Fellsman from the other side!

I stuck to my guns and didn't run in Fellsman - oh what a good descision - it rained and hailed and was soooo windy - and I saw it all from the inside of my pink flowery van, in the warmth!


What a bloomin good descision - for a change! I had an ace weekend and still got less sleep than when I ran in it last year! Spent the morning putting up the runfurther flags, cajouling gorgeous looking men into taking photos for me at the start, while I cycled up the bridleway to Ingleborough to take photos of happy (cos it wasn't actually raining then) runners on their first hill!

Oops forgot my gloves and a warm jacket - so froze whilst waiting for the runners - took hundreds of photos with a battery guzzling camera and cycled back down the bridleway with numb hands and a whoop - the track was supperb! See - biking - and I'm soooo happy again!!! (Nothing to do with the two glasses - oops nearly wrote bottles then! of wine I've had this evening! - just happy!)

Next - frozen hands can't undo the poles for the runfurther flags - so enlist the help of some bloke in the car park - well I am a helpless female! Pack up all the flags and banners, get in flowery van and race up the road to Checkpoint Three - meet a bloke called Harry - he's done this race about 20 times and now follows it in his car - brilliant bloke - says he does it to follow the top guy Mark Hartell - had to give him the unfortunate news that Mark has absconded to the USA and isn't actually in the race today (for the first time in 10 years!) - he looked a little dissapointed, told me all about everyone who has ever run in the event and spead off after Andy, Jez and Swatts had gone through - obviously only follows the elite! Anyway - Mark - he says "hi". (this is presuming Mark reads my blogs? - that reminds me - met more people that read this - it does scare me that people read this - it is just me venting my emotions to myself - or something like that!!!) Maybe it is a bottle of wine not a glass - umm - must check the fridge!

Sooo where was I - oh cheering people on pretending to take photos - well the batteries had run out now so saved it for peops I knew - and I had alot of people posing and smiling for me - sorry! Oh get back on track - it started to rain and rain and rain and the more I told people it was just a shower, it got heavier and heavier - then Matt pulled out - hooray I had a play mate. We spent the rest of the day hiding from the weather and chillin in the van, drinking tea and following everyone around. Trouble was we knew the top racers and all the rest so we spent hours at Fleet Moss Check Point waiting, luckily Hannah had supplied me with choclates (posh belgium ones) and the local co-op had supplied me with cookies - so we spent the day getting fat in the van watching everyone freeze!

Jez Bragg and Sarah Rowell were focosed when they were cold (well supposed it also had something to do with them being focused top runners and in the lead!), Andy ranking was frozen and bordering on hyperthermia, Swatts was moaning about a stomach bug, but he didn't moan as much as Mick Kenyon, he just didn't want to be there - he'd forgotton his ipod, was running alone and I think it got to him! (It was his camera I had borrowed and I probably have all of his agony on film!). Hannah, Rachael, Claire and Helen were just bubbly whatever happened. Will complained of not training enough. Bruce said "hi" - another converted cyclist - neither of us knew each of us was now into running. Paul, usually in an orange wig, dumped his wig for a more conventional warm hat and several more friends pulled out in severe weather conditions or cos their bodies just packed up. BUT I had a great day seeing them all through the checkpoints and cheering them on - I think I got just as much of a high from this as running in it!

Next was putting the flags and banners up at the finish, cheering the top runners in, cajouling Andy R into getting a quick shower, not having any food and joining me and Matt for last orders in Grassington whilst cheering in all the top girls and and the rest of the crew out there in the dark!

Eventaully I got to bed at 2am, in the van, for only about 3 hours before getting up to perform miracles on knackered bodies by offering sports massage to all! I now need a thumb massage, but the wine has helped!

Great weekend - great event from a another perpective, oh and I've eaten too many cookies!

Biking and Winning

I'm back - it may have been a local event but you have to be in it to win it - and I was - and I won it! Oh sooooo happy and full of adrenalin and I rode hard and I loved it. God good stuff makes a difference doesn't it??? If just feel great again - but am gonna stick to my guns and not run in Fellsman - scared of falling off the adranalin buzz again - not good at coping with a bad race obviously!!
Better go - woodworking classes on Thursdays!!! Poor wood will get an adranalin fueled chizzeling tonight!

