Adidas Terrex

Here's my race from the beginning, including the drama, the tears, the smiles, the hard push, the feeding, the weather and the chaffing!!!

I was quite stressed running up to the Terrex with one of my jobs testing me to the full, so I was actually quite pleased once I had packed (the cat wanted to join me!) and started the drive up to keswick. I was supposed to be there Wednesday evening but finally got there Thursday lunch time, just in time to watch the boys finish marking up the maps and then registering at the Planet Fear shop, picking up last minute kit and re-packing my stuff into the Haglof's tranistion bag.

The prologue started at 7.30pm and was a relay. I was to do the run/swim leg. I am not a sprinter by any means of the word so the run out to the lake was a little fast for me and I got over taken but kept my position in the water (just) and dragged my soggly body back into the changeover. The whole prologue only took us 1 hour and 12 minutes and the winners took an hour so we had to trebble our time difference to find out how long we had to have in a "time out" section half way through day one of the main event. Next was a pub meal and early to bed as we had to be at 4am.

My alarm did not go off and I was woken at 4.30am, so now only had 15 minutes to dress and get a coffee and make sure I had my water bottles filled and kit ready to go. Luckily kit was done the night before, I missed the coffee, dressed and ran (well jogged) to the bus in town that was to take us to the start. I had forgotton to fill the water bottles.

THE START - Moorcombe Bay - we were gonna run across it, round it and through the sand, and sea for 25km. I pannicked. I cannot run on the flat and hate running on beaches, not a good start! Paul didn't believe me (he thought everyone can run, especially on the flat!). No - I avoid tarmac and flat running like the plague, it hurts my hips from about 10 minutes in, this was gonna hurt big time! We were told to run out to sea till we saw some laurel bushes and to follow them, I had no idea what to look for on this bleak landscape of muddy sand and shallow water, but sure enough we came across some laurel bushes (well more like twigs!), do they grow there? Or does this "Queens Guide" plant them (we were told a "Queens Guide" was on hand to guide us through the quicksand). Anyway, we plodded on at my rather painfull slow plod. poor Paul was going out of this head with panic at my speed, I was going too slow for him to cope with, he kept counting teams behind us and telling me we were nearly last. Not a great way to start a three day race so i told him to stop being so negative and live with my speed as it will get me to the end and in two days time I will still be going at this speed and not to worry. He went off to take some photos and we all calmed down and settled into my pace!! We eventually got to the transition after about 3 hours of plodding and now had to sit down and serve out 36 minute time penalty. excellent. we had a few sarnies and cups of tea and a team chat and got on the bikes (at last!) for satge two - an epic ride that turned out to be about 15 hours!

STAGE TWO: BIKING: After a few hours I started feeling very unwell, I felt so bad, why did i feel this bad 6 hours or so into a race, I hadn't gone off too fast, i'd eaten, drank, it must have been the sand!!! Alex pushed me up the hills (why was i so bad on the bike - my best discipline - agh!). We (well the boys) had to make some new descisions based on our new slow speed to cut out a few tacticle checkpoints so that we got to transitions in good time and not try and do the whole course and chase cut offs - we were too slow. I of course went into my usual downward spiral of blaming myself for letting the team down. I moaned, cried and moaned some more all the way round a run orienteer section that was tussocks from hell and alot further than I was promised!!! My tummy was so bad i had to hold it whilst walking (couldn't run) but we eventually got through this run from hell in the tussocks from hell, whist cursing the event planner!!! We then went to a pub for a much needed toilet stop for me and a drink and some crisps to plan our next move. We biked some more and I stopped eating my home made cake - it worked, my tummy started to feel better, i perked up, smiled, joked, biked better - the cake was under cooked - what a plank i was - should have stuck to sarnies!

STAGE THREE: KAYAK:We had a fantastic stage three - in the boats on coniston with a moon, flat mill pond waters and stars, we needed no lights, just the eerie glow of glow sticks on our boats as we sped up the lake. We overtook loads of boats, this was a boost, we loved our stelth boats and we all felt good at last. Smiles all round.

STAGE FOUR: RUNNING - the run was over Furness Fells and none of us had been here before and it looked like a short hop to the next stage - oh how wrong we were - gorse, rough wet tussocks, night time nav errors and nearly an hour to find the first check point - but then again most of the field seemed to be up here doing the same headless chicken act as us! We found it eventually and found a good track off the hills, had a 10 minute power knap in he woods and got to the next transition in good spitits even though it had started to rain. This transition had some tents with mattresses in, a toaster and cups of tea, heaven, we went for breaky and short sleep. We all passed out immediately and enjoyed an hour of heaven in the dry tents.

