Big three for March - 3: Hardmoors 55

This is it, an easy week on the running front has brought me to the start line rested and confident. 'The battle would probably all be in my head today',  I thought as the event got underway.

As it turned out I had a great day and banished any tormenting demons along the way. Not as fast a time as previous years as we steadied our pace along the way as Mark wasn't having his best day. But, we both got on with it and Mark got through it - with a few belts of water and ditching of energy drink and was running well again towards the end. 

I just felt pretty good all the way, into Osmotherley only slightly off last years 10-min/mile pace for the first 22m but feeling a lot fresher, through the hills before Kildale in section 2 with energy to spare and I felt I could have run every step from Kildale to the end. Enjoyed it so much we even took a wrong turn at Bloworth crossing to add an extra mile and a half.

The event was good as always. The brilliant Cleveland way route speaks for itself and will offer the same varied and interesting journey for eternity I'd hope. Jon Steele and team handled an increased field despite quite small starting facility at Helmsley and off on time. Marshalls were friendly, obliging and pretty much all went the extra mile to look after us as we tired - at Kildale we were waited on hand and foot as usual. Some of the remote marshalls such as on the rock stack at Wainstones and on top of Roseberry Topping had lugged some drinks and plenty of snacks up to these point - massively appreciated! And even at lower level remote points there was water before needed on what was a not-too-cool-not-too-hot kind of day for March. Seacadets place was also good at end with hot food for a quid, tea and coffee and beer (well actually we brought our own beer, but nobody seemed to mind).

Now I just need to straddle the line between good training and overdoing it now and there's no reason not to have more string days like this in 2012! The next big event is something peculiar called a "Road Marathon", think I've done these before in the dim and distant past and they may have something to do with my preference for the long, slow, off-road and scenic. But I couldn't resist the challenge when laid out in front of me, of the first - for a long time - Hull Marathon.

Big three for March - 2: Wuthering Hike/Haworth Hobble

I still don't know why this event has dual names, both are true enough, but I prefer the Wuthering Hike tag, which usually gets a smile from those knowing of the area when I mention it.

As performances go, not my finest hour, I think I gave up on a fast one early doors. But it's a very nice event, worthy of a mention untarnished by my lacklustre effort. I'm sure somebody out there, who is more organised, will already have an informative and entertaining blog post on it. Here's my highlights and lowlights in 10 bullet points (I'm trying to keep this - reasonably - short):

1. Things you'll probably only see at this event or in this area #1 - Upon getting to event car park, paid my few quid and was told to "Drive over to the guy in a dress...", who would direct me to park. Must be a "Bronte sister" thing, an amusing start to my race day.
2. Earlier start than of late for an 8am mass start - up just the wrong side of 5 - **WARNING DON'T READ ON IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW ABOUT PRE-RUN BOWEL ACTIVITY** - and out the door too quickly. This had the often experiance effect that I hadn't had that relax time post-breakfast whioch allows bowels to kick in. So I tried to stop at services, some success but not enough. Arrived T-minus 45mins at race start, bit late, loads of people here, long queue for number, seek out toilets - DOH!! Long queue for portaloos. So @ T-minus 8mins to race start made do with a very long pee in a 'quiet' spot around back of race HQ. Which helped a bit by decreasing any bladder pressure on bowel. Does anybody else have issues like this if routine is a bit disturbed?
3. It a grey and overcast start and a lot of very steady uphill onto the famous moors. No great views of this landscape for now.
4. Things you'll probably only see at this event or in this area #2 - In Bronte waterfall area Mark - who I ran around with - pointed out that the usual wooden sign posts as well as a few other languages were written in Japanese. Well I never.
5. CP 1 at the Widdop Reservoir Dam - It was like being at the seaside on a grey winter day. The mist and wind blowing waves into the dam wall from an unknown source creates a strange illusion as we cross the dam.
6. Behind enemy lines - Much like the Calderdale Hike route of the last few years the route of this event took us into Lancashire, carefully evading border controls obviously. Seemingly not impressed, the route soon takes us back into Gods own county.
7. Here comes the sun - Soon after long causeway (CP3) as cloud rises and the route drops the sun comes out. Yeh! But it seemed our goose was already cooked today and the late-winter sun's pleasent rays weren't going to help us. Mark had taken a bang on the knee slipping on wet rock and said he wasn't feeling that fresh today anyway, I felt much the same and Simon - who it has to be said was running a bit better than Mark and I - felt much the same as we slowed during the hilly second half.
8. A string in the tail - Claire warned me about this. I didn't feel great going into the second half and the hills in part 2 weren't going to aid our pace. First a climb to Stoodley pike - a must in this area. Glad of the shot of Jura whisky at the CP before the climb, whisky never tasted so good.
9. Next climb, Hepstonstall. Apparently the pub there last year was offering impromptu refreshments - not of the alcoholic kind - this year we just climbed up to go down - DOH!
10. As we found a "just get around" pace once a 6 hour round had slipped away it was back up again on the muddy track to pass Hollin Hall and down to the last CP before the finish. Then a long tarmac road climb to Top O't Stairs.