Back from the dead!

Wow my legs recovered - never thought I could trash my legs that badly - thought those days had gone and I could do these races! Anyway it took a few days to be able to walk again, then a few more to recover the dead leg feeling and then I spent bank holiday weekend biking and running - I am back! Happy again - I didn't disgrace myself on the bike - I got up the hills, fell off on the rocky bits and pushed through the windy bits - god Sunday was windy and cold! Where did that summer go - I'd worn shorts! So anyway I was pleased I could still move and so went running on Bank Holiday Monday with Karen Davison, team Run Like a Girl's newest recruit, she is far too fast for me to run with normally but she did the Fling too and trashed her legs too and if you send her off to open all the gates you can just about keep up!!! Also ran with some other local friends Hillary Bloor, who now bikes more than runs, she's done the opposite to me and a new friend Kim, who has just moved into the Peaks like me. I just about stayed with them all up on Kinder, looks like I keep finding friends to run with that are just ahead of me all the time - must seek out some slow people one day - make me feel good!!! Mind you I spend my bike rides going as fast as I can to keep up with the front riders as I know this improves my biking, but I just can't seem to do this one foot, maaybe need a lighter carbon pair of feet, my lead lined ones are getting a bit worn out!
I am (so far) sticking to my guns and not running in Fellsman this weekend - I really want to as I like the event and the hills are just my sort of running BUT if I run in it like I did in Fling - it will make me cry and I'll hate it and never want to do it again - so will I stick to my rest from the races or will I cave in???? Ummm..........................

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!!!)

Much better head on me this week!

Well - decided not to go and recce BG again this weekend - not up for punishing myself and my demoralised head again so may even put it off for a year so as not to rush my reccying! Did a hilly roady bike ride on the saturday - still not right in the legs but alot better so hopefull! THEN - I entered my first extremely short fell race (only 5.9 miles of big hills - this is usually my warm up hour!). My local town of Bradwell has an charity called "Bradda Dads" and they set it up and the whole world turned up - I seemed to be back where I was a few years ago not knowing anyone at races again - all these fast sprinty fell runners.
Good thing was I could run to the start over the hill at the back of my house so this would warm me up and then I stood in a queue for my number - I got your number - 118 - hope I can run as good as the two in the advert!!!!
Met two people I know - phew - maybe I will know more as I get to live here longer - felt good putting down "Local" on the entry form though - am definately a Peaks Girlie now!
The pace was a fast start through the field and lane to the first big hill climb up Shatton Moor - I can't believe how steep people still try and run - I don't do that - just long strides and overtook loads! Yippee I was back - my legs felt great and my head too!!!
Course they all overtook me again once we got to the running along the tops bit!!! But then came a steep downhill and I felt great again - I was loving this - why have I never done short fell races before???
Next big up I started ticking people off - felt great overtaking again and then charging passed a couple more on the massive downhill finish and then one more in the field - Oh so happy - I am not last!!!
What a great morning - the winners did it in just over 40 mins and I did it in just under 1 hour 10 mins - so still extremely slow but who cares - it was such a good race - Wolf Pitts Race - you get to the website via Dark peaks website.
Ah just thought why I liked it so much - there was photographers on the course so ofcourse I was smiling all the way!!
Next weekend is biking 103 miles road sportive - hope my head stays good as am loving the feeling again!

Shud have raced!

