up the pace and ran past me. I ran as hard as I could, as you could tell from the looks of horror on the faces of pedestrians I ran towards, but could not catch him. In the end, he beat me by 23 seconds. We had run a good last couple of legs though, and I was pleased that he seemed as knackered as me.

In the end I was pleased with 6th in 5:47:49. Mark Anderson won a great race to win by over 20 mins in 5:22.

Now I have a week to get ready for a busy month... Fastnet followed swiftly by Raid in France! Time to pack...

No rain and free socks... a successful weekend!

2011-08-03T16:09:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was the Lakeland 100. After a disappointing Pudsey 10k I wasn't sure I was going to have a good run, I'm finding it very hard to tell how fit I am at the moment so every race is a bit of a mystery!

Anyway, I was looking forward to L100, it's a fantastic race. The combined L100 and L50 had over 600 entries this year, with 224 of us attempting the 105 (!) miler.

After a briefing with the race organisers and some inspirational words from Joss Naylor we started at 5:30pm on Friday, off into a pretty warm evening. From Coniston we set off up Walna Scar Road, and the pace was pretty high. Everyone knows that this happens in every race and that hanging back and moving through the field later is the sensible thing to do, but of course I didn't do this. You can see me somewhere in this picture as we make our way up out of Coniston...

The first leg was 7 miles to Seathwaite and it was good to finally be going, and to have a chat to Adam Perry and a few other guys. After doing 29:44 last year I decided to set off on a 27 hour schedule this year and see what happened. Quickly through Seathwaite and on to CP2 at Boot - midway through this section is a very boggy part, I was feeling a little unwell and wondered if I had gone off too fast again. To catch a long story short I rejoined the stream of runners a bit lower down the field, probably about 20th.

The next two legs (Boot - Wasdale - Buttermere) included about 1000m of ascent. Up to now it had been warm and we had seen some spectacular views, particularly up to Wasdale head and on to Black Sail Pass. My stomach was still not too happy, but I was eating well so all ok. By the time I arrived in Buttermere at 11pm I was about 15 mins up on schedule, and in a group of 8 with 6 runners in front. Here we saw last year's winner Stuart Mills, who was supporting the race this year. He was very positive and encouraging and it was good to see him a few times on Friday night and again on Saturday afternoon.

At Buttermere checkpoint a few of us tried to escape quickly and reduce the group of eight. After a while I think there were four of us (it was dark now!), and we pootled on to Braithwaite. I can't really remember much of this leg, but after Braithwaite we set off on a section along the side of the A66. Here two guys made a "break" for it and headed off ahead of the rest of us, leaving myself and a South African guy called Jeff in 9th/10th. Jeff was running faster than me, but had to take his shoes off at each checkpoint, so we kept catching up with each other. When I met Jeff at the Blencathra checkpoint it was about 3am, not too long till daylight, and best of all this checkpoint had a big box full of socks to give away! I didn't want to change yet, but took a pair with me for later.

By now it was daylight, and I was pleased to be heading for the mid point checkpoint at Dalemain. This is actually a bit ahead of halfway at 59 miles. Here we had access to a bag we had sent on from the start, so I restocked my Haribo, had some pasta, ditched the big headtorch and put my free socks on... ready to go! So far so good, 13 hours 11 in and half an hour up on schedule.

The next thing I remember clearly is meeting Mum and Dad, my brother Ed and Karen and Si at the Howtown checkpoint. Jeff had gone on ahead now but I caught up with another runner just before the checkpoint. We set off together on the climb up towards High Kop, the highest point on the course at 670m, then on down towards Mardale Head. On the last descent to Haweswater I made a biiiiiiiig nav mistake and ended up bushwhacking through a lot of foliage. Eventually I got to Mardale Head checkpoint, through and on up to Gatesgarth Head. I'll keep this one short again as memory fails me... The Kentmere checkpoint was a good one, I saw Mum, Dad and Ed again and there were smoothies too!

From Kentmere I felt really good again and enjoyed the run from CP12 to CP13. I had caught up with the guy I had been running with along this section and we arrived at the Lakesrunner shop in Ambleside together. This was another quality checkpoint with loads of food and encouraging people! Getting to the Ambleside checkpoint is always a great boost, with two checkpoints and 15 miles to go. I didn't stop too long as sitting down at this stage can mean you're there for a long time.

After Ambleside we set off towards Chapel Stile. On the way out through Rothay Park the guy in front pushed on and got a hundred metres or so gap on me, so I had pretty much settled myself for 11th place. I ran all the section along the edge of the river into Elterwater village, but definately didn't feel as good as I did along this section last year. Past the Wainwright Inn I got a good boost from the people cheering and headed up to the checkpoint. Not too long now... However, the section to Tilberthwaite is a tough one.

The penultimate leg of this race has always seemed very convoluted to me, as if it goes round in a big circle for the sake of it. It wasn't all that bad this year though, partly due to the weather and how I was feeling, but also as I started to see a couple of guys in the distance on longer sections. I didn't rush to overtake them but stayed behind for a while until I was confident of the nav to the next checkpoint, then went past them. They were still moving ok so I would have to work to stay ahead! On the final part of the leg into Tilberthwaite I was convinced I had done a typical me and gone the wrong way at a critical moment, but in the end I got to the final CP.

3.5 miles to go, up a short sharp climb then down a long descent. As I left the checkpoint the staff told me they could see people catching up behind me so I pushed on up the steps to try to stay ahead. However I had drank too much coffee at the checkpoint and felt sick all the way up. Eventually I reached the flatter section at the top and decided to stop looking behind me and just run as fast as I could to the finish, it would either work or I would be overtaken but either way I looked on for a good PB!

Along the narrow track by Crook Beck, over the summit, down the twisty track opposite where we went up last night, onto the main track, over Miners Bridge, down the road and into the finish.

I didn't get caught on the last leg, so finished in 8th place in 25 hours 24 mins. Of the 224 starters there were 116 finishers, with Terry Conway winning in a record-breaking 21:58. Second place was Andy Mouncey in 24:07, and joint third 7 minutes later.

Ultrarunning is getting faster all the time... Yes the weather was better, but this year the winning time was over two hours quicker than last year, and even my time would have got me 2nd last year. Everyone is getting quicker, I just need to make sure I get quicker quicker than everyone else!

Results: http://live.sportident.co.uk/home/event/fullresults.html?eventid=9146025b-0cf1-42e5-ae74-58e77f552a32&mobile=false

PS - If anyone has read this far, thanks! Sorry for the lack of pictures, and apologies to SportSunday for borrowing theirs. Please let me know if you would like me to move it, and when there is a good one of me I will give you money.

NEW - donate by text!

2011-07-26T00:46:00.000-07:00

Exciting news - you can now donate to the Big Alps Run by text!

Just text ALPS70 £5 to 70070 to send a fiver straight to the charity. You can choose any amount - £1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 10.

Mad Sunday

2011-07-25T02:01:00.000-07:00

This weekend has nearly been a de-ja-vous of one a couple of years ago, when I wrote

"This country has been busy achieving in the field of sporting endevour this weekend, with Lewis Hamilton returning to the podium after a disastrous first half of the F1 season, Mark Cavendish destroying the competition to win on the Champs-Elysees and Bradley Wiggins finishing 4th in the Tour de France.
The main arena of athletic excellence this weekend however, was of course the Pudsey 10k."

The only difference was that after a fall on stage 7 of this years Tour, Bradley Wiggins is at home with a broken collarbone...

Hamilton has not had a great start to the F1 season, but managed to win in Germany to put himself back into vague contention, although perhaps only for second place in the championship after Sebastian Vettel's spectacular run of results this year!

Cavendish again won on the Champs-Elysees, his fifth stage win this year. This year though, he also finally won the Green Jersey. Cav is a big hero of mine, even more so after I recently realised we were born on exactly the same day. We actually went to watch a stage of the tour this year...