STAGE FIVE: Kayaking on Windermere: this was a long one, we worked it out to be 33 km of kayaking or was it miles - either way - a long way with only a few nodding dog sleepy moments - so hard to stay awake when sitting down! Wine gums got us through with a few pro plus tabs to boost the heart rate to above sleep levels! It rained like a monsoon on and off all the way up Windermere, but we were warm and feeling good.

STAGE SIX: A short and easy bike ride, except we had a minor hicup in the middle when Paul stopped for a "comfort break", I waited at the next junction to let him know we were turning right, I saw him coming up the hill and he acknowledged me and the right hand turn so i sped off, forgetting to stop at the next junction cos I thought he was right behind me, oops - I went back for him (he'd gone the wrong way but realised and came back) so we went on and at the next junction there was no sign of the other two and Paul and I had no map or any clues as to which way they went. Paul hunted through his bag and found one of the other maps with just a bit of this section on it and we worked out we had to turn right just as loads of teams turned up and turned right - we found the other two at the next junction - I had a teddy's out the cot moment and told them off for leaving us, completely fogetting that I had infact just done the same to Paul moments before. we all forgot about it quickly and carried on feeling fit and fast on the bikes and ready for the next big mountain stage!

STAGE SEVEN: A quick change just before the rain started and we were off onto the Langdale Fells for a spot of scrambling and a long night section. We went up Easy Gulley instead of Jakes Rake as it was changed at last minute and then out onto the fells, following a bit of BG routes and picking up our chosen control points, we were going to do a shortened version and get to the abseil somewhere near Scarfel Pike in good time to get off the fells about midnight. The scrambling and running was fantastic, I felt great and my running was going really well. Alex was still able to tow me up the uphills to keep our speed a constant steady one, we were all eating and drinking well and having a great time, we were nearing half way through the event. As dusk fell on us at the base of a massive gulley and scramble that eventually bought us out on Scarfell Pike. I have no idea where we were as I never saw the map! A very wiered experience and am not sure I like not knowing where I am and where I am going. Especially as the clag rolled in, the wind picked up to gale force and the rain was again monsoon like. Just as we were clambering over the boulders on Scarfell Pike, Mick commented on his health. He was having trouble seeing through one of his eyes, it had all gone blurry and he could not define where he was putting his feet. We decided this was a bad way to be and we should not be dragging him over rocks and boulders where he was slipping over alot so we headed straight for the path off and down to Langdale. Unfortunately this took a very long time, trying to spot cairns in the bad weather, keep Mick up right and in good spritis (which must have been hard for him with his eye sight shutting down and having no idea why!), we were moving so slowly by now we were all frozen and wearing everything we owned. I was scared of our situation so I think Mick must have been petrified. About 3 hours later we ran into transition at the pub (which was shut!) to find the place teaming with people trying to sleep in bivi bags in the pooring rain. There was no space at the inn so we bedded down in our bivi just outside the toilets, froze for half an hour before Alex and Paul got up and went to find somewhere for Mick, they put him in a support van with the heating on. They then spent the next hour trying to persuade me that my bivi in a puddle was not the best place for me, i was going hypohermic and I then got put in the van to recover too. At day break the medics looked at Mick and in the end the descision was made to pull him from the race to go to hospital, he had green gunk coming out of his eyes. he was gutted and a broken man, I felt so bad for him I couldn't hold the tears back.

STAGE EIGHT: We silently packed our bags and got on our bikes with a last hug for Mick and went out into the pooring rain and cycled to Ambleside to find a cafe and think about what to do next.

CAFE: wow this was a good idea, the bacon and egg sarnie and capucino was heaven. Alex had a slight co-odination problem and tipped his full english all over his lap. The owner took one look at us and bought him out another one free of charge. How nice are people just when you need it.

An hour later the sun had come out and we had the daunting prospect of cycling up Kirkstone Pass on the famous road climb "The Struggle". To be honest I thought it would beat me, bash me, ruin me and throw me onto the tarmac, but there was a film crew half way up and I stormed it - no dibs down and just span it out all the way to the top with a head wind. And it it didn't even warm me up much. We were so unable to generate heat in our bodies by now that sweating was a thing of the past! The Struggle is so much easier on a mountain bike, I had only ever been up it on my road bike. I loved it, I was on a high and I felt good. next up was a long roady ride to Pooley Bridge (we had cut this section short to miss out going over High Street in a massive head wind).