Well - I decided to go with the Girls (Catherine and Alex and another friend Graham) to start my BG training (at long last) - BIG mistake - all I have done is demorralised myself and even want to give up running altogether let alone do anything big. I think I am not good at running in a team or a group - I am always playing catch up and I can't stand it - last year all my best runs were by myself, at my pace on my terms. I must be the only person in the world that gets worse not better when their friends are just ahead! I dropped out after 4 hours of hell - oh yeah and it was very very very windy - we got blown off our feet going up Helvelin, it is not easy trying to hold your hat on with frozen fingers whilst holding onto the rocks to keep you attached to the Earth!
Maybe I am not ready for a BG yet - or am I just not ready to train at someone else pace? My head needs a good sort out and my body needs a transplant - or is it the other way round - my head needs a transplant and my body needs sorting. Why can't I do it - I love hills and I couldn't even get up the first one (we were doing leg 2 in a clockwise way so Threlkeld up to Clough Head and on to Dunmail). All I wanted to do was cry and I was on the hills - I should have just been having a good time cos I was out in the lakes - I don't understand not having fun - it was worse than the emotions on Tour du Mont Blanc - that I could understand - this I cannot - may be all I needed was a hug but I couldn't catch one up!!! Next time I am taking the hugs in my pocket and reccying by myself - mind you the next two sections look really complicated!!! My map has sqiggles all over it now!
Well at least writing about it has cheered me up - even going out biking today didn't help me - I seem to have swapped my legs muscles for lead muscles - it is like dragging lumps of concrete up the hills - and the usual wine afterwoods hasn't helped either - just couldn't be bothered with it - what has happened to me?
Depressed of Team Run Like a Lump of Concrete

Wow - Wye Ultra - did I need it???
I still can't walk and it was 2 days ago!

I turned up the night before having picked my sister up so she could come and get an idea of what running one of these events was like - we met up with a few mates in the pub and stupidly I drank wine - well I do love it!

Next day at 6.30 am having spent the night in my flowery van with my sister and her extremely smelly dog (don't swim in the Wye it is very very fishy!), set up all the Runfurther.com flags and banners, drank as much water as I could shove down my neck and went to registration.

Oh god - the bridge (about a 3rd of the way into the race) has fallen down or broken and so is closed, the course is now four laps of 7.5 miles along the banks of the Wye and some roads and some forest - oh help me please - I was dreading just one out and back and all the flatness, now I have no long hills to give my legs a change of pace and I have to come back to the start - I will never be able to turn round!

My sister tells me to stop moaning, it can't be helped, get out there and enjoy it - so I start the race! And for the first time without carrying anything accept 2 bars and some brufopen in my pocket!

• First 7.5 miles - brilliant - I am not last, there was one short hill, the sun is out and I feel great.
• Second 7.5 miles - oh god you can see how far ahead all your mates are, but luckily it all feels very new this way round, even the road section goes quickly!
• Turn-a-round - haLf way - everyone was telling me to be strong and just run through it - well that suddenly felt easy! I sprinted in - got a slug of water from my stashed bottle and sprinted (well my version of a sprint!) again 0ff on the third leg- well I have now got a few goals to pick as I can see all my mates again!
• Third 7.5 miles - getting harder but still moving, need a few stretch stops and more water and food at the water station, chat with other runners, meet new friends, still going but not so strong, then there it is - a photographer - always good for getting me to smile - and even better a second boost just after him was my sister - she'd run to near the half way point to meet me - what a boost - more photos - more smiling and off I trot - well you have to look like you know what you are doing! Felt good though cos just round the corner I bumped into Hannah - OK she was way ahead of me and of course looking good (well she is 12 years younger!) BUT she was walking! Well all that got me to the last turn-a-round point.
• Last 7.5 miles - as soon as I turned it all went wrong, my legs went to lead and the path seemed to get longer and longer - I'm sure it wasn't that far back to the water station - well got there eventually, clock watching cos now I wanted to get under 5 and a half hours - it was looking good, then bad, then good, then bad but seeing and hearing the marshals at the road junction was fantastic - it not only gives you a boost to be cheered on but then it was only 4 miles to go - even if most of it was on tarmac (my pet hate) I was determined to pick up the pace a bit and try and catch a few runners and get my time goal - so I stopped, stretched and spead off - NOT - it was like running only alot slower yet again - so then I decided mind over matter and pushed harder - it worked - I over took someone - another boost! Then another - then the road came to an end and I knew it was only 20 mins to go - horray I could do this - then another big boost - my sister was in the park near the finish and she started running with me - this spead me up to my usual sprint finish and a huge smile for the photographer over the finish line - 5 hours and 21 mins.

So I thought I'd hate it but actually I did quite enjoy the pain, seeing all my mates several times and the sunshine - just hope I recover by the weekend - more biking and then some BG training I hope - got to start somewhere!