From here it has a mostly downhill hobble via Penistone hill - of the great Woodentops fell races - back to th start in Haworth - 6:30 - quite a way off Simon and Mark's great PB's on this route (can't help thinking I cursed us). Over stew, Mark and I decided we'd need an easy week before the - significantly longer - Hardmoors 55 next week.

Sur les Traces des Ducs de Savoie (TDS) - I'm in!

This is great news for me and I'm lucky not to have opted for the CCC or UTMB, what with the massive oversubscription and massive number of british runners I know not getting a place. While it's still over 7 months away I'm getting organised and have a plan for mileage and long runs each week until then, which means I'm also pretty certain what events I'm doing in the meantime. The main prep-event - a mini-monster in itself will be the Lakeland 50 - I entered ages ok last year as there is no ballot for that yet, but it's started to fill up in no time. Maybe ultra trail running isn't as uncommon a pastime as I at one time thought, or maybe its the dedication of the few that do it?

But, I am starting to think I've got too many runnable events as part of my plan. I heard somebody refer to Lakeland 50/100, UTMB, and other such mountainous events as really being more like "very long power walks". So I'm thinking I need to work on my walking, but I also need the hills to make this worthwhile. So I've been looking at the FRA diary and hope to be slipping a few of the more hilly and lengthy events into my plan.

The way I see it an AL Fell race, especially in the Lake District, is ideal prep in two ways. Firstly it forces me to walk over rough terrain - my understanding is that TDS is rougher than the UTMB trails - and up the steep long climbs. Secondly, I get downtime.... not sleep, descending. I'm sure a major key to these things and perhaps my greatest weakness is being able to tackle massive descents as efficiently and without injury as possible. I can move quite well and at reasonable speed downhill, but speed doesn't necessarily mean endurance.

Time on feet is something I'm better planned at, as per usual it will be gained in other upcoming long trail events. Hardmoors 55, Calderdale Hike (37) and Woldsman (50) are the definates. I'll also do a good mix and mileage of runs midweek. My weekly plan will be something like the below:

Monday - Easy short flat/undulating run (road, trail as nights get lighter)
Tuesday - Mid-length run (6-15m), road at pace and more hilly trails as nights get lighter.
Wednesday - Shorter run, maybe uphill or downhill reps on trail as light improves
Thursday - Club run (7-12m), tempo/intervals/fartlek run at hard effort, incorporating hilly trail sessions from mid-March
Friday - Rest
Saturday - Long run, various length and terrain type
Sunday - Alternate (sometimes additional) long run day, or easy run, or rest
= Usually, 30-80 mpw

I've been enjoying some good short and mid-length hilly runs the last few months. Running in Sicily was great, hills everywhere! Since I've tried to get out to hillier local trails during the week, in light and dark, mud and snow and also the odd event. A steady effort at the Rombalds Stride still equalled my best course time - in quite good moor top conditions I'll admit, but it was barely breaking sweat most the way. I also beat my personal course previous best time in a league XC last Sunday by nearly two minutes. In similar conditions to the last run too: snow, ice, slush - must be winning :¬)

Can't wait to be back in Chamonix!

....well I suppose I can, as I need the training time.

(BTW - The hardest run on the legs so far was the day I opted to run 12.5m from Hull over mostly agricultural land to the coastal town of Hornsea on the Trans-pennine Trail (trial?) - this section was formerly a railway line - and back. 25m of nearly flat and very straight, scenically bland, mostly hard, trail was tough on body and mind. I take a bow to those out there doing ultra-flat events like the Grand Union Canal race.)