So, that leaves Pudsey 10k. Hot, sweaty and hard. It was good to be racing in a Pudsey Pacers vest again and I was proud to be part of the club on our race day. This pride may have led me to get a bit carried away and for the first few minutes I was in the leading group of four with James Clark (Pudsey Pacers), Richard Pattinson (P&B) and Tim Midgley (Bingley). As you will know if any of those names ring a bell with you, this was a bad plan. Anyway, those guys headed off on the flat road sections and I left them to it, dropping back to a pack behind and swapping places around 10-20th for most of the race. I had hoped to be able to make a few places on the steeper climbs and rocky descents (this is not a normal 10k!) but was basically knackered from keeping up on the tarmac so this didn't happen much. In the end I did 41:15 for 21st. Faster than before but a bit dissapointing I guess. The top three were:

Tim Midgley 36:28
Richard Pattinson 37:24
Nigel Armitage 37:51

Congratulations to Nigel and James Clark (4th) for Pudsey Pacers.

So there we go. The last thing I wrote on that post two years ago was "Lakeland 100 is now only a few days away. I'm not really sure what will happen, but it's going to be interesting!" Two years and two L100s later that's still true...

Pennine Way. Epic Fail.

2011-06-20T14:29:00.000-07:00

I will write this like one of those films where you get the ending first, then we go back to the start to see how we ended up there.

So, I didn't finish the Pennine Way. I stopped at Horton-in-Ribblesdale yesterday morning. Since getting home I have made good progress... I can now get up from chairs on my own, and no longer have to crawl down the stairs on my backside!

Wednesday 15th:
Got the train to Berwick-on-Tweed, then a taxi to Town Yetholm. Set up at the campsite, made some food and settled down for an early night at about 9pm. Forgot that I am actually in Scotland, hence midges! Nice campsite though.

The night before

Thursday 16th:
Set the alarm for 4am, tent packed away and ready to go by about half past (having fought with more midges) then wandered across the river to Kirk Yetholm and the start of the Pennine Way at 4:45.

At the start - the "already bedraggled" look is deliberate

So off I went, out of Yetholm in some slight drizzle and off on the 25 mile leg to Byrness. I was going north to south, so this is traditionally quite a hard last day for the walkers, most of whom have walked 13 - 16 days before this. The first leg was some good fell terrain, including a climb up and over the Schil, and as I passed the mountain refuge hut at 9km I sort of wished I had decided to come up this far the night before (decided it was a bit risky without knowing the state of the hut but it was posh!).

Chilling at the Schil

The weather improved as the day went on but it was very wet underfoot and my feet were quickly soaked. From Byrness to Bellingham the terrain was flatter but my feet suffered a bit on the hard tracks through Keilder Forst (lots of trees here) - not ideal on the first day, but apart from that I felt good and was enjoying myself. After Bellingham I continued south for a bit then hit the Hadrian's Wall path and turned West, this brought back loads of memories from my run across the path in 2008. The weather improved and everything was quite lovely for a while. I was starting to get tired by now and decided Greenhead was the place to call it a day.

I slowed down towards the end, and by the time I got to Greenhead (62 miles from the start) was definately ready for some food and sleep. Unfortunately my (otherwise really good) Harvey's map was made in 2005, since when one campsite has closed and the other has become a residential caravan park... Then the youth hostel was full, and the hotel too expensive... However the barman told me about a bunkbarn a mile or so back north, and at half 11 I finally had a bed for the night. A quick look at my feet was not a positive experience but I decided everything could wait till the morning and set the alarm for 4.

Bunkbarn at Greenhead. £2 per hour

Friday 17th:
Day 2 started with some serious podiatry, then at half four I carried on south. It had been a cold night but the morning was clear and warm and things felt ok as I set off, so it was a good morning. Out of Greenhead I headed south roughly following the River Tyne to Alston then Garrigill, then up towards Cross Fell. On the way up out of Garrigill I stopped and had another foot session (getting boring now I know!) and discovered the blisters across the tops of my toes, caused by the seams on the socks. At this point I realised that two pairs of socks for a wet 4-5 day adventure is not really enough.

From Cross Fell

Anyway, up and and over Cross Fell and Great Dun Fell with the huge "Golf Ball" antenna on top, then down into Dufton. After Dufton I again turned West, round the spectacular High Cup Nick then started following the Tees towards Middleton-in-Teesdale.

High Cup Nick

It was a nice evening, and some of the farms out here felt properly isolated, running off generators and the only access being along a rocky 5km track. In places it was a slow route though, with no marked path through the rocks alongside the river. By 11pm I was done for the night, and at Low Force waterfall I stopped for the night in a grassy visitor area thingy, after about 58 miles.

Saturday 18th:
I had considered continuing through the night, but to be honest I didn't want to end up in a Cow-infested field in the middle of the night, so I decided to stop while it was dark then crack on. So at 2:30 I woke up, and at 3 left Low Force heading for Middleton. It was now raining at a sort of medium-heavy drizzle level. About 20 miles later I reached the A66 Bowes Moor crossing, where there is a Pennine Way underpass. I was feeling a bit sleepy by now so decided to have a 3 minute nap under the bridge, which worked surprisingly well and I actually felt awake for the rest of the day! This was also the halfway point, according to what someone had carved into a post just after the bridge.

Not too long after Bowes Moor I reached Tan Hill Inn. By this point I had run out of food and water, so was glad to see the place, not least as it they had just lit the fire and had an excellent selection of chocolate bars... And best of all, crisps! If you have ever experienced the joy of a packet of crisps after two days of sugar you will know what I mean...

Tan Hill. Warm and delicious

I left Tan Hill at about midday and, predictably, continued south. Tan Hill also represents the border of the Dales National Park and I was excited to be there. Keld was the next target, 4-5 miles on, then another three or so to Thwaite. On the Keld - Thwaite section I messed up the navigation a bit and did not contour round the hill properly, resulting in a short steep climb, but eventually set off towards Great Shunner Fell. I had planned to meet my girlfriend at Horton-in-Ribblesdale at the end of the day, so after about 33 miles to Thwaite I had 14 to Hawes, then 12 to Horton. The first section went pretty well and in Hawes I was feeling ok, although I was actually going stronger uphill than downhill due to my feet and pain which had started in my shins.

There were some pretty boring sections between Hawes and Horton, long stony tracks which seemed to go on forever in strainght line with only trees to look at. I did a fair bit of talking to myself as I hobbled along these tracks, and was looking forward to having a real person to talk to again!

Eventually I got to Horton. I would've been there before dark, but another navigational mistake lost me probably half an hour within the last couple of miles. When I got there I had sausages, cheese, bread, crisps, and lots of other food I had been dreaming of for a while. My feet felt alright and I was ready to carry on in the morning.

Sunday 19th:
I didn't wake up on sunday as I had never gone to sleep. Once I laid down my right shin was incredibly painful and I couldn't sleep. I started to wonder if perhaps I wouldn't be able to carry on. It was 90 miles to go, I had planned a 50 mile day then a 40 mile day into Edale on Monday.

At 6am I set off from Horton, up Pen-y-Ghent. The plan was to aim for Malham, 15 miles away. I needed to get there by 11 to be doing 3 miles per hour, and stand a chance of getting to Edale within two days. Unfortunately, it took me two hours or so to get up Pen-y-Ghent, which being three miles was not enough. Time to go home. I turned around and after a painful hobble back down to Horton phoned Lorna to request rescue!

Pen-y-Ghent. Looking hot.

So, I didn't finish the Pennine Way. Yesterday (sunday) afternoon I literally couldn't walk and had to crawl around the house, so I would've had to stop at some point, so perhaps when I did was safer. This is a little worrying with the Big Alps Run in mind, but I think day length is an important factor, and the Pennine Way days were about twice as long.