STAGE NINE: At Pooley bridge we found Alex's wife and kids, sun and food from a farmrs market. Excellent! Apart from the fact that we now had a small problem of two, two person kayaks and only thee of us! We had to wait for a team who also had gone down to three people so we could combine our resourses and paddle as a three boat possy. team May Contain Nuts were the unfortunate victoms and we spent a few confusing minutes trying to work out what to do. Their team member would paddle if they needed him, Alex would paddle if we needed him but was going to pull out of the event (very dissapointing as it flet like our team had given up) and Paul suddlenly decided he didn't want to paddle a necky boat and pulled too. I was suddenly Team haglof Uk all by myself. I joined May Contain Nuts and we formed "May Contain Haglofs". we used our Tahe Marine boats (the boats all teams seemed to like as they were such good looking boats), I teamed up with Maria and the two Matts went in the other. I said good bye to haglofs and got on with my race - I needed to finish this thing I had started if it was going to kill me. Alex, Paul and Mick may have got me through the first two days but I now needed to get through the next two with people I did not know and who did not know me. Very wiered changing teams, learning new dynamics, changing their dynamics and fitting in. Maria and I got on very well from the start, although she was so cold from lack of sleep (they had probably only had an hour and a half since the start), when we got to Patterdale at the end of the lake after being blown there by a supperb tail wind she was so cold a marshal had to give her a fleece to wear. We had a confusing time in transition as no one could get our dibbers to swap into new team and we lost all our points from the last section in the confusion, so the marshals had to add them on manually later. we eventually left.

STAGE TEN: Running up and over Helvelyn via Swiral Edge, into a fierce headwind but thankfully dry. We plodded up here with Team York Mountaineering and night three started to close in as we came off Raise. The veiws were so vast and clear from the storm clearing all the clouds and hase away we didn't use head torches untill about 10pm. Another magic run and I felt stronger and stronger as the run went on, I felt on fire, so different from the first day when I could hardly move forwards. Why do I get better the longer these things go on? Mind you by the next transition I was ready for a hug and luckily we bumbed into a mate who obliged. What a buzz seeing friends, thank you Mike for the hug - it worked. well along with a bit of tea urn hugging. I had now perfected the art of urn hugging to warm up - the organiser james decided I had a fettish for urns, well maybe I do now - they are good hand warmers and they make tea!!

STAGE ELEVEN: More biking. This time I decided two pairs of cycle shorts would be needed, it was cold, i was frozen (apart from my toasty warm hands) and i didn't need to sit on a bike for another minute let alone another few hours! We cycled off on a very nice track but poor Maria was having her bad moment and could not cycle properly for it, the boys were also so tired that they couldn't cope with her moment and it all got a bit tense. I decided not to add my input as I was the outsider along for the ride and they needed to sort this themselves, this was a hard thing to watch and I am so glad it did not happen in my team. Eventaully they all decided that bitching about it was the way forward, it was even more difficult now and for the next few hours the boys blamed Maria for ruining their race and Maria went from bad to worse so we headed for the last transition and a sleep. We unfortunately beat our transition bags there so we had a freezing cold sit in our survival bags with a little help from the marshals who felt sorry for us not having our kit with us, we got tea and coffee and cheese on bread sticks. How nice were they. A few hugs from them and a sleep of about an hour and a half and we woke the boys at 4.30 am to set off for the orienteering.

STAGE TWELVE: The boys were still a little angry and irrational so i stuck my oar in and said that a few positives in the chat may go a long way so after a couple of mnutes of sulking and then alot of going wrong on finding the first check point and we all started laughing and smiling again - phew - I can deal with smiling and laughing alot better! And we were so close to the finish. Eventually we found (well the boys found) all the check points and we all cheered up.

LAST STAGE: back to the transition and onto Canadian Canoes and a gentle (you can never seam to race a candian canoe on flat water!!!) around Derwnt water in the morning mist with the sun rising and ever warming us into an hysterical paddle for all of us. We all went completely doolally, not being able to string a sentance together or even remember our own names, we were so happy and laughed alot at everything and everyone around us - we were gonna finish this race!

We landed the baots after about 2 hours of paddling and ran through Keswick to finish all holding hands and hugging at Moot Hall.

Alex was there to meet me. We got a finishing medal and more improtantly a bottle of bubbly. I drank alot of this - mainly to ensure I did not get into my car and try and drive! I drank 3/4 of the bottle before I managed to pull myself away from the finish line and get to a shower and back for lunch with haglofs and the prize giving. I spent the evening in the pub with lots of teams and marshals - a perfect ending to a fantastic event.

So - thank you Haglofs for believing I could do this, thank you Alex, Paul and Mick for helping me get through this (next time I would love to finish the race with you as I think we make a good team and a very well balanced one - even with me in it!!) and thank you Bruce (course palnner) and James (the guy who made it all happen!), all the marshals for their smiles, hugs, tea and support, it goes a long way and I hope I looked like I appreciated it at the time, cos I sure did. Also a big thank you to Team May Contain Nuts (Maria, Matt and Matt) for letting me join them and continue my quest to bury the dissapointment of Mick's unfortunate early retiral and from a few years ago to bury the demon of not finishing one of these events in Scotland - i have now completed an epedition race and I have swollen ankles to show for it!

You can see all the videos HERE