Injury, self doubt and 60 fantastic miles coming soon?

Call me a wimp, but I didn't want to write a more thorough report of what happened at the UTMB. It was such a great atmosphere pre and post race and at times great fun taking part. A lot of the detail isn't reflected in my 'picture tour' blog entry before.

The eventual end to my event was pain slowing me down and tiredness making my progression unsafe. I think without the combination of the two I could have got on ok. As it was after losing loads of time on my ultimate stage, cooling down too much and just making a cut off at Arnuva it would have been foolish to go on and attempt Grand Col Ferret. Maybe with a few strong coffees and a bout of 'runners high' I might have made the next cut-off, but it may have just been several miles of misery and the further ruining of what had been a great experiance for the most part.

So injury, I mentioned this was a factor in my UTMB performance. The sore knee seemed to disappear almost straight after stopping. The ankle was worse, distinct swelling a few inches above my foot at the front of my ankle afterwards. I might have been ok with pain management during the event. But the aggrevation mentioned in my post-UTMB blog, catching my toe on a tree root or planted stone before Refuge Bonnetti, really didn't help. I was running along, not knowing what was causing the pain, whether it was serious or not.

After the event, with RICE, the swelling and pain both went. All was looking good, but then last Thursday on my first hard outing since - 13 days post-UTMB - I was burning up local hilly trail, pushing hard on the 7 hills route that my club regularly run in training. I was well up in the group of club runners, I'd regrouped twice, but then ran straight on as others stopped for another regoup - only one descent and ascent from the last... stopping would have been lazy. I was feeling pretty good, I felt I could tackle the remaining 3 hills in one blast at pace without too much hardship.

Then it happened, slam! So fast.... descending fairly steeply, but at controlled pace, I landed on the outside of my ankle and it rolled over so fast I didn't, seemingly couldn't, react to prevent a sprain. I held the fence, grimacing as others went passed. I was offered help but I said I'd "run it off", in reality this didn't feel like something I could run off. I ended up limping back several miles to the start point, via a road shortcut, somebody kindly picking me up as soon as they'd finished so my pain wasn't prolonged.

I'd sprained my ankle, probably not badly, from Internet research it looks like 'bad' grade 1 at the worst. I visited the doctor the next day, who didn't seem concerned enough to even examine my claim (maybe I didn't look "pained" enough?), but he did prescibe some heat rub and a tubigrip bandage. The combo and innactivity have helped. I even ran a few miles this Tuesday - probably too soon - but I felt good, ableit at very slow pace on very flat ground in a very supportive road shoe. And the a similar distance tonight, but slightly faster.

The mental aspect - self doubt - is something I really need to work on. Why have I retired after roughly 60m of my last two 100's. I'm not overly bothered that I didn't complete, 60m is good distance but I would like to have and wonder if some mental weakness is just jumping on convenient excuses, making pain and tiredness (both muscular and sleepiness) bigger issues then they actually were? Maybe thats an easy presumption in hindsight and now the reality of the moments is a somewhat hazy summary in my mind. Was UTLD 2010 a fluke? Am I not prepared to work that hard, suffer that much again. The answer seems to be, right now..... yes. I have no guarantee of improvement every time at any distance even if I've trained hard. So when you factor in the mental battle of a 100, the miles may have been run to prepare my legs, but were they in my head. Or am I just overthinking this?

There is no clear answer. But it seems sensiblethat I change something and that something would be to back off from and remove the 100mile obstacle - respect the distance (and the big hills). 100 is just a big number in terms of miles, but 60 is still a good one, 79 was also a good one when I completed the Wold's way unaided a few months ago. So I figure I'll bring in a three-figure mileage embargo for 2012, see how that goes. There are some great events that must be classified as long, tough ultra's I can test myself on, but are 99.9 miles or less.

How about the Hardmoors 55 (March) to start with, it's got a deceivingly easy opening 22m, which in two attempts has lulled me into an over-eagerly paced start. I can do better here, a great first long ultra of the year.

Then a step up to the Lakeland 50. Even with the 100 on offer by no means am I shirking if I train hard and do this one justice, finishing before the sun dawns on Sunday (e.g. sub 15 hours or so).

And how about the TDS (Sur les Traces des Ducs de Savoie), the tough little brother of the UTMB at 70-or-so miles. Ok, so its shorter than the UTMB, but it packs in more elevation change per mile, a tougher 70m is hard to imagine.