Wet feet are also an important thing to avoid, and I think the three days is about my limit for being solo. I did do quite a lot of chattering away to "other people" through myself on the last day so I think having someone to talk to sometimes is good. And whatever happened to my shin I need to avoid in the future. Maybe there will be something under there when the swelling goes down...

Thanks to the people who sponsored me, I have learnt a lot from this little adventure and WILL finish the Big Alps Run. It's a good challenge too, someone slightly better prepared than me should have no problem finishing in a reasonable time!

Pennine Way

2011-06-14T09:54:00.000-07:00

Ok, it looks like after the disappointment of the SWCP, I will be able to do the Pennine Way. Woohoo!

My window for getting in the lab for my project will be from next Tuesday, so the plan is to travel to Kirk Yetholm tomorrow night, start the PW on Thursday morning and finish in Edale on Sunday evening (or Monday?). The last minute-ness has meant it's all a bit dissorganised, so technically I don't actually have a map yet, hence I don't know exactly where I'm planning to stay...

The Pennine Way is 268 miles, and goes over more proper hills than I would've done on the SWCP. It's less than half the distance, but the days will be much longer so I'm actually expecting it to be tougher. It will be a good challenge though, and thanks to the people who have donated already.

So, the eating begins!

www.justgiving.com/bigalpsrun

A few bits I had forgotten...

2011-06-10T06:22:00.000-07:00

Funny how you forget even the really good bits (eg. the zip line on the canyoning!)

APEX Race - Sleepmonsters / Likeys:
http://www.sleepmonsters.co.uk/racereport.php?race_id=8859&article_id=7145&page_count=1&page_action=rep

Lucy's APEX:
http://lucyharrisaccelerate.blogspot.com/2011/06/apex-race.html

After APEX...

2011-06-05T13:14:00.000-07:00

Well, that was interesting!

To save me spending hours and hours on here and you hours and hours reading my babbling, here is what happened...

We set off to on 21st May, flew into Zurich, delayed the Swiss travel system by loading and unloading our kit in Bern, and eventually arrived in Interlaken

Spent a few days building bikes, shopping, preparing and packing our bags

On Tues 24th we got the maps, and on the morning of 25th May the Prologue started... 4 x 90min sections. Our first section was the "Trotti Bikes", basically big scooters! We struggled a little with these, except JC who had used them before. Then, during the hottest part of the 30°C+ day we set off on parts 2 and 3 of the prologue, a 9km then an 11km off road run. We ran well and weren't too far behind the leaders in our group of teams. The final part of the prologue was rafting. This was non-competitive apart from a section in the middle when we were timed. It was my favourite part of the day, mainly because we got soaked and jumped in at the end.

After the Prologue we set off on the restart, 33 minutes behind the leaders, the local R'Adys team. After running around 10km, Stage 1 was a paddle. I didn't enjoy the run, was having some stomach issues and it felt like a lot longer than 6 miles! Anyway, having arrived at the paddle we got our kit sorted, Al and I in one sit-on and Lucy and JC in another. The paddle was 28km in total, with one checkpoint on the way down the lake, one at the end, and then a long run all the way back.

Arriving into transition we set off on Leg 2, the first bike leg. I was cold when I got in off the paddle so put lots of warm stuff on and started to feel better. This bike leg was to be a long ride, then a stop and a short-ish run up to a checkpoint, then further ride back to the next transition. However, at about 3am JC was having serious problems with his leg. To cut a long story short, he had seriously torn his hamstring and although battling on for a while had to retire. We put up the tent to keep everyone warm and dry, and the organisers came and collected JC. It was a sad moment as the team became "unofficial" from now on, but we hoped JC would be ok and the three of us carried on to the bike/trek changeover.

It was about 6am at the changeover, and having lost a few hours of time we decided not to do the short trek, but to have half an hour's sleep then carry on with the bike. After another couple of hours biking we were at the next transition, ready to go onto the Schiltorn Trek.

Lucy and I set off up the Schilthorn, Al decided that he did not want to come up as the descent would damage an existing injury. We trekked up the mountain for about 5 hours, and eventually reached the spectacular views of the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau at the top.

At the Schilthorn top there was a decision to be made. At the time we arrived we could not carry on to complete the rest of the leg, so we could either sleep and wait until morning to carry on the trek, or take a cable car down the hill at midnight and trek back into the transition. We decided to sleep for a couple of hours then take the cable car, as did about 4 other teams who arrived around the same time as us. On the way down I began to think about joining another team to carry on with the race, and just before the transition at the bottom I asked Team Sleepmonsters/Likeys.com (who had lost a member already) and after some deliberation I joined their team.

The first section with the new team was the Eiger traverse bike leg. The weather had got a bit colder and foggier than the previous couple of days, which to start with was a welcome change! We pedalled through some spectacular areas, including many places I had read about in "The White Spider", such as Grindelwald and Kleine Scheidegg. After the ride, we were onto a run to the Canyoning section. The weather was now officially rubbish, and we were soaked before we got there. We changed into already wet wetsuits and rappelled down a large wall into the river.

The Canyoning was great fun, with some really big jumps into pools an long slides down rocks, but it was pretty chilly! At the end we changed back into wet running clothes and trotted back to transition. After a quick change it was onto another trek. At this point my memory starts to fail me, but I remember this was a long overnight trek. We enjoyed it and were feeling like it wasn't too far from the end now.

Next, the penultimate leg... A paddle on the lake to the other side of Interlaken. The weather was now better and I paddled with Mark, and we were amused by Nat and Gary's apparent directional issues! This paddle was shorter than the previous one, 11km, and it seemed to be over pretty quickly and painlessley. We transitioned, saw Al and Lucy in transition, got ourselves sorted out and headed out in high spirits on the last trek. We had been going for around 3 days and a few hours, and I had slept for something like 2 and a half hours. Nat and Gary had slept a little less, but Mark had hardly slept at all, not that you could tell!

The last trek was a long one, and went over many high ridges. The weather was now hot again and we had some spectacular views over the lakes, mountains and down into Interlaken. As we set off on the trek we also heard the PA system from Balmers tent village announcing the arrival of the winners - Silva Gerber Adventure Team.

A good few hours and lots of ridges later we were making our way back towards Interlaken. It was now dark. Mark and Gary navigated us up then down a spectacular knife-edge ridge, now all having to keep an eye on each other - don't want to fall asleep and wake up thousands of feet below!

Now we were only 6km from the finish. We stopped at a mountain restaurant which was just about still open, had a cup of tea then headed off on the final few miles. We were bushwhacking through a wooded area and all feeling pretty sleep-deprived. Gary suddenly seemed to drift off, he couldn't speak, didn't seem to hear us and was walking very slowly if at all. Again cutting a long story short... The helicopter winchman arrived in a small area next to us, Mark and I waving strobes while Nat shared the survival bag and tent with Gary and tried to keep him warm. We wrapped him up and Gary and the winchman went up together, to hospital in Interlaken.

That was the end of our race. Luckily, the very jolly American team Dart Nuun passed through the woods at that moment and we joined them to the next checkpoint, from where we called for a pickup. My final memory from the race itself is struggling to stay awake in a little barn as the minibus came to get us.

So, that was the APEX. Epic. I loved it and I'm glad I (nearly!) finished, although I do seem to be bad luck! JC is having physio on his hamstring, and Gary was back in the hostel by the morning.

There's a little video here if you want to watch...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZmR3BA1CBA

South West Coast Path

2011-05-15T12:59:00.000-07:00

South West Coast Path: 11th - 26th June

I now have a floor-full of maps, a schedule, and I think some people willing to join in! I'm off to do the APEX adventure race in Switzwerland at the end of this week, then two weeks to recover before I start the SWCP.

