April - what a hard month for running!

Well - haven't been here for a while - been running but not too well - first off was 4 Inns. Nearly pulled out before the start cos thought I would never keep up with Catherine, Alex and Hannah all that way - they are all running sooooo well this year - I feel like a lead weight being dragged round. BUT it is a team event, so I told them I feel crap and they told me to get to the start line! So after a logistical nightmare - or so we thought - two days prior to the race day when we thought we had no way of getting their bar our own cars (horrible then cos you have to get back to Holmbridge after the race to get your car back when all you want to do is get in a bath and drink wine!). We got two offers of lifts and one turned out to be a lifesaver. Hannah's boyfriend came up to support us and drive us to the start and cheer us on all the way round. We were a bit paranoid that this would be seen as help, so we asked him to shout lots of encouragement but not to feed us - it worked, he blasted music at us to power us on, waved, laughed, cheered and gave us choccies at the finish - he knows how to treat 4 girlies! We set off and of course knew the route really well now so just got into running. I found it a little hard keeping up, but tried to get in front for the hills so that it made me feel good (I hate being at the back it just slows me down and makes me cry!!!). This worked for most of the event, apart from the bits where I just could not catch them. The weather helped and we all had bad/slow patches but I even had a surprise good patch - or so I thought - I felt ok going up out of Edale and then running down the road to Chapel I even kept up with the others (unherad of on tarmac!) - found out later it wasn't me having a good patch but the others having their bad patch! Oh well - it worked - it got me to the end - although the end was tough and I had no usual sprint finish - just a near collapse over the line - BUT hey we did it AND we beat last years time by 52 minutes, which means we won and we are still the record holders - ME - blimey! Anyway we have the trophy for another year and a record of 9 hours 34 or something close to that! I was definately not too well though - I only managed half a glass of wine that evening!

NEXT OFF - SKI TOURING THE HAUTE ROUTE - yep Ski Like a Girl - well Alex and I and Mark Hartell went off to Chamonix to ski the Haute Route. What an excellent trip - we started off in cold icy conditions up the Col du Chardonnay, with Mark prefering his crampons to his ski's after a horrible accident a couple of years ago, and me and Alex skiing up the icy slopes to the high col, when a quick abseil down takes you out of the Chamonix Valley and beyond. We decided to do a higher route than normal and this paid off with 3 days of not seeing the crowds, high cols, very strong winds, bad visibility, clambering over avalanche debris, using crampons to climb steep grassy slopes (was supposed to be a ski tour not a grass tour but warm weather and avalanche risk means you sometimes need to take alternative routes!), we then rejoined the masses on the main route and squeezed into huts, had fantastic weather for two days, climbed steep and icy and ski'd untracked spring snow. Until the last night when we got into a storm and had to abandon the last day into Zermatt due to avalanche risk and white out conditions on the glacier, so we ski'd in deep powder to Arolla - oh what a shame - deep powder!!! Next year we start from their and finish with Zermatt and Saas Fee. At the end of the trip I was again knackered but thinking I had alot of high altitude in my blood was fired up for Highland Fling at the weekend..............




HIGHLAND FLING - Oh my god that hurt - I spent the 3 days after hols just lying down as I felt dead tired, all a bit strange as I had not ski'd since the monday. I started the race - way too early at 6am feeling great and chatting and running along at my own pace but matching the people I usually do. Until about mile 10 when I started thinking "why do my legs hurt already - I have hardly gone anywhere yet?" The next 43 miles were pure hell in gorgeous surroundings! People were passing me sooo much I was wishing I was not there. I got asked so many times if I was ok as I was passed - must have looked really bad from behind - they should have seen the grimace on my face! I felt like giving up every minute - apart from the one big hill which felt normal and good for my legs and the bit that everyone seemed to dread in the race where you climb over lots of boulders and routes on the latter part of the Loch Lomond - I liked this bit cos it actually improved the pain on my left quad, which helped to drag the other one round the rest of the race! By the time I had crawled to within a few kilometers of the finish I could take it no longer - I got my phone out and phoned my sister - she would get me to the end - I complained about the finish not being just round the corner and then admitted I was so knackered that my eyes had welled up when I passed a memorial bench - oh my god I was emotional again!!! I also admitted to finding the plaque that tells you all about the wigwam sheds that are camping barns in that part of Scotland and leaning over it pretending to read about them, it saved me from falling to the ground and just crying!!! She perked me up, made me laugh and told me to get on with it - so I did - but not in usual sprint finish style - my legs just would not do it - they just about managed a mini sprint of about 100m to the crowds at the end and then collapsed over Andy Rankins shoulder - poor guy - well he had been finished for about 6 hours! He got me a life saving cuppa, carried my bags and got me a bed at the local hostel, phew I could stop, eat and drink copious amounts of water washed down with free bubbly from the race! I have given up running - I have decided not to do Felsman and will get my bike out!! Took me 3 days to walk again and I'm still not right - sleeping 9-10 hours a night - I need last years body back again - it worked so much better! (Oh it took me 13 and a half hours to do that Fling - that is about3 hours too much!!!)