A return to the Fellsman is also a must, even if they move the date. The Woldsman will be a good substitute in the space between Hardmoors 55 and Lakeland 50.

Before all this I hope I have the potential to complete 60 fantastic miles in the inaugural Hardmoors 60. It will be a joy to run along this part of Yorkshires undulating, hilly and often wild coast and to complete the course would be a 60 mile run I could be very satisfied with. And satisfaction that I can still complete a long event. Here's hoping the sprain keeps healing quickly and I can have a steady and safe saunter around this one.

Its been awhile

I've struggled a bit for inspration and a lot for time to blog recent events. So here is my summary.

Early March saw what felt like a well earned rest from training and holiday from work. Behind the tourism I learned Tenerife has a lot to offer the hill runner. I didn't run much, but in my jaunts from my hotel in Los Gigantes there was a great climb of about 400ft in less than a mile just to get to the road to the next town, which was itself a tad undulating. My last mornings training run saw me keep heading out of town along the winding road into the hills to the next town. A bracing 1000ft in less than 3.5m and the same descent to follow. So, no trail running, no problem.

The potential of Tenerife doesn't end there. In the centre of this comparatively small Island, ringed by peaks sits the Las Canadas caldera - at over 2000 metres - and somewhere in the middle the highest peak - Mt Teide at about 3718m. Not a little bit impressed? Well remember Ben Nevis only pokes up to 1344 metres and the highest peak in europe - Mt Blanc - is less than 1100 metres higher. Ultra Tour de Tenerife anybody?

Only a few weeks later I was back testing myself in the UK on paths and trails sitting atop the North York Moors. Last years freezing cold, 'clag down', conditions were replaced with quite the opposite this year. Slightly pleasing is that I was faster on nearly every section this year than last. But the full story saw me tired by Osmotherley and haemorraging pace over the tough 20m to Kildale. 12hrs5mins was an improvement on last year, but I felt a bit disapointed with a less than 30min improvement given the conditions and another year of experiance and training.

I got a bit of salvation in my next ultra a few weeks later. Another sunny day - were going to pay big time for all this weather 'luck' soon! - for the Calderdale Hike. 36 or so miles of self navigating along a pleseantly challenging and varied route in Calderdale and the Pennines. I'd enjoyed this one last year and this year I had a good run, keeping a good pace and achieving a 7:14 time for 36.6m. Being not far over the 36m 'advertised' meant some savvy navigating and a few cock-ups too, but overall a good day running. Making good pace in a good group of 4 runners for the latter miles. This route which visits Stoodley Pike, Thievely pike and Sunny bank amongst other climbs will be changed for next years event. A bit of a shame, but who knows, there could be another classic in the pipeline.

Next up came a 5 day Coast to Coast attempt. I'll save this one for the next post.

Hardmoors 55

I'll start at the start...

Hard-"prep"

The inspiration to do this came in a pub. Not so much a drunken dare or bet, but a nudge from a fellow off-road runner on the fringes of Autumn 2009. She said "You should give this a go", and showed me a piece of paper. On it was the Hardmoors site address. Being between challenges - I'd just done the 3 Atlantic Coast marathons - I looked into this. A March ultra didn't seem unreasonable, but I knew this was a step up from my previous 30-something mile efforts.

Training proper commenced about Christmas time. Whilst the general public moaned about the weather I got out and ran around various snow-covered areas of Yorkshire clocking up over 15 most Saturdays in Jan, sometimes low twenties, with a Sunday run and good midweek mileage. When the LDWA calender "thawed out" in February I had a drip-feed of easy-going 20+'s to feast upon. I clocked up a record personal mileage in January and wasn't far off in February too. Training peaked in Feb with a good Rombalds Stride and then a 36m out and back hill-run just two days later. I survived.... confidence built.

This was to be my first experiance of an ultra without food stocked CP. It wasn't all out unsupported as it had two cosy village halls on route where drop bags would be distributed to and tea/coffee was provided. Sorting out in advance what I would carry, what would go in drop bags, preparing food, was more prep than I've ever done before and I'm glad I took a day off to get this sorted and mark up the map before I set off up North.