The schedule is tough but I have done a bit of reccying down there and the views and terrain are spectacular! Very much looking forward to it.

Day	Start	Finish	Distance	Total Distance
1	Minehead	Rockham Bay	45	45
2	Rockham Bay	Bucks Mills	50	95
3	Bucks Mills	Rocky Valley	53	148
4	Rocky Valley	Porth	45	193
5	Porth	Botallack	56	249
6	Botallack	Pedannack Downs	48	297
7	Pedannack Downs	Trewince	43	340
8	Trewince	Killigarth	48	388
9	Killigarth	Ringmore	52	440
10	Ringmore	Stoke Fleming	37	477
11	Stoke Fleming	Ladram Bay	47	524
12	Ladram Bay	West Bay	32	556
13	West Bay	Osmington	38	594
14	Osmington	South Haven Point	36	630

SWCP maps

2011-04-26T14:41:00.000-07:00

I have today ordered the full set of six South West Coast Path maps from Harvey maps. This means I can soon start detailed planning!

Thanks to Harvey maps for supporting the challenge with a 25% discount on these.

EXCITING NEW BIKE!

2011-04-19T14:08:00.000-07:00

I have had a fun last 10 days... Last week I was skiing in Val Thorens, not a great deal of snow but just about enough for some decent skiing! And of course, the ressurection of the one piece ski suit for "One Piece Wednesday"!

Just before holiday though, I managed to make it over to BETD Goldtec in Newcastle-under-Lyme to collect my new Yeti ARC. It's second hand, but getting it through the shop means it's had a full service and is all lovely and sorted.

Sunday was the first time I got to ride it. Al, JC Nick and I went out for a very hilly 43 mile mountain bike ride. Nick planned lots of checkpoints, and Al planned a route between them. We had a great five hours, even if the last climb was pretty tough! I really enjoyed riding the new bike, it feels more forgiving than the carbon frame so I can be a bit more relaxed downhill. Still need a bit more practice before APEX though!

Last night I also ran a short race, the 4 mile Trunce. It was hard and hurt a lot! To be honest, my aim was not to be beaten by Wil. I passed him not too long after the start but I knew he wouldn't be far away, and coming into the final descent I glanced back and saw him gaining on me... Rubbish! So I gurned and sprinted and managed to stay a few seconds ahead, but only just!

Always the bridesmaids...

2011-04-04T12:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Alasdair Bruce and I raced our second Open 5 together. Last time was Bakewell and we finished 4th, but that was part of a very knackering weekend, so we hoped to do better this time!

Before that, on saturday the APEX team (Al, JC, Lucy and I) set off for some paddling on Windermere, in the boats we will be using in the race... double sit-ons. Not the fastest, but no worries, they are un-capsize-able... Definately.

Anyway, we had a good half day's paddle, Lucy and I learnt a lot and are off to Rother Valley to start our practice tomorrow! After the kayaking, Lucy went off to stay in a lovely house in Ulverston and left the three of us to our tents. Low Wray was a nice site though, we had a good pub dinner and in the nearby Co-Op I found a 50p Christmas Pudding, which was a winner for breakfast!

Anyway, the Open 5... Somewhere during the lead-up to the race our preperation went slightly amiss and we did not spend as much time looking at the map as we should have. Consequently, during our run Al was spending some time planning. During this time I should have been keeping up-to-date with where we were on the ground and making sure we didn't do anything silly like run past checkpoints... Didn't lose us much time, but as we will see in a minute not ideal!

So at the end of the run we had got all the controls but two in about two hours. Onto the bikes, Al having planned most of it while running. The bike went a bit better, I was able to keep up a bit better than in Bakewell (initially at least), but into the last half hour Al was stronger than me again. Towards the end we were faced with a decision - to finish early leaving three bike checkpoints, or to get a final 20 pointer and be a bit late. Late penalties are two points per minute for the first ten minutes, then 5 points per minute after that, so if we got in before 5:10 we would "break even".

Tense moments... what happened? We went for it, thinking we'd be in by maybe 5:06 or something. However it took a bit longer than expected, I thought we had still just about made it, but after finishing and getting our results we were gutted to see 5:10:13... meaning we gained 20 points but lost 25, finishing with 525.

The results...
Hope / Wrigley - 550
JC / Kev - 533
Lawrance / Mason - 529
Us - 525

So we were close but not quite... 4th again! One day we will make the podium.
Well done to Dan who won male solo and overall with 560, George, Caz, Jo and Lucy, JC and Kev on second place in our category, and Julia and Dave (3rd mixed pairs).

Parklife...

2011-03-29T13:01:00.000-07:00

Sunday was the catchily titled “UKA 100km championships, incorporating Scottish 100km championships and Anglo-Celtic Plate”. This essentially meant that I spent the day running around a park in Perth quite a long way behind the owners of some lovely tracksuits. It was the first 100km road race I had done, and the first lap race. It was very different to off road ultras in a few ways...

On Saturday night we had a race briefing by a man from Scottish Athletics, telling us about the course and how the day would work. This man was obviously important in this sort of circle, and knew everyone’s name but mine! As the teams dispersed I set my tent up on the startline (in order to confuse them), and went to sleep feeling a bit scared.

Sunday morning started an hour earlier than planned due to clever mobile phone / BST issues, but eventually the national teams from Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England arrived and set up their tents and flags. I had some beans and put my shiny new shoes on ready for the 7am start.

It was cold at the start but just about fully light. It was really foggy on the first few laps so we couldn’t see much, but each lap the fog rose slightly and more of the park around the course revealed itself. North Inch Park was really nice, with the River Tay at the far side of the oval course, and a golf course in the middle. The course was definitely flat though, with one climb of about three feet each lap, making somewhere around 120 ft vertical ascent for the race!

We would run 42 laps of a 2.4km loop, meaning that each lap we passed through the finish area and could get drinks, food, toilet, etc. This was a new experience for me, and quite soon I realised one of the potential problems with it... It’s tempting to stop each lap! I was having some stomach issues (two days at a wedding perhaps not the best preparation?) but had to tell myself to only stop every two laps at the most. The plan had been to aim for 10 hours, meaning around 14 minute laps, so four and a bit laps an hour. During the first two hours I did ten laps so was a bit ahead of schedule, but at the end of the second hour and with continuing stomach issues I decided to back off a bit.

This helped and by 15 laps I was feeling better. It was now a bit after ten in the morning, and starting to get warmer. At 11 o’clock the 50km race started so it became really difficult (rather than just quite difficult) to work out who was lapping you, being lapped, overtaking, or what. So I gave up, it was clear there would be no giant killing of national runners today so I focused on the ten hour target. I passed 21 laps at about half past one, leaving some but not loads of leeway on the target.

After that it gets slightly hazy, but I remember it got hot, I started listening to music, and my feet hurt. All of which are illustrated in this picture:

7 hours after the start I passed through the start/finish at the end of my 32nd lap, and a couple of minutes later Craig Stewart of Scotland won the race in 7:01:36. Inside the UKA ‘A’ standard for a guaranteed place on the Commonwealth games team, and winning him both the UK and Scottish 100km championships.

So, by the time he was washed, changed, had a sleep, eaten, probably read a book and whatever else he did in three hours, had I finished?

Yep... 9:33:51. As I passed through the S/F to start my last lap I was announced as doing so, but shortly after I heard someone else being announced as also starting their last lap, and decided that whatever position I was in I wanted to stay there! Consequently I’m pretty sure my last lap will be my fastest of the day, and I even managed a sprint finish (looked back, confused flag with chasing runner, etc...).

So, positives: I wasn’t last, and first and second half splits were pretty even. But I was 34^th of 39 and although under my target, feel like I was pretty slow in the present company! A good experience though to have a go at an ultra on the road and the (very) flat.

Pictures with thanks from www.roadrunpics.com

Results from http://www.scottishathletics.org.uk/index.php?p=80&itemType=fixtures&itemId=12894

Into the unknown...

2011-03-23T17:00:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I'm off towards (via a few other places) Perth, where on sunday I am taking part in the UKA 100km championships. The format is 42 laps of a 2.4 km course, so a new type of race for me! I'm a bit nervous of that distance on flat road but it will be exciting, especially with national teams in the same race. Before that though, something altogether scarier - a best man speech...

Wuthering Hobble

2011-03-13T07:31:00.000-07:00

Apart from the last-minute HPM last weekend, yesterday was my first ultra of the year... Haworth Hobble / Wuthering Hike. My first race for a while for Pudsey Pacers, and it was great to see two other Pacers (Russell and Darryl Stead) taking on their first ultras (and both running well!). Lucy Harris from Accelerate also ran, going from none to two ultras in two weeks!

I nearly missed the start as there was a loooong queue for the toilet. I was running towards the startline when I heard the clock strike and hundreds of runners set off towards me! I quickly got to where they had started, turned around and we we're off! As everyone knew, the pace was high. For 32 miles the guys at the front went off FAST! I stuck in a group just behind them, something around 15 - 20th. I recognised Duncan Harris and a couple of others at the front, and Martin Beale was in the same group as me.

I won't write a huge long report, but the race went pretty well. I had a bad patch just before the climb up Stoodley Pike but after reaching the top and having some food I was better. Into the last 8 - 10 miles I was feeling tired, last weekend catching up with me perhaps! After the New Bridge checkpoint we climbed a long drag, one of those where you have to keep running or lose loads of time walking. I passed a guy from Bingley on the way up but was pretty slow and was caught by Martin and someone else. They had had a small navigational mistake somewhere so I had got past them without realising. Down the next descent and getting closer to the finish, I was able to push on and pulled away from them a bit, but I knew the last little bit around Penistone hill might lose me some time, so wanted to get a bit of a gap to beat them.

I did get a gap of a few hundred yards, but missed the quickest route around Penistone Hill... See picture below! Basically Martin, Andy Mouncey and someone else got past me and I couldn't quite catch them by the end. Anyway, it wouldn't make much difference for points in the Ultra series, just annoying to lose places so near the end! I finished 14th in 4:41. Duncan Harris did win in 4:05, a great time and quicker than has been done for a few years.

Jon's Challenge

2011-03-10T13:59:00.000-08:00

One of the guys I'm racing the Fastnet with in August has his own charity challenge, sailing a dinghy from Cowes to Cherbourg... 85 miles for the Sail4Cancer charity. More details here.

Jon Burgess and "Serene Affair"

Sleep when you're dead?

2011-03-07T16:56:00.000-08:00

FRIDAY
On friday afternoon I was listening to a man talk about the most suitable materials for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells when I was awakened by a vibration in my right leg. At the end of the lecture I checked to see what this vibration had been caused by, and 6 hours and a lot of food later found myself with Martin Beale, Tim Laney and Martin Humphreys running out of Edale village hall to start the High Peak Marathon...

The HPM is a 42 mile fell race run by members of the Sheffield University High Peak Club. Start times for running teams are from 11pm, with the fastest teams starting last. Martin, Martin, Tim and another Martin (Indge) had run well last year and finished second, so only "Flippers Gang" were left in the hall as we set off. We were soon catching slower teams as we climbed up to Hollins Cross, over Lose and Win hills and off towards Moscar. At this point we were third but still had quite a few teams ahead of us. We were running well and the weather was pretty good...

SATURDAY
On and past halfway, we prepared ourselves for the most infamous section of the route, over the bogs of Bleaklow. Here (as throughout) Tim's route knowledge and navigation were brilliant, especially as it was now foggy and visibility was pretty short. All did not go perfectly though, both Tim and I were swallowed up to our waists by the bog monster a couple of times and a few other teams were going well, particularly Team Krypton who passed us at one point. After the bogs we reached the Snake road crossing and around 12 miles to go. I think we were now second, and went well up Mill Hill but were getting tired and worried about teams catching us. Looking behind more and more often we passed the checkpoints at Edale Cross and Rushup Edge, then around Mam Tor and back to Hollins Cross. Descending the rocks towards the final road to the finish I remembered climbing up this way 9 hours earlier. It had been a great race and had passed very quickly, I was very pleased to have kept up with these guys and really glad I was able to join them.

We finished in 9:17 for second place. Flipper's Gang won in a new course record of 8:24, and third were the High Peak Rollerbladers in 9:57. Team Accelerate (Kev, Dave, JC and Nick) were 8th in 10:19 and Lucy and Wil's (even more last minute!) team came in 13:34.

So, that was Friday night and Saturday morning. When I got home I changed a few bits of clothes and headed out to our Accelerate Mountain Bike skills session with Jon Heaton. I was late but met Alasdair in the car park, and we managed to track down a tired looking Accelerate team (as above) practicing manuals in Ecclesall woods. We joined in and learned some useful stuff... Front and rear wheel lifts the proper way (not just yanking the bars!), weight shifting and trackstands. Plenty of useful stuff to practice so thanks Jon and sorry if we were a little slow on the uptake, if there's ever a gang of Zombies that need a bike lesson I think you're the man!

SUNDAY
Yesterday was the final act, the Open 5 at Bakewell. George has unfortantely injured his leg, but as Alasdair and I would both have been racing solo we decided to team up for the race. I was feeling knackered and Al had raced a duathlon before the bike session yesterday too, so we decided just to go out for experience, having not raced together before.

The weather was good but chilly before the start. We decided to run first and the sun soon came out, this wasn't too bad after all! After a few miles the legs seemed to wake up a bit, although the quads still did not enjoy descending hills or steps!

We decided to run for two hours and planned a route to get as many controls as possible. This went pretty well, mainly due to Al's excellent navigation, and we transitioned after 1hr 48, having got all but one run controls. I was pleasently surprised by this, but given Al's triathlon background and clearly fresher legs was a little scared of the bicycling...

With good reason. The swinging elastic towline hanging off the back of Al's bike was the centre of my world for the next three hours. We never used it but quite a few times I convinced myself we were doing, which helped me up some hills. A fair few of the bike controls were accessible by road so there was some fast riding, but still some areas where we could practice the skills Jon taught us on saturday! We had a good bike leg, I can't tell you much about the route except that it was expertly navigated and swiftly executed by one team member, with another desperately hanging on. I think the picture of us finishing illustrates this quite nicely!

Anyway, we finished with nine minutes to spare, having got all the bike controls. Whether this would have been enough to get the final run control is a good question! This event was unusual in that one pair and three individuals scored a perfect 600 points, and lots of placings were decided on time. In the male pairs, David Lawrance and Warren Mason cleared everything to win, second place got 595 (missed a five-pointer on the bike), and third place got 590 points in 4:48. We also scored 590, but took three minutes longer (although that does include two punctures!). A much much more enjoyable race than I was expecting, and big thanks to Alasdair for dragging me round. Lucy had a great race and finished 4th in the female solo category on a day when nearly all the big guns were out!

There endeth a long weekend, and possibly the longest post ever...

OpenAdventure.com

New website...

2011-02-22T13:58:00.000-08:00

I decided it was time for a proper website, so I've built one and It'll be done soon... (Sorry Dave, your wedding speech will be done in time I promise!). I put a few pictures up on it, which meant a look back through some from the Bob Graham last year. It was great to relive the day again, it really was a brilliant 24 hours! Looking forward to the dinner, although I will once again be outnumbered by the P&B boys...

2011 Races

2011-02-12T13:11:00.000-08:00

Had a good run today around Ladybower and Edale with JC, Lucy and Wil. Sadly the camera was not co-operating, but our resident artist has created an impression of the day - more on Lucy's blog here.

Thought I'd put a quick list of the races I'm doing this year on here, although I have only got as far as September...

3rd March - Tower 42 Stair Race
6th March - Open 5 (Peak District) with George
12th March - Wuthering Hike / Howarth Hobble - 32 miles (1st counter in Ultra series)
27th March - UKA 100km Championships - 100km Road Race
3rd April - Open 5 (Lake District) with George
30th April - 3 Peaks Fell race
24th - 29th May - APEX Adventure race with Lucy, JC and Alasdair
11th - 26th June - South West Coast Path record attempt - 620 miles
29th July - Lakeland 100 - 100 miles (2nd counter in Ultra series)
6th August - Long Tour of Bradwell - 32 miles (3rd counter in Ultra series)
13th - 22nd August - Fastnet Yacht race aboard Wild Spirit
3rd September - Keilder 100 - 100 mile mountain bike race
17th September - High Peak 40 (4th counter in Ultra series)

In between there will be lots of training weekends for the sailing and APEX, as much mountain biking, swimming and kayaking as I can manage, a holiday in the van, my best friend's stag and wedding, PhD work, planning the Big Alps Run for next year and trying to raise money for Water for Kids!

Well, that didn't go particularly well...

2011-02-08T00:20:00.000-08:00

Team Accelerate - Open 5 Kirby Stephen

Jo and Eddie: 1st Mixed Pairs
Dan and Matt: 2nd Male Pairs
Lucy: 2nd Female Solo
Julia and Dave: 3rd Mixed Pairs

Stuart and George: 21st Male Pairs

The weather for George and my second race together was again pretty interesting, no snow or ice this time but plenty of wind and rain. We made the decision to run first, which went reasonably well despite a couple of route choice errors (we need to plan further ahead, not just one or two controls at a time) which meant climbing when we didn't really need to, but we enjoyed the run.

Then onto the bike, we knew it would be hard so tried to split our time 2 hrs run / 3 hrs bike. Coming into transition the rain was getting worse, but we changed into our bike stuff and were pretty happy. Setting off north we made a mistake when we miss-read the map and thought we could take a shortcut. Both realising at the same time we said rude words in unison then turned around back into the wind. After this first bike control we set off to another one. We knew we should try to stay on the roads as much as possible to avoid very wet bridleways, but this one required some off road, which is where things started to go wrong. The wind was strong, we were going slowly / backwards and got very cold. At this point we stopped and decided to call it a day, and headed back to transition. Despite finishing the run after 2:15 and only getting one control on the bikes we were still out for 3:40!

I always feel rubbish if I finish a race before the end, and at the moment a bit like we have let ourselves down and should've carried on for 5 hours... Maybe we should've biked first, jumped off our bikes and ran to stay warm, gone a different way, or just been more manly, but there we go. Next time! (again)

On the plus side, the first outing for the new van was a great success!
Well done to everyone who survived!

(Photo - OpenAdventure.com)

This is incredible!

2011-01-19T12:48:00.000-08:00

Go forward to 44 minutes...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00rrd81/Human_Planet_Oceans_Into_the_Blue/

First race, and plenty to work on...

2011-01-12T08:06:00.000-08:00

Apart from a club 5k time trial last thursday, the Open 5 at Sutton Bank on sunday was my first race of 2011. I raced the 5 hour run/bike event with George Bullard. We're racing four of these events this year and this was our first together.

After much debate we decided to run first, thinking that it would be easier to mark our maps and plan a route whilst running than biking. We realised more points were available for the bike than the run so decided to split our time 2hrs run / 3hrs bike. The weather felt really cold at the start but soon got warm once we were on the go, and there were some great views from the high points of the route. The run went well, with only a small navigational error towards the end which saw us carry on slightly past the finish (we were in some woods, not just blind) we were back into transition, having got all but one controls in 2:14.

A quick transition (2 mins 47) and out on the bikes. From here things went a bit downhill... First we tried to go up the Cleveland Way, having looked at it on the map further along we had not realised that there was a section of footpath before the bridleway started. So after a quick change of plan we looped round by road and trail to join it. There were a few areas of snow which made it quicker to run with the bike, and it seemed any slightly sloping tarmac was covered with a sheet of ice. This, of course, was the same for everyone, but I think it was our bike navigation which really let us down. Only my bike had a map holder and I found it hard to navigate whilst riding, and because of this there were a few errors.

Consequently we pretty much ruined our good run by a bad bike. On the run we had four fastest legs, and were second or third for most of the others. On the bike we had a couple right at the bottom, except the leg back to the finish when we were fastest, despite stopping to try swapping bikes, then stopping again to change back. However fast we got back though, the finish was another small disaster. 18 minutes late means 65 points deducted, taking us down from 430 to 365.

In the end we were 13/37 in Male pairs and 43/139 overall. Lots to work on for next time! Team Accelerate did do better with Lucy Harris, who was 3rd female solo with 404 points. Also well done Karen on winning that category.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-07T14:29:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone! I'm aware there is quite possibly no-one reading, but sometimes a blog is useful just to write down thoughts and get things sorted in my head. This is one of these times.

So 2011 has come around quickly... Am I ready for the Alps?
Training - Going well. First Adventure Race of the year on Sunday...
Route - Sorted.
Kit - Sorted.
Fundraising - Slight sticking point...

Currently I have raised nothing, this is no use to Water for Kids! I need to get more publicity, be in some magazines and stuff, and get people interested enough to sponsor me. In order to do this I have a plan. Influential friends will be contacted and I will try to get articles published and generally generate a bit of interest around the event. By doing this I think I can get sufficient interest to raise £10,000.

However, I think to do this I will need to leave the main event until 2012. I'm reluctant to do this as I am ready, but if I do it this year I won't raise as much money as I want to. The plan is now to do the Big Alps Run in July 2012, but to start the now on the publicity and fundraising. To do this I will be doing some warm-up events, the main one of which will be an attempt at the South West Coastal Path Solo Record. I plan to run the 630 miles from Minehead in Somerset to Poole in Dorest in two weeks, starting on 11th June 2011.

Hopefully the SWCP (and some other stuff to come) done under the Big Alps Run name will be a good way of generating some interest and raising some charity cash!

Winter (most of) Edale Skyline

2010-12-05T05:10:00.000-08:00

Yesterday a few of us set off to have a go at a snowy run round the Edale Skyline Route. Lucy was ill so Rhys, Wil and I set off from Edale. Wil cut off after a while and went to play with his cross country skis. Rhys and I got a Mam Nick and decided to head back from there as the weather turned and the remaining route was mainly ridge running. The last time I ran the race it took 3:37, yesterday took us 3:43! Running is slower when there is snow.

But we had a great run around the first half... Ringing Roger, Jaggers Clough, Win Hill, down to Hope, back up to Lose Hill and along the ridge through Hollins Cross to Mam Tor then down to Mam Nick and back to Edale... About 13 miles and 2700ft climb in total.

The snow varied from about an inch to waist deep, sometimes from one footstep to the next!

Wil and Rhys mount Roger

Win Hill

Back into Edale

Rhys handles the pace... Rectified by Easy Rider and Chips

Website

2010-11-13T05:50:00.000-08:00

I have just sorted out a proper website. For now this just links through to this blog, but in time will hopefully host a map and some other info. It's here, so tell your friends:
http://www.bigalpsrun.eu/

End of the Ultra season...

2010-10-25T14:05:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was the end of season party for the UK Ultrarunning championships, so we were all at the Traveller's Rest pub near Hope for some running, food and a few beers on saturday night and some mountain biking on sunday (for me, a lesson in what real mountain bikers look like from Karen and Andy)!

We also had a great talk from Stephen Pyke (Spyke) on his incredible Munro's record. This summer Spyke ran over Scotland's 283 3000ft peaks in just 39 days 9 hours and 6 minutes, beating the previous record by nearly ten days. The talk and slideshow Spyke gave us was brilliant, with lots of pictures of the less than ideal weather!

(Spyke here in the Munros, but on another trip)

Spyke's own blog from the trip has great descriptions from each day, and also the opportunity to sponsor him in his fundraising efforts for the John Muir Trust. The blog is here... http://munros2010.blogspot.com/

Results of the 2010 Ultra Series

2010-10-21T12:11:00.000-07:00

Ahead of our end of year party this weekend, the final results of the Runfurther UK Ultra series have been published. Congratulations to Jon Morgan of Dark Peak Fell Runners, who won three races and set at least one new course record on his way to overall victory.

I finished 13th, with 3402 points to Jon's 3985. My four "counters" were the Manx Mountain Marathon (33 miles - 10th), Pumlumon Challenge (26 miles - 9th), Calderdale Hike (37 miles - 6th) and the Lakeland 100 (102 miles - 10th).

I really enjoyed all the races, and I think the standard has jumped up this year. Really looking forward to next year - top ten here I come! (Hopefully)

WfK day and Planning

2010-10-04T15:21:00.000-07:00

As I said, I gave a quick talk at Water for Kids (WfK) day in Manchester on Saturday. It was great to see the work that the charity does, and to see what the money donated from the British Isles Challenge was used for. One of the main things the charity does is to secure water sources in rural African communities, and for a village or around 1000 people this costs around the same amount I was able to donate.

Here's an example of the great work they do, showing a village water supply in Uganda before and after work of WfK.

I'm hoping to raise much more from the Big Alps Run, so hopefully WfK will be able to do loads more good work.

I've also done some route planning in the last few days, and pretty much sorted the section from Zermatt to Nice, the last quarter or so. From Zermatt to Chamonix I'll be roughly following the Haute Route, then from Chamonix south through Tignes, Modane and towards Nice on the GR5 route (a long distance walking route which I'll be using part of).

T-shirts and Water for Kids Talk

2010-09-30T09:41:00.000-07:00

This weekend I'm doing a short talk at Water for Kids Day in Manchester, talking about the British Isles Challenge for 5 minutes and the Big Alps Run for 5 minutes! It will be good to meet the guys who run Water for Kids, some trustees and other fundraisers. In celebration I've designed a T-shirt which has been made up by twentytwo. I'm quite proud of it!

Lakeland 100 video

2010-08-04T12:57:00.001-07:00

I took a few phone videos on the L100, which I have joined together into a little 10 minute thingy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kntrzjac8P4

The Lakeland 100

2010-08-03T15:15:00.000-07:00

The weekend before last was my longest race of the year... The Lakeland 100. As the name suggests it's around the Lake District, and it's actually 103 miles long, with around 6300m climb.

As last year it was a fantastic race: The dramatic scenary from our campsite and starting point in Coniston only added to the aprehension, and I think everyone was relieved when after registation, safety talks, kit checks and last minute eating, we set off at 5:30 on Friday, started by none other than Joss Naylor.

I knew that last year we had taken the first 30 miles or so slowly as they are the hardest, but I felt we took them too slow and never got round to speeding up. Of the 7 who started together in 2009, only myself and Nigel Coates finished. We were both back again and looking to improve on our 39 hour time. This year the first 30 miles went quickly, and I was up on my schedule. The run past Burnamoor Tarn as it steamed in the late evening is one of my best memories of the race.

After the 30 mile mark, Dalemain was the next target. I arrived at the 57 mile point on Saturday morning, and unexpectedly met my Mum and Dad. It was great to see them and I met them a few more times before the end. Feeling refreshed out of Dalemain I set off with a couple of serious legs to do before Ambleside and the relative niceness of the last few legs. At around 70 miles I had a bad patch - I was alone in about 15th place, the weather turned from good to bad, and I had a long climb with some trickly navigation to deal with. But as always with Ultras, it passed, the weather improved gradually and I eventually made it to Ambleside. Shortly before here the Lakeland50 runners started passing and I was able to stick with Sarah Rowell for a while which cheered me up.

At the LakesRunner checkpoint in Ambleside I said goodbye to Mum and Dad and carried on in the improved weather. After a couple of slower legs I was falling behind my schedule and in the words of Johnie Watson, would have to "pull it out of the bag to do it now". Sadly Johnie had to stop and sort out his wrecked feet, so I was alone again. Eventually I was running alongside the beck into Elterwater again, but feeling so much better than last year! I started to pass a few other runners and at the penultimate checkpoint in Chapel Stile I could just about do the schedule time, if I ran the last 10 miles or so well.

The leg to Tilberthwaite went to plan and although I was tired I thought I might now do it... Just one steep climb, one long descent and 3.5 miles to the finish. It was now dark again so with my headtorch on I slogged up the stone steps and across the top of that hill, then began the gradual descent. Suddenly there were runners everywhere, 50s who had caught us up and 100s who had come back to me. A group of us charged down the scree path towards the river and then down the paved path into Coniston there were four of us. These guys were going well so I stuck with them. They were the British Military Fitness team running the 50, and turned out to be the winning team.

Very quickly we seemed to go from the rocky track to civilisation, lights, pubs and people shouting, then round the corner and across the finish line at quarter past 11... 29 hours 44 mins, just inside the time I had hoped for and good enough for 10th! Afterwards I had some food, my first ever sports massage, and headed for my tent. When I woke up to the sound of people finishing on Sunday morning, as Nigel and I had done last year, I couldn't help but feel it had been easier this year. But it was not easy, the Lakeland 100 is a truly epic race, and probably the hardest I have ever done. Even in the relatively good weather this year half the field dropped out. But is it harder than the Bob Graham? I don't know.

Mark Gillett of Junglemoon Images took some great pictures of the race, here's one of me:

www.junglemoon.co.uk www.flickr.com/photos/junglemoonimages

June

2010-07-07T15:22:00.000-07:00

It's probably about 12 months till the start of the Big Alps run, which sounds like a very long time, but if the experience of last year's adventures are anything to go by it will pass very quickly! Preperations are progressing well if not earth-shatteringly fast, and Mark Beaumont's willingness to help and generous comments have been great. I've also spoken to Carey at Water for Kids who tells me the charity is still doing well despite all the financial goings-on, which is great news.

In the world of exercise, the summer seems to result in me doing lots of short fast races, which aren't generally what I go for. This is because they are horrible, when you're only racing 15 - 20 minutes every second counts so there can be no holding back. This means pain and gurning across the finish line. In the last month or so I've raced a couple of 5k time trials (current PB is 18:16), and a few great (painful) fell races... Beamsley Beacon, Danesfield Relay and the Cliffhanger fell race stand out. The latter because I should have won, but took a wrong turn around a building in the finish field and lost out by 4 seconds. Ah well.

I've also done a bit more of a slightly less frantic (some of the time at least) sport, sailing with Paul on Wild Spirit (www.wildspirit.biz). I raced Round the Island on one of 1754 boats in the world's biggest yacht race, which was fantastic. It's a really bizarre experience to go up onto the deck and see literally 100s of boats around you, some within a few metres! The week after that I was back on the boat for a race to Weymouth. Sadly this didn't quite go as planned as the wind faded and we were left in a strange perfectly calm area of water, surrounded by fog. It was like skiing in a whiteout, it felt like we were floating through the air. So we went back home and to the pub.

So after all these short races I now need to get ready for the Lakeland 100 in a couple of weeks' time. This has come around very quickly, I thought I had longer. Hmm...

Support from Mark Beaumont

2010-06-22T01:50:00.000-07:00

In 2008 Mark Beaumont broke the world record for cycling around the world, covering 18,000 miles in 195 days. Earlier this year he completed a ride the length of the Americas from Alaska to Argentina, climbing Mount Mckinley and Aconcagua along the way. During these trips he has also raised around £20,000 for charity.

I went to see one of Mark's inspirational talks about these adventures earlier this year, and afterwards spoke to him about the Big Alps Run. He was interested in the challenge and is now supporting me, and had this to say...

'The Big Alps Run is an inspired and quite incredible ambition - my very best wishes for what will be a gruelling mental and physical feat. Congratulations also Stuart for your fund raising for Water for Kids. Such great missions don't happen without the help of others so congratulations goes to your backers as well.'

A Birthday Treat

2010-06-02T06:52:00.000-07:00

For anyone who isn't familiar with the Bob Graham Round, it starts in Keswick and is a circuit of 42 peaks around the Lake District, covering anywhere between 65 and 72 miles, the aim being to finish back in Keswick within 24 hours. The route is split into five legs, finishing at Threlkeld, Dunmail Raise, Wasdale Head and Honister Pass. At these points most people have a support team to help feed and water them, as well as a few pacers to run each leg with them and assist with navigation.

Spot the odd one out

Pudsey is only a small town but we have two running clubs. I run for Pudsey Pacers, but we also have Pudsey and Bramley. As it is P&B's centenery this year the club wanted to have a mass Bob Graham attempt, and get as many runners around in a group as possible. So after being interested for a long time and a few disastrous half-attempts in the past, I found myself a lone Pacer outside Moot Hall with a large group of Pudsey and Bramley runners, at 7pm on my 25th birthday.

From Keswick we set off on leg 1, over the first three long climbs and down into Threlkeld. The first climb up Skiddaw is one of the longest legs of the whole round, everyone felt good and we didn't want to push it too early, especially as it was still very warm. We reached the summits of Skiddaw, Great Calva and Blencathra and had great views down to Keswick and over to leg 5, where we hoped to be the next evening. The schedule was quite generous on this leg and we got to Threlkeld about half an hour up.

Climbing Skiddaw with Derwent Water and Keswick in the background

After the easy pace of leg 1, the climb up Clough Head at the start of leg 2 was tough. We all went a bit quiet and realised that this was not going to be easy, still with so far to go! We had managed without torches to Threlkeld, but we now all had them on as we struggled up to join the Helvellyn range. At about midnight the climb got easier and we reached the summit. From the top of Clough Head leg 2 is an undulating ridge run for a while, over the Dodds, Raise and White Side, and onto Helvellyn Little man and Helvellyn itself. Here we were met by a couple of Bingley lads who gave us some water and cake, which we repayed by tripping over their friends who were asleep next to the summit trig - sorry!

The weather was still really warm and we were still in vests and shorts as we dropped our bags at the bottom of Fairfield for the out-and-back climb. This was a short steep rocky one, but after not long we were reunited with our kit and off up Seat Sandal, the last climb before the descent to Dunmail. This leg had been hard, the schedule has no slack and we had had to push ourselves to keep to it. When we reached Dunmail we still had about 20 minutes in hand, but quite a few runners called it a day here.

The sun rising over the fells – somewhere on leg 3

At Dunmail we had pasties, pasta, sweets, rice pudding, tinned fruit, drank as much as possible and refilled water bottles. We set off again around 15 minutes up on the 23 hour schedule, but knew that leg 3 would be hard. This is probably the crux of the round, the longest leg and most climb (16 miles and 6500 ft) and expected to take over 6 hours. Again there was a hard climb to start the leg, this time up Steel Fell. On this leg we had four supporters / pacers and were again guided perfectly. Of the 15 starters there were now eight left. I was happy to be well into the round, certainly not feeling fresh, but ready to tackle the 15 peaks of this leg. Atfer a few hours it started to get light and we were treated to a fantastic sunrise on the fells. We had all found the night section difficult, the heat and the feeling that we should be asleep made it difficult to eat and I felt pretty sick over High Raise and Thunacar Knott. Unfortunately one of the support team fell onto a rusty metal fencepost and opened up his leg early on, but being a hardy Sheffield University chap he continued and by Rosset Gill where were met by more P&B supporters he had decided to carry on to Wasdale.

Now came another hard bit, after Bowfell, Esk Pike and a few others we were at the top of Scafell Pike. The weather felt really hot, as it had done since 5am, but we could see for miles and miles and felt very lucky to be where we were! Between Scafell Pike and Scafell there are three options - Broad Stand is pretty much a rock climb, generally the quickest but not with this many people, Lord's Rake is a short steep scramble but is currently full of snow and ice, so we went for the third option - Foxes Tarn. This involves a slippery scree descent then a climb up and around the side of Scafell. On the rocky climb back up I felt rubbish and dropped back a bit. This was the worst I had felt so far, and tried to eat as much sugar as I could and concentrate my way to the top. Near the top the sugar finally kicked in and my legs came back. I caught the rest of the group just before we reached the top at about 8:30 in the morning. From there we made our way down towards the campsite at Wasdale Head. We had a great time down a steep scree run followed by a long bumslide on the wet grass. Unfortunately running down the final track to the campsite with shoes full of scree I tripped myself up so had a bloody ankle coming into Wasdale, but I was very pleased to be there, and we started to think we would now do it.

Near the top of Scafell

As we left Wasdale we were still around 30 minutes up all felt positive, more than half the distance, climb and time were out of the way. No more night, bright sunshine and only one more serious leg, then three climbs and a flat run in... Easy! Then we set of up Yewbarrow and I changed my mind. I knew this would be a tough one but after filling up on carbohydrates and with a refilled rucksack (including the headtorch I accidentally carried all day) there was nothing in my legs. A few of us dropped back again, but eventually we were at the top and the pain stopped. I never thought "11 mountains to go" would sound good but it did, and we set off over Red Pike, Steeple and Pillar, then the long climb up Kirkfell and the view towards Great Gable. Gable seems to stand out on its own, so is a long climb wherever you start from. The round felt achievable now and we were ok for time, the pacers said this was the last major climb so we tried to dig in and scramble up the rocks on all fours. Not elegant and the walkers looked confused, but we made it to the top. Now even the smallish climbs of Green Gable, Brandreth and Grey Knotts were hard, but the feeling that we were going to do it was getting stronger and before too long we reached the car park at Honister.

Coming into Honister

At Honister we had great support, loads of people were there in cars, Lorna had walked up from Keswick and all the supporters and guys who had run earlier legs were there to run the last leg with us. We quickly had some food, dumped our bags, gave our water bottles to these kind people and set off up Dale Head. Honister is quite high so this climb was not too bad, although the legs felt dead we knew all we had to do now was keep going. Up Dale Head in about half an hour then on with the last two climbs in sight. Forty minutes later we reached the top of Robinson, the last climb done. We waited for everyone to reach the top then set off down the steepish grassy descent - not great on the quads but it didn't matter anymore, Keswick was in sight and we were going to do it. We reached the bottom and the path leveled out, along the road for a bit where we met the supporters for the final time.

The last climb up Robinson

I had one last gel to make sure and we set off through the woods, four miles to go. As we got towards the edge of Keswick those of us who had done the whole thing were moved to the front and a pacer even stopped the traffic for us! The triumphant sprint up the high street didn't quite work as the market was in the way, but we found Moot Hall and seven of us banged on the door. Richard, Nick, Shane, Ed, Brian, Ste and me finished in 22:19, Chi had run the last leg a little behind us with a few pacers and picked up the pace towards the end to come in about 15 minutes later.

I had a fantastic time on the Bob Graham, the weather was a little hot but overall a big help, the supporters and pacers were great and the group of runners all kept each other going when it was tough. Thanks to chief organisers and supporters Boff and Jonny, and Jim for introducing me.