Hard-"reality"

I've done some good running/walking/cycling in the North York Moors. Some good climbs, steep wooded-valleys and certainly many great views, are to be found - Langdale End area is good for starters. But compared to the Dales, Lakes and parts of Calderdale and the pennines they've often seemed slightly more tame, not so high, not so muddy. But they are still quite remote in places - inhabited just by tiny villages and hamlets - and have there own little weather patterns that can vary wildly from hour to hour and from the plains to north and west.

So then, could the Hardmoors 55, struggle to live up to its aggressive title? Well, for those who've done the Osmotherley Phoenix, the hilliest bit of that event - near the start - features after 22m of this.... and they've thrown in two extra climbs for good measure... and the sections either side aren't plain sailing either.

Due to the early start needed for this event I'd stayed over with Mark and family. So the early start to convoy to Guisborough - the end, dump a car and then travel back to Hemsley - the start, meant no rushing around following a 4am rise. Things were going well enough, well ahead of time, arriving about 50 minutes pre-start. I may have crippled a pheasent that tried to puncture my wheels near the White Horse, but life in the wild is harsh, which is appropriate for some sections of the days event along the exposed northern ridge paths of the Cleveland Way.

I faffed around at the start making last minute adjustments to my back pack contents and slinging some extra stuff into my drop bags and bag of warm gear for the finish. It was warm but raining so I added my best waterproof into my second drop kit bag, suspecting my starter might need a change by then if the rain kept up. It had been raining since the previous night so optimism off it stopping was outweighed by "gut feel" that it wouldn't. At least it wasn't windy. In contrast Mark seemed to be ready with half an hour to spare - I do envy those who can be so organised so quickly and without fuss. My tendency is to over-think, over-organise, over-pack and therefore end up muddling around last minute frantically checking the "small details" and often overlooking more important ones (more on that later).

Hard-"work"

With my warm clothes and drop bags safely stashed in the van for distribution along the route I was ready for the off. Jon Steele gave us an entertaining speel and then the manager/caretaker (?) of the Cleveland set us off -
and I want THAT job -
RING RING,
"Hello",
"Whats that.... a Cleveland way sign crooked near Sutton Bank..... I'll get my trainers on and I'll be there in 2 hours" :¬).

It was almost a dash through Helmsley to the official Cleveland Way start, it seems no matter the race length some people always blast off like its a 10k. Onwards and upwards along steady ascents and descents through fields and woodland. Scenic in a "parkland" sense, nothing hard or moor-like yet. The trend was upwards as we headed west, as I'd deduced in advance plotting the route on map. From Helmsley at about 250ft  we undulated until we arrived at Sutton Bank at 9m and 980ft. Then followed a loop of the "White Horse" on the hillside which involved a descent down wet stone steps to the lower car park and first CP, some wooded trail and a step climb back up. A challenging little loop just to bring us back to the Sutton bank car park we'd just left. On the way out to the White Horse the leader had floated past in the opposite direction towards Sutton Bank, no long distance shuffler I can tell you!

Not sure why, but it was here it occured to me that I had not packed any footwear in to my dry clothes bag for Guidborough - DOH!!!! - an illustration of what I had said before about my tendency for organisational mishaps.

Thing started to get tougher out on the long northward stretch to Osmotherley. The Cleveland way sticks close to the high western escarpment edge of the North York Moors. On a clear day you'd have grand views over the lowlands towards the Yorkshire dales. Today, just mere snippets of this - like tree-lined Gormire lake visible beneath the murk as the path skirted the edge. We were surrounded by this low cloud for the whole section before Osmotherley. There was also a strengthening wind from the north-east gradually combining with precipitation to chill the left-hand side of my body. This section climbs very gradually towards Black Hambleton (1300ft) along about 10 miles of exposed moorland and often quite sloppy track. Mark and I had maintained a good pace, just slowing a little towards 20m, in truth we'd probably not taken enough food on in this early stage as we'd pushed on at sub 11-min/mile pace.

The turn off into Osmotherley was welcomed, dropping beneath the cloud and out of the wind raised our mood even before we got to the village hall and our first drop bag. I'd approached this as the first of three sections of the route. At 22m it was the longest, but also the first and had only really been made difficult by the weather. I dumped my wet t-shirt and sodden wind-proof top in the bag and changed for a long sleeved T and my lightweight "emergency" waterproof - my bulkyfull waterproof being at the Kildale drop, 20m away. It was nice to be dry again. I also gulped down the sandwiches and malt-loaf I'd planned to eat during the first section, washed down with tea and transferred drop bag food and drink top up into the backpack. We didn't hurry outside again, taking a luxurious 15mins indoors and heading back out with renewed optimism.

Section 2 - The climb out of Osmotherley mirrors the start of the Phoenix with a swift climb up to Beacon Hill (980ft) and then onto Scarth Wood moor - a return to no visibility, constant fine rain and wind. My early optimism that my thin waterproof would be upto constant "bombardment" was soon dashed. Following the drop to the start of Live Moor Plantation (456ft) there was an initial steep climb up onto an exposed Moorland ridge. This was a grim section. As it went on each flat section or minor drop would be followed by another climb. On the long north-easterly trek towards and then along Carlton Bank the wind was whipping over the ridge blowing masses of fine rain at us horizontally - like running through a carwash over and over again. It wasn't heavy rain, or strong wind, but it was constant and I was soaked by now. Is this what purgatory would feel like? Briefly I considered the possibility I may be forced to drop out, but I soon dispelled this, thinking "keep moving, keep warm". If I wasn't shivering I was ok, right? Others also fared badly here, some suffered so badly they dropped out later at Kildale. Towards the peak cairn (1340m) I pushed the pace for awhile as Mark had often been doing most of the lead running, but was possibly coping worse than me at this moment, not helped by having taken off his waterproof at Osmotherley. The steep descent towards Lords Cafe eventually came and gave us a little respite, chance to eat some food and for Mark to get his waterproof on away from the worst of the weather

An equally cold climb up to the Wainstones CP followed. We almost missed it in the gloom passing to the wrong side of the rocky outcrop, but were called back by the young lad of CP staffer. I felt for the guy stuck on this exposed, rocky outcrop. The Osmotherley to Kildale section was really packing in the climbs as the Cleveland way visited every ridge summit that it could. I did feel things could only get better, thankfully I was right. I'd mentally prepared myself for the Urra Moor crossing - the highest point on route and on the North York Moors with a trig at 1490ft - to be the worst. I was pleasently surprised, now away from the ridge there wasn't quite the same buffering by wind and rain. We reached another cold and single-manned CP at Bloworth crossing and turned north heading towards Kildale and off these damned hard moors.

It was a miserable uneven stoney track for a few miles, always a "pleasure" when you've done 20 miles, never mind nearly 40. I eagerly awaited reaching the tarmac road just for the smoothness and variety it would offer. When we did get to it I soon wished for softer ground as the descent started, the hard surface jarring my feet and knees. Things were soon better though, Kildale wasn't in cloud and the rain had ceased and the high moorlands were done with! 42.5m done.

There was a retiree at Kildale, she'd looked strong heading out of Osmotherley as we'd arrived, but now looked pale and cold sat down here, before she headed off to lay down. I believe there were several retiree's here. Though my lightweight waterproof had been inneffective on the moors it had dried quick, as had my T underneath - maybe it wasn't so bad up there? I had a warm tea, sorted my food for this stretch and had the luxury of a shoe and sock change. Mark and I left Kildale after about 20mins - a very long stop even by our standards on LDWA challenges. Increadibly the sun was out as we climbed from Kildale upto a hilltop woodland, now low in the sky it lit up the white buildings of Kildale a golden yellow. This meant for the first time today we were able to run in a single layer without discomfort. Climbing stiffly up to the Captain Cook monument I was tired but knew it was now a matter of "when" not "if" I would finish.

The sun had set as we made the last significent climb up to Roseberry topping, short but steep to another remote CP. Heading down the rough steps we knew it was time to don headtorches. Unfortunately my dithering changing batteries cost us a few more minutes and I got cold again. But now we were all systems go for Guisborough. Progress was a bit slow through wet and spongy moorlands, but the torch did its job and we had no navigational issues. Into Guisborough woods and it was warm and the surfaces were easier to run. The town was a sea of lights, still far below and I thought this would be quite a nice place to run around on fresher legs. Glowsticks and one further checkpoint marked the route out of the woods. Now it was just a mile along an old railway track and a turn to the finish at Guisborough Cricket club. We arrived in 12hrs 36mins, which is 14 minute mile pace, most of our early pace was lost between Osmotherley and Guisborough, which was the hardest section of the event by a distance.

Hard-"reward"

It would be pretty sadistic not to have a feast after such a long run and the Indian restaraunt in Guisborough obliged. Starter, curry, rice and nan washed down with a large beer. I didn't eat every bite, my hunger not matching my endurance today. No bad thing as I intended to eat and eat and eat for the next few days (and I have).

Learning the hard way?

It really wasn't that bad, the slow pace after Osmotheley meant my energy levels never went flat, I just got gradually stiffer throughout as expected. I started to feel a bit naucious at about 35m so I need further practice eating on the run. I also need a proper waterproof for future events, one that will keep me dry all day and night if required. I also need to remember to make sure I have dry footwear at the end, on this occasion I was able to partially clean and dry the shoes I'd worn for the last 12m sufficiently to wear them to the restaraunt - not ideal!

2010 - A year of great challenges!

I look around a few blogs on here and see great plans being prepared. To name but one I've just read about, Ultra Running Collie and his "man-servant" heading for the coast to coast. So as a rallying call to myself and others out there, lets really push the boat out, reach for the stars and leave no stone unturned in a quest to explore the potential of the everyman (and woman). I'll keep my big plan secret for 2010 for now as it still seems unachievable. But I will say - pending the delivery of a new chequebook - I'm entering my first 50. Not even 50, but 55 for the premier of the Hardmoors 55, which isn't that far off so I really need to get my (muddy) boots on.

Too early to summarise 2009, but I've made steady progress and some good leaps, from ultra to multi-marathon, with numerous marathons along the way to take my marathon or over distance count from 5 to about 15.

For now I'm kind of ticking over with LDWA challenges in last few weeks and another 17m today. A really muddy affair after the East Yorkshire area has suffered a mini-deluge in the last few hours - though an East Yorks deluge is probably business as usual for those in the Lakes, Peaks, Dales, mountains. Good undulating fun with the club running from the black mill at Beverley Westwood to the black mill at Hessle foreshore.

So any tips training for a 50? Most people just say lots of 4-6 hour runs. Great stuff! I enjoyed my prep for the three marathons doing lots of 3-5 hour runs. Lots more LDWA challenges and fell races..... wish I could do this for a living.

Under starters orders.....

I kind of feel I'm back at the start of something again. The last 6 months have been fantastic and have delivered me back after a wild, circular ride, hopefully at a higher base fitness than I started with. I did "kind of" a schedule to prepare for the 3in3 and Snowdonia, but it was all good fun, LDWA events and fell races for long runs. Thursday speedwork with club, not caring what I did just wanting to keep my finger in and enjoy the banter. The other runs are just a blur, some weeks I probably only ran 4 sessions but was doing 30-50 miles. I've run new parts of the country, met new and interesting people, had some of the best carb-reloads ever and now its all over....

Targets met.....
what now?.....
Sit around, get fat, work too hard?
Nooooo..... though I have piled on a few pounds this week whilst layed off due to an aggressive cold. Lets call it winter layering.
So?....... what?

I may be short, slow and untalented, but otherwise I'm just like Usain Bolt. Right now I'm just loosening up, doing strides along the first few yards of the track, thinking about the next race, my target, then its in the blocks and I'll go for it. Not 100m mind you, comparison ends there, but it will be bigger, better, maybe faster than the last. How else would I be satisfied?

I'll get around to updating my Hit list soon and hope to catchup with many a member of the off-road community this winter. Afterall, we don't take winter breaks do we? I'll be doing Rudolph's Romp, a speedy little LDWA event in my nearby, this December. Then I'll see if I can improve last years mark in the formula 1 event of the English Fell racing scene, the Auld Lang Syne, hopfully sharp from regular cross country races. Then a rare excursion back onto the roads for the Brass Monkey Half in January. Is a PB (92mins) now beyond me or can I build speed on my solid endurance foundation? Then its back to endurance and I want to really push it in the first few months. I have eyes on the Woldsman as my first 50. However, even before that I quite fancy the Hardmoors 55 - look it up, sounds great. If I don't do that I'll probably do the Jurassic Coast Challenge - another 3 mara in 3 days. One thing I defiantely want to do is the Yorkshire 3 peaks race. I've wanted to do that since before I even ran! Its a great feeling that the qualification of to long A/B cat fell races (or med A) that scared me more than the race I bagged in a few short months this summer.... and enjoyed them enough